nitty-gritty

English

Etymology

Uncertain, said to have been used at first by black jazz musicians, perhaps ultimately from reduplication nit and grits (finely ground corn), from Old English grytt, grytta ‎(“coarse meal”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

nitty-gritty ‎(uncountable)

1. (colloquial) The essence or core of something; the details.

   He gave a short summary without getting into the nitty-gritty of the problem.

Synonyms

• brass tacks
• details
• low-level
• nuts and bolts

Translations

essence or core of something

• German: Wesentliche n, Kern (de) m
• Icelandic: kjarni (is) m, aðalatriði (is) n, grundvallar-

• Persian: اصول (fa) ‎(osul)
• Russian: суть (ru) ‎(sutʹ)
• Turkish: asıl mesele (tr), işin gerçek yüzü/içyüzü, konunun özü (tr)