"Nitty gritty" an offensive term?
Pierre Jelenc
A. Billington <s4...@csc.liv.ac.uk> wrote:
>Somebody recently told me that she had been upbraided for using the term
>"nitty gritty" because it had offensive connotations, something to do with
>black women on slave ships being used for sexual pleasures by the crew
>members.
>
>Does anybody have any evidence to support this claim?
[ Please check your news program or your editor; you posted a paragraph
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1/ The word is recent; it is first attested in 1963.
2/ It has an essentially positive meaning.
3/ How can something that means "fundamental or essential truth" have
anything to do with slave ships?
My guess is that this urban legend it is yet another idiocy caused by
illiteracy among the unthinking classes.
I second the proposal for "PC legend".
Pierre
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Pierre Jelenc * You get wise by watching what *
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A. Billington
Markus Freericks
> Somebody recently told me that she had been upbraided for using the term "nitty gritty" because it had offensive connotations, something to do with black women on slave ships being used for sexual pleasures by the crew members.
>
> Does anybody have any evidence to support this claim?
>
Sounds like an urban legend (*) to me. My online webster says
nit-ty-grit-ty \'nit-e^--,grit-e^-, ,nit-e^--'\
[origin unknown]
:what is essential and basic: specific practical details <the book
gets down to the nittygritty of economic problems>
This is surely not an authoritative answer, but it signifies that such an
origin as you hint at is at least not well-known.
Regards,
Markus
(*) Maybe we should introduce the term "PC legend" for the phenomenon of
searching offensive origins of obscure phrases ;-)
Chris Malcolm
>Somebody recently told me that she had been upbraided for using the
>term "nitty gritty" because it had offensive connotations, something
>to do with black women on slave ships being used for sexual pleasures
>by the crew members.
Just as "nuts and bolts" is offensive because it was used by asylum
keepers when talking about locking up female nuts and screwing them.
To those with filthy minds the whole language is tainted.
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Steve Cramer 542-5589
: >Somebody recently told me that she had been upbraided for using the
: >term "nitty gritty" because it had offensive connotations, something
: >to do with black women on slave ships being used for sexual pleasures
: >by the crew members.
: Just as "nuts and bolts" is offensive because it was used by asylum
: keepers when talking about locking up female nuts and screwing them.
Are you making this up? Or are you thinking about the apocryphal headline
"NUT SCREWS WASHERS AND BOLTS" or whatever it was? Do be careful, Chris.
I see PC legend in the making here.
Steve
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Steve Cramer
Test Scoring & Reporting Services Sometimes you never can
University of Georgia always tell what you
Athens, GA 30602-5593 least expect the most.
Claudia Mastroianni
I would imagine not.
The first cites in the OED are from 1963. One was a deliberate use of
Negro slang, and the other was a quote from a spokesman for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. While that would
imply that the phrase was first used among American blacks, I doubt that
it remained underground since slave-ship times and only appeared in print
in the 60's.
Claudia