hmmn where is it from

[Petra P]

nitty gritty

[Clanad]

According to Wikipedia which references the Oxford English Dictionary Online, the term started as US slang but its origin is unknown.  One theory is that it was first used to refer to the slaves on the lower levels of a ship and is a politically incorrect expression. However the first recorded written use of the phrase was in 1956 and it would be very unusual for a phrase to exist in the vernacular for more than 100 years without it being recorded. BTW its meaning  is a colloquial term for the real thing, the actual raw reality of the situation.

[Dusky]

Wooden ships would rarely, if ever, end up sitting straight in the water ("on an even keel") and so would be weighted at the very lowest level of the hull with gravel or "grit".  Grit could be shovelled from one side to the other in small quantities to level the hull.  This lowest level was then otherwise largely unused but slave girls would be stowed there for the sailors to avail themselves of in any ways that came to mind.  The girls would never leave these nether recesses and would fall into poorer and poorer states of health and hygiene and would often be rife with fleas or "nits".

 

Hence, "getting down to the nitty gritty" became used as a term for dealing with things at their lowest level.  These days It is, understandably, an term offensive to those who know its meaning.