The Surprisingly Dark Origins of 8 Phrases You Said This Week Without Thinking

Bury the hatchet comes directly from Indigenous diplomatic practice in what is now eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Haudenosaunee leaders would literally bury weapons under a council tree to mark the end of a conflict. The phrase entered English through colonial-era treaty records in the 1600s.

Go cold turkey describes the abrupt physical state of withdrawal: pale, goose-pimpled skin that resembles a plucked turkey. The phrase appears in early-1900s American newspapers describing opioid users, and stuck because the image is unfortunately accurate.

Pull out all the stops is a pipe organ metaphor. Stops are the knobs that block air from reaching specific pipes. Pull them all out, and every pipe sounds at full volume. Organists don’t do this often. When they do, it is usually a wedding.

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Caught red-handed has its origins in 15th-century Scottish law, which specifically required catching a poacher with the blood of the slain animal still on their hands to secure conviction. The phrase was literal.

Bite the bullet is older than the field hospitals it’s usually attributed to. Soldiers were given musket balls to bite during amputation as early as the 1700s, partly to muffle screams, partly to prevent tongue injuries.