Posted by Gary on January 13, 2004
In Reply to: Bite your toung posted by Sax's mom on January 13, 2004
: : : HI, can you please help me find the meaning and orlgin of this phrase.
: : Bite your tongue. It means keep quiet. Don't say anything.
: Can you tell us how this phrase originated?
It sounds very 'Bible or Shakespeare'. Can't find it in the Bible. It does come up in Shakespeare in King Henry IV:
So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue,
While his own lands are bargain'd for and sold.
Shakespeare was very fond of the word tongue; it appears hundreds of times in his plays. Incidentally, he never used the word Bible.