nitty-gritty
Nitty-gritty (noun) means the most basic and practical details of a matter, reached once the general discussion is out of the way. Example: “Once everyone agreed on the plan, we got down to the nitty-gritty of who pays for what.”
How to use nitty-gritty
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe small practical details you have to sort out once the big idea is agreed.
Informal but perfectly acceptable in ordinary business speech and writing. Some organisations avoid it because of the unfounded slavery claim, so know your audience.
It almost always follows "get down to" or "the nitty-gritty of"; the noun rarely stands alone as a subject.
Trace the full origin ↓Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
Once everyone agreed on the plan, we got down to the _____ of who pays for what.
Etymology
Of uncertain origin; said to have been first used by black jazz musicians from the United States, the word is perhaps a reduplication of gritty (“resembling grit”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *greutą (“grit”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-) with alteration of the first syllable. An urban legend links the origin of the word to the debris remaining in the holds of slave ships after the slaves had been disembarked, but there is no evidence for this. The word is not attested early enough to have been associated with slavery.
