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Jan 26, 2021 · The seemingly innocent phrase is believed to have origins with links to the time of slavery. A complaint against the BBC’s political editor for the use of a term thought by some to have racist ...
Reports that a harmless word like picnic originated as the name of a lynching party only have to be voiced to be taken seriously and become part of folk-etymology. In that context it has been alleged that ‘nitty-gritty’ is a derogatory reference to the English slave trade of the 18th century.
May 15, 2002 · French term nigritique for African and Creole slaves. So to get down to the 'nitty gritty' as the English speakers pronounced it was to mix with the people downtown. The standard dictionaries are coy about this derivation. Doug Gowan, Hornsey.
Sep 9, 2020 · The “nitty gritty” is believed to be a reference to what was left behind in boats that were used to ship slaves across the sea.
Jul 6, 2020 · Nitty-gritty meaning: the slave-trade origins of the phrase, why Sky Sports have... Theories suggest the expression originally referred to the detritus found in the bottom of boats once a...
Nov 11, 2000 · A This belongs in the same class of folklore which holds that a picnic was a slave lynching party. There is the very slightest of links, in that nitty-gritty was originally a Black American English expression, and some writers have guessed that nitty-gritty is a euphemism for shitty.
Mar 31, 2011 · Apparently, the "nitty" in nitty gritty refers to actual nits, as in lice, and the gritty was initially a reference to ground hominy, and then became a reference the grinding action one uses to reproduce the staple.
