APAD: Grasp the Nettle

Meaning: To tackle a difficult problem boldly.

 

Background:

This little figure of speech is known wherever Urtica Dioica, the Stinging

Nettle, is commonplace, which covers most of the English-speaking world. The

figurative advice to be bold and 'grasp the nettle' derives from the property of

the plant to inject toxins into the skin of any person or animal who brushes

against its stiff, hollow hairs. If the plant is grasped firmly, especially if

that is done in the direction the hairs are growing, the hairs tend to be pushed

flat and avoid penetrating the skin.

 

Nettles favour disturbed ground and consequently are often found near human

habitation. Fortunately, the antidote to nettle stings is found in the leaves of

dock, which also grows on disturbed soil and is usually to be found near

nettles.

 

Aaron Hill's Works, circa 1750, contains the first example that I can find that

advises that a nettle be grasped:

 

   "Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you, for your pains: Grasp it

   like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains."

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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I liked the background discussion above. In a few sentences, I learned about the

nettle, its hairs, its habitat, and its antidote, the dock, which was the 4th

and last homonym in Apple's New Oxford American Dictionary.

 

Sometimes a problem looks bigger than it really is and the more procrastination

the more difficult it appears. This is when we should remember the phrase.