Nitty-gritty (1947, 1948)

[Wilson Gray]

Beautiful, Fred!

-Wilson

On Jul 22, 2005, at 7:09 AM, Fred Shapiro wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> 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(?):
>> <<As an educator, he displayed nothing more than a set of vague ideas
>> about
>> 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
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