nitty-gritty

Etymology
Of origin; said to have been first used by black jazz musicians from the United States, the word is perhaps a  (ultimately from, from ) with alteration of the first.

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.

Noun

 * 1)  The core or essence of something; the gist.

Translations
Finnish:
 * Icelandic:, grundvöllur,
 * Latvian: kas lācītim vēderā
 * Persian:
 * Polish:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish: asıl mesele, işin gerçek içyüzü, işin gerçek yüzü, konunun özü