Stick In The Mud – The Origin
Stick in the mud is actually a short form of the verbal phrase ‘to stick in the mud’, meaning to ’stick’, or stay, in an unpleasant or demeaning situation, rather than dragging oneself out of the metaphorical mud.
- Evan Morris in The Word Detective
To stick in the mud made its first appearance around 1620. It was developed from earlier metaphors such as “to stick in the briers” and “to stick in the mire”, both of which mean “to be in difficult circumstances”. The modern meaning of a stick in the mud – someone who is content to be unimaginative and unwilling to change – has its origin in the early 18th century.
SOURCE : Reader’s Digest, October 2006, pg17
