The term bullet comes from the French balle. It usually refers to an ammunition or a projectile made of a solid material, such as lead. However, the word has different uses depending on the country.
As a projectile, a bullet is something that fires a firearm. Typically, these weapons use gunpowder to make the bullets fired with great power.
For example: “The bullet fired by the criminal was embedded in the wall”, “The police found a revolver with two bullets in its chamber next to the body of the victim”, “The hero of the film resisted until he ran out of bullets ยป.
Using the term bullet as a projectile we can state that there are different types of it. Thus, for example, we find the so-called silver bullets, which are those that popular tradition establishes that they are the only ones used to kill werewolves and another series of monsters with similar characteristics.
Already more real and current, are the rubber bullets. These are the ones currently used by the security forces of a country to try to repress various types of demonstrations that can occur on the streets of any city. They have the characteristic that in principle they are not lethal and that they do it is to hurt the person in question causing a hematoma. However, it should not be overlooked that on some occasions the launch of this type of bullet has meant that they hit the skull of some individuals and that has caused their death.
In athletics, the shot put is a competition where the athlete has to throw a ball as far as possible. This ball is known as a bullet and weighs 7.26 kilograms (in men’s discipline) or 4 kilograms (in women’s competition).
The current world shot put records belong to Randy Barnes (23.12 meters) and Natalya Lisovskaya (22.63 meters).
Besides these meanings that we have given we also find the term bullet man. A denomination is with which it refers to a human being who usually works in circuses and who performs a number in which he is introduced into a cannon, as if it were a ball, and then is ejected like a projectile.
Among the most outstanding men cannonballs in history stand out, for example, David Bala Smith, who holds the record for the furthest throw with just over 56 meters, or the first professional of this type, which was Zazel, a young woman.
The term bullet can also refer to the bundle that gathers 10 reams of paper; to a dish that is prepared with ground plantain (also known as banana), fried and mixed with pork rinds and cheese; the very clever individual; the homosexual man or woman; a very aggressive kind of ant; or to the bundle of goods. Each of these uses will depend on the region, as the concept may make sense in one country but not in another.
