SPLASH or SLASH?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>What is the evidence that "brass tacks" is "rhyming slang" for "facts"?

None, AFAIK.

Just one of several conjectures. I casually suspect that this one was
popularized following a WAG by Partridge.

Here is another conjecture.

"Brass tacks" may be a more-or-less arbitrary augmentation of earlier
[at least roughly] synonymous "brass". Maybe the earlier expression
"down to [the] brass" was opaque to many/most people ca. 1870.

 From N'archive:

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_Weekly Argus and Democrat_ (Madison WI), "1 Aug." (date on page 31
July) 1854: p. "3" (no number on page):

<<ONCE MORE.--We thought we had got the _Journal_ "down to the brass"
the other day, when it spoke of the School Lands, and gave under
their separate heads "the substance of the charges.">>

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_New York Times_, 14 Jan. 1861: p. 3:

<<Bangs then commenced searching me; I took off my overcoat, and
undercoat, and vest, and necktie, and he searched 'em all through; he
then asked me to take off my pantaloons; says I, "Now, look-a-here,
stranger, that won't do -- ... -- if you're going to search any
further we'll call in 'Nobe,' and see how the thing stands; if 'Nobe'
says it's all right I'll strip down to the brass.">>

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"The brass" = "the [bare] essentials" or so, I guess.

My guess: probably the original image was that of some coating,
likely gilding or plating, being removed or worn away from some brass item.

An alternative rude etymology might be considered: "brass" as a
euphemistic abbreviation of "bare-arse[d]". Unfortunately less likely IMHO.

Why "tacks"? Simply because tacks are/were often made of brass, and
maybe influenced by "down to hardtack"?

Or maybe "brass" was reinterpreted as referring to tacks used in
measuring cloth or whatever as in another popular conjecture? Note
however that "down to brass tacks" did not always mean "down to
business" or "down to the basics"; it was also used (pre-1900)
synonymously with "down to hardpan/bedrock" = "down as far as
possible"/"all the way down" (e.g., "our prices are down to brass tacks").

-- Doug Wilson


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