nitty-gritty

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Dec 13 18:07:54 UTC 2011


On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>I learned in a diversity and equality course (here in the UK) that nitty gritty was reference to unwashed slaves. Nitty = body lice and gritty = dirty and implying that down to the skin nits and grit was all that clothed the naked slave.

Aaarrrggghhh!!!

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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