Nip it in the Bud

I love gardening.  I have been gardening since I was in university.  It is a little more difficult to garden in Korea because of the lack of space.       This past winter was strange.  With the thawing and freezing, all my perennials died.  I also lost my dahlia bulbs.  They didn’t get destroyed though.  I remember bringing them inside for the winter, I just can’t find them.

Anyways, one thing gardeners have to do a lot is deadheading.  Deadheading is when you remove the dead (or dying) flowers from a plant.  It encourages more growth because the plant isn’t using energy to grow seeds.  Instead, the plant is encouraged to produce more flowers.

Before a flower opens, we call it a bud.  But we usually don’t want to remove the bud because it won’t grow into a flower.  This is where the phrase nip it in the bud comes from.  Nipping is like a small bite or cut.  So, nipping it in the bud literally means cutting off a bud.  However, this phrase is used metaphorically to mean stop something early before it gets worse.

Example:  Sir, we found cancer in your prostate.  Lets nip it in the bud before it spreads to the rest of your body. 

The phrase started as nip it in the blossom.  In 1595, Henry Chettle wrote, "Extinguish these fond loues with minds labour, and nip thy affections in the bloome, that they may neuer bee of power to budde."  

By the early 1600s, it was already being used as nip it in the bud.  It is surprising that the phrase has survived for so long without change.  It is still a fairly common expression.  I will note that a lot of people think it is nip it in the butt.  I think there might be some confusion because they are similarly sounding words.  Nip it in the butt reminds me of the time my aunt’s dog bit my bum.

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Reference:
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/nip-in-the-bud.html