# I need help! The phrase "bite me!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854 "2002-08-21T03:11:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zia\_nova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc79bd/32.png) [@zia\_nova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zia_nova)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/1 "2002-08-21T03:11:34Z")
You guys gotta help me! What the hell does the phrase “bite me!” mean? Why do we say it? We obviously aren’t inviting the other person to have a snack whilst they insult us or whatever. Where did it come from? Why do we use it? Please, guys, this has been buggin’ me for two days solid! Help me!!! ---
**Author:** ![Maxxxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/2 "2002-08-21T04:09:57Z")
Can’t help you with its origins, but I can tell you that in my neck of the woods, “bite me” can be said with a smile on one’s face, meaning essentially “oh kiss my butt, mate” or with a little more ferocity, coming across more as “FOAD, arsehole”. _ahem_ FWIW my friends and I usually use it in jest to one another when one of us has just proven some point and the other is pissed off about being outwitted 😉 Max ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/3 "2002-08-21T04:19:28Z")
The main attraction of the phrase appears to be that it can be seen as being crude, but that it equally could be seen to be just dumb and silly. The interpretation is up to the listener, so if you take offense, it’s your problem, not the speaker’s. Great rhetorical device. Honi soit qui mal y pense … ass backward. ---
**Author:** ![Lure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/4 "2002-08-21T04:32:47Z")
In the fifties we’d say “eat me” as a put down,inviting the other party to snack on your genitals ,denoting a submissive posture.This was rarely uttered in polite society or gay bars. Guessing this is the new generations’ offshoot of the phrase,and the newer acceptance of the verb “to suck”.I guess Carlin’s seven words aren’t relevant anymore. Like hep became hip and real music begat rap. Every generation tries to improve on the previous generations uncool slang,I guess.Don’t want to seem out of it like the older generation. From 21 skidoo to beat me daddy eight to the bar to play it cool daddio,the beat goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/5 "2002-08-21T12:26:45Z")
Following up on **Lure** ’s post, it seems reasonable that “eat me” means something along the lines of: “I am more powerful than you are. You must submit to me. You will now give me oral pleasure, which will put you into a degrading situation, because I command it.” “Bite me.” may have come from that. Or it could mean something like: “You may injure me by biting if you thing you can; however I should point out that if you try such a thing I will cause you grievous bodily harm. You know that, so I can make the offer with impunity and thus show that I am superior to you.” I tend to lean toward **Lure** ’s explanation, but it could be either. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/6 "2002-08-21T23:31:48Z")
To amplify what **Lure** (and Johnny LA) said, the phrase is probably adapted from _eat it_ or _eat me_ , these slang expressions started to appear in print around the 1920’s, although they were so vulgar they didn’t appear except in obscure publications. No doubt their use as a taunt was used in the 1800’s. Leon Uris, in _Battle Cry_ (1952) was one of the first big writers to use slang expressions which were obscene or vulgar. He was usually writing about WWII, and you can bet the words were used during the war, and probably before. He helped to open the floodgates. Most of the expressions are nothing more than later incarnations of “go fuc\* yourself.” ---
**Author:** ![zia\_nova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc79bd/32.png) [@zia\_nova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zia_nova)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/7 "2002-08-22T01:48:56Z")
Okay, thanks for your help. If it’s all the same to you fine folks I think I’ll stick with Johnny LA’s second answer. I know “bite me” most probably came from the more vulgar origin but I like the other one better. The whole “eat me”/“please me” thing just makes me feel sick. Really sick. \>“You may injure me by biting if you thing you can; however I \>should point out that if you try such a thing I will cause you \>grievous bodily harm. You know that, so I can make the offer \>with impunity and thus show that I am superior to you.” It just sounds better, I can handle that better than…the other thing. Euwww. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/8 "2002-08-22T02:10:33Z")
For what it’s worth, the first use of “bite me” that I heard was on David Letterman’s old NBC show. I assumed then that it was deliberately made up as a TV-friendly version of “eat me” (or “suck my dick” or “kiss my ass” or anything along those lines). Like Fonzie would say “sit on it” because you couldn’t say “shove it” on TV back then. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/9 "2002-08-22T04:52:19Z")
Is come from Greek word, [symbol]bio[/symbol] (vio), means “life,” and [symbol]timh[/symbol] (timi), means “honor,” so _bi-t’mi_, means “life is honor”: without honor, is no life, so you dishonor my sister, I kill you. (Just kidding! Loosen up!) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/10 "2002-08-22T08:23:18Z")
Great campy moment in the Warner Bros. picture **Mildred Pierce** (1944), starring Joan Crawford. Mildred’s business partner, played by Eve Arden, is amused by the milquetoast bookkeeper they’ve hired. As she leaves the room, she bends down by his ear and says, “Bite me!” just to see him jump. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/11 "2002-08-22T10:21:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zia\_nova \* > \*\*Okay, thanks for your help. If it’s all the same to you fine folks I think I’ll stick with Johnny LA’s second answer. I know “bite me” most probably came from the more vulgar origin but I like the other one better. The whole “eat me”/“please me” thing just makes me feel sick. Really sick. > \*\* Sorry, but this is the Straight Dope and that sort of wishful thinking will not be tolerated 😉 . Googling Google groups gives [this](http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=4m8lih%242fdc%40news.doit.wisc.edu&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3D%2522bite%2Bme%2522%2Borigin%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg) from alt.english.usage. Jo Fineman (message 8) says regarding his first encounters with “bite me”: > [@](#): > > Me too [when I was an undergraduate] – California, 1954-1958. > > In those days it was recognized as a variant – an absurd intensive form – of the routine insult “Eat me”. It was sometimes expanded to “bite my bodini” (a slang word for penis, which I have not heard in any other context). It is thus an equivalent of “suck my cock”, with the implication “perform a humiliating, low-status service for me”; cf. “kiss my ass”. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/12 "2002-08-22T15:57:31Z")
On further contemplation, I recall that Eve Arden’s complete line in **Mildred Pierce** was, “Bite me, little man!” I was as startled as the bookkeeper to hear it in a 1944 Hollywood movie. ---
**Author:** ![zia\_nova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc79bd/32.png) [@zia\_nova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zia_nova)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-the-phrase-bite-me/124854/13 "2002-08-22T22:36:09Z")
Okay, okay, I get the idea. You know? I’m kinda wishing I never asked what it means. For the simple reason that now I know what it means…I don’t wanna use it anymore!