Nitty-gritty (1947, 1948)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fabulous.

JL

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: Nitty-gritty (1947, 1948)
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On Thu, 21 Jul 2005, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> _Richmond Afro American_ (Richmond VA), 25 Oct. 1947: p. 4(?):
> <> education and democracy which only became more nebulous the closer he got
> to the nitty-gritty of actually putting them into practice.>>

Here's earlier:

nitty-gritty (OED 1952)

1942 _Phylon_ III. 338 The real "nitty gritty" is a poem in the "Lenox
Avenue" section called "Shakespeare in Harlem."

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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