Silver bullet
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The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem. Some have seen such apparently miraculous drugs as salvarsan and penicillin as "silver bullets".
Experts often use the term more cynically to dampen unreasonable expectations. Doctors, for example, will often readily characterise the latest fad diet as "no silver bullet".
The term originates from folklore. Traditionally, the silver bullet is the only weapon that can kill a witch, a giant, or person living a charmed life. The best known magical creature which is vulnerable to a silver bullet is a werewolf, though this is not authentic folklore, and actually dates back to the 1941 movie The Wolf Man. As a more modern popular culture example, the Lone Ranger also used silver bullets.
In different traditions silver is thought to be the metal associated with the moon and with the human soul. It is likely that these associations have contributed to the legend of the silver bullet.
Functionally, silver is both lighter and harder than lead and makes inferior bullets, at least for modern firearms.
See also
External links
- Real Silver Bullets (http://www.bulletforge.com/lore.php)fr:La balle en argent