Grasp the nettle/mettle - help me save my self-esteem

[mrsbabookaloo]

Hello,

At a dinner party on Sat, I insisted that it was grasp the mettle, and that grasp the nettle was an incorrect corruption of the original, but when I googled it this am, all sources seemed to say "grasp the nettle" with a couple of references to grasp the mettle as an alternative. Am I going mad? Or did I just learn the wrong one and it's stuck?..... I mean, it's not a phrase that you use every day, but I can't believe I got it wrong. The most arrogant part of me just thinks that everyone on the internet is wrong!

My pendant status has taken a bashing.. can any fellow pedants offer knowledge/support?

If the doctor can't fix it
Maybe the vet'll.

Or those peeps on Mumsnet'll

...for anominal fee of just one Quetzal

if you demonstrate your mettle
you won't be treated like a chattel

in fact you'll always win that battle
they will gaze like startled cattle

Hello fellow pedants, would just like to thank you for turning my thread into a lovely poem: so sorry I missed this yesterday!

I won't try to top you: I think you've exhausted all possibilities and I can't risk more embarassment

.

But don't do anything you'll regret-el

Well who knew? I have always thought it was "grasp the mettle". I feel contempt for myself. :D

It's nettle, because if you need to grasp one (to pull it up for example) it really hurts if you do it slowly, but if you just grab it firmly it doesn't. So the saying means to JFDI

Olennas - as this thread was started nine years ago, I suspect the OP has JFDI by now!

Mettle refers to strength issues. Grasping the nettle refers to quick and positive action. As children growing up in the country we were all taught that a stinging nettle will not sting providing it is grasped quickly and firmly, the stinging being caused by the fine hairs on the leaves of the nettle brushing on the skin. In grasping the nettle firmly, the hairs are crushed and rendered impotent.