Idiom Correction #384

[swestrup]

The term is "nip in the bud", a reference to removing a bud from a plant before it has a chance to flower. An obvious metaphor for taking early action.

The term is NOT "nip in the butt". This conveys a very different metaphor and one not appropriate at all for the way this phrase gets used.

Comments

[sfllaw.livejournal.com]

Why don't you just "tow the line" like the rest of us?

[swestrup]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

YEEARRGH

[(Anonymous)]

See http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20031003.html
-Jim

[(Anonymous)]

Of course that should be "Toe the line", in case the
poor guy didn't know.
If he did know, that's pretty funny...
-Jim

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

O_o

I blame people... and their lack of enunciation/pronunciation... of "D" or "T"... and inbreeding.

[swestrup]

Lots of inbreeding. Its the only explanation. Otherwise you would write it down and look at it and say, "Now that can't be right, can it?"

[(Anonymous)]

Well, lack of reading is the proximate cause. Of course
inbreeding would be the cause of that...
...Of course, please smack me upside the head with a
+2 crowbar of hawtness if I'm being excessively pedantic...
-Jim

[designergirl.livejournal.com]

Common mistake! I don't know how many times I've heard people say "butt" rather than "bud".