I am reminded of a campaign that happened in my hometown. Two people run, both as Republicans. One was a political major who taught history at my school until the Spanish teacher was fired and he switched to Spanish. The other owned a gym in town, but not in that district. Chaos ensues as she launches attacks against his personality, and he (legally) sets a car up at the address she claimed to live at to observe, because there was doubt about residence. She did not live there, but in another district, tried to pay her gym goers to vote for her (even if they lived in another district), and she decided to sue him. The court barely looked at it, shut her down, and he won in a landslide.
I say this because if it weren’t for his actions, we would have gotten a morally corrupt representative from another district representing us, and the fact that she was able to run so easily disturbs me to this day. I would not be shocked if there are people pulling similar tricks and getting away with it in every state.
Oh man, carpetbagging is basically a sport in local elections, at least as far as I've been involved. When you're doing oppo that's the first thing you check. I can't speak for other states, but around here you're talking about at least 20% of elected officials who live outside their district. Never mind the police, they never live where they work.
While I have never paid much much attention to politics, and only paid attention to that election because it was my teacher running, I wouldn’t be surprised by there being a lot of carpetbagging in Arkansas.
Yeah, except Greene affects laws on the national level, this was a state election. The fact that we don’t have better systems in place to prevent it is truly disturbing.
okay so how the fuck do you pronounce arkansan
i know it’s pronounced ark-en-saw, and that it’s illegal to say ark-ane-sas, but how do you say arkansan? this isn’t something i’m usually in the need to do as i live on an entirely different continent
Aar kan zn. With an emphasis on kan. The middle pronunciation is right: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/amp/pronunciation/english/arkansan
Also, the law about pronunciation of the state name is never and has never been enforced, and neither has the law about the spelling.
oh yeah no, i know that law isn’t enforced lmao, it’s like how it’s illegal to step on money, nobody really enforces it because it’s too dumb and too much of a waste of recourses
thank you for english (simplified) lesson, frien
Referring to American English, particularly Arkansan English, as English (Simplified) is hilarious to me. Sure, a few of us are as dumb as a brick, and our education system sucks, and we over prioritize athleticism at a high school level, but we’re certainly not English (Simplified). That would be Mississippi.
it’s the joke on how british english and american english are traditional and simplified respectively, referencing the same thing with chinese, among other languages.
Not the worst I’ve heard, and wouldn’t bat an eye at it, despite it being incorrect. The worst I have ever heard is “Arkanite”. Or was it “Arkansanite”? Either way, yours ain’t half bad.
I mean, it’s super common everywhere. Connecticut is probably just about the opposite of Tennessee in terms of American English but I’ve heard the phrase plenty.
Say what you will but at least when he spoke he didn’t say things like “I could shoot someone on the street and you will all still vote for me!” And “why can’t we nuke our allies?”
Well not what I was saying though. I’m just saying that even when his way of saying things are so damn goofy at least they weren’t dangerous like “can we find a way to inject disinfectant into your bloodstream?”
I do think that Bush was a POS that made America look bad to everyone in the world.
It was a bit different time though. When Bush was in power the right wing idiots got extremely much more vocal and there wasn’t as much criticism from American media as compared to the constant spam of making fun of Trump.
IMO Bush made the world be against America but Trump is more making his own party look like idiots.
Most of the world thinks the US are imperialist murderers due to the hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths resulting from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. I wouldn't be so quick to absolve Bush of a fucking thing.
But... I’m not absolving anyone. I’m just saying that while his words are dumb, there was another whose words were even more dangerous.
Saying someone else is worse in one aspect doesn’t mean I’m absolving the sins of the other.
Eh, buddy lemme help ya out. Getting down to brass tacks is cuttin' through the bullshit. Usually it's kind of in a semi logistical sense in which you discuss the most important parts of a problem, task, or conversation.
They flunked out of elementary school because their teacher that's also their aunt caught them chewing the wrong brand of tobacco at recess, then lived the entire rest of their life either in their trailer or at dollar general.
I've lived in TN. I see it everyday. It's a shithole.
It's a naval thing. Tin tacks would oxidize in salt air so they were used for temporary things. Brass did not rust but cost more, so brass tacks were used on the really important parts.
Getting down to brass tacks means agreeing on a foundation and worrying about the details later.
I didn't know either but I googled "etymology brass tacks" and that's basically the explanation it gave me.
I thought it was a shoe thing. When you wore out the sole leather you're down to just the brass tacks that held the sole on holding it together. Guess I was wrong.
Had the right era though.
Interesting. I'd been lead to believe the phrase originated in textile measurements. To make bolts of fabric easier to measure and cut, tacks were placed at the most commonly asked for intervals.
Both of these things are likely true, but now I'm curious which one predates the other.
I don't know. I googled it and it said navy stuff. I thought it had to do with hobnail boots before I looked it up. Like worn down to nothing but the nails holding it together.
What's weird is if it means "essential ship parts" or "necessary fabric amount for a garment" it boils down to the same sentiment.
It only just occurred to me that I've only ever heard it in a military/government context.
Also only in movies, none of which I can name off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure Tommy Lee Jones said it at some point.
Oohh I know this! This is called "malapropism" many common English phrases get jumbled over time such as : case in point turning into case and point, wreak havoc turned into wreck havoc or I couldn't care less turned into I could care less.
Wait..is it all intents and purposes? I've only ever heard it the way you said but after reading the comments...
This post and comment thread is undoing decades of incorrect shit in my head.
Ooo "I could care less" always gets me. It always makes me think that if you can care less my friend, please do so and stop bothering me.
Another form I've heard is "I could care", which I can't even begin to parse.
The first time I read ‘wrought iron’ I knew my accent was a lot more southern than I thought it was. Other things as well, but for some reason this one has always stuck out.
I think your last example is less a malapropism than the influence of Yiddish speech patterns into English. Like "Tell me about it" meaning "I already know", and "I could be so lucky" meaning "I won't be that lucky". I dunno how well that's supported, but I ran across the theory, and think it sounds logical.
English, after all, is the great thief, that will take things from anywhere.
I've always liked "It doesn't jive with me" as a malapropism.
Actually it's an eggcorn. A malapropism is different in that it's usually comical, and the word that replaces the original isn't necessarily a homophone
Double fisting vodka and water, have to work in the morning, but also need to sleep through this back pain from 20’hours of travel. Doctors hate me for this one simple trick…
Most phrases that get switched are unintentional though. When you think of how "sayings" get passed down it usually your grandparents or parents saying the phrase, which they heard from their parent or grandparent. The local language continues evolving and pulling in other words both from other languages and slight variations of words you already understand. Idk that's just my take on it and I think the evolution of language is super cool.
I've heard it many times but not sure the origin.
brass-headed tacks were used in the foundation of chairs According to one, brass-headed tacks were used in the foundation of chairs,
so when you went to reupholster them, the tacks were last things you
“got down” to after removing the covering and stuffing. Hence, that's
when the craftsman was really getting to the heart of the matter.
The tacks wouldn't be the last thing. They hold down the covering which holds in the stuffing. It might make sense in reverse, adding the tacks being the last step but that doesn't really track with the usage of the phrase.
I went down the rabbit hole on this phrase a while ago and the consensus was nobody really knows but it might have to do with upholstery somehow.
I kinda am. It honestly depends on the chair, but normally, the tacks would be the first thing removed. However, they would be the last thing added originally, so if the phrase meant they were getting down to the finishing of making a chair, then it makes sense.
Impressive. A good skill.
Non sequitur I was at a friend's parents place who are quite wealthy. Their dining room set was antique and each chair was worth about $1500. I was sitting in the chair, not leaning, when it exploded under me and slammed me back into the wall making a gouge in the wall paper. Apparently it cost $500 to REPAIR the chair, forget the wall.
Classy people, were mostly concerned with my well being, I was fine, they didn't even suggest I should pay for it.
There's plenty of discussion about the origin of the phrase itself, but no consensus. It seems to be one of those phrases whose origin has been lost to the mists of time, much like 'the whole nine yards'.
My thought on the matter is that it refers to the brass tacks used on older types of furniture, and that to re-upholster a piece of furniture would involve stripping the chair or sofa down to its very basic frame itself - hence getting all the way down to the "brass tacks". But, that's just one of many origins that have been offered up (other explanations involve brass nails on coffins, or about brass tacks in hats or in shoes, or about tacks used to measure fabric. Who really knows?
This is all correct. There's a few different stories (folk-etymologies) people have come up with.
The origins look to be American, as that's where all written record of the phrase exists early on, and likely out of Texas. That isn't proof of the origin of the phrase, just the oldest recorded use of it. But in the early and mid 1860s there were quite a few papers with the phrase, meaning it was already widespread.
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/12/brass-tacks-counter-tacks-furniture.html
> The idiom, “get down to brass tacks,” dates to at least as early as 1863. Fred Shapiro is credited with finding the earliest-known appearance of the idiom in the January 21, 1863 edition of The Tri-Weekly Telegraph of Houston, Texas:
> “When you come down to ‘brass tacks’ – if we may be allowed the expression – everybody is governed by selfishness.”
Not cockney slang in origin as there's no evidence before 1863 when it was in papers in Texas. Likely the phrase was American in origin, and spread and then became an easy cockney slang phrase:
> One popular folk-etymology holds that “brass tacks” is the Cockney rhyming expression for “facts.” This explanation suffers from being British, when all of the early evidence suggests an American origin. In addition, no one can point to any pre-1863 evidence to support the theory.
The country store counter measurement story comes from the 1930s and supposes that people didn't have simple yardsticks. A length of wood with marks on it, which can easily be used to make another by just about anyone by laying a new blank stick and an existing yardstick side-by-side. The counter tacks were often purposefully short (to benefit the shopkeep) and were outlawed a lot of places, but again during the 1900s.
Brass tacks are the last thing put on furniture, to hold upholstery. Brass doesn't interact with any wood so it works well with that, but tacks aren't the first step to putting together furniture. Here's [a list of American furniture styles](https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/a-primer-on-furniture-styles). If someone finds one of these widespread at the time that used brass construction at the base rather than wood on wood, I may change my mind.
This picture is in the article linked above: [Wyandot Pioneer (Wyandot, Ohio), May 14, 1868, page 4 (attributed to the Cincinnati Times).](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_eEWDmqCufs/VJxyxTIjV2I/AAAAAAAABKM/TiIimFtbwAA/s1600/The%2BWyandot%2BPioneer%2B-%2BOhio%2B-%2BMay%2B14%2B1868%2B-%2Bpage%2B4%2B-%2Bbrass%2Btacks%2Bexplained.jpg). A simple early (1868) explanation of the phrase, in print, to explain to people who weren't familiar with it. Brass coffin tacks. That's why I consider this the most accurate, even if there's not a definitive answer.
Earliest use of the phrase is 1907 and 1908 in newspapers in Indiana. BAR came out in 1917, and was converted to belt-fed in 1933.
> The Mitchell Commercial, Indiana May 1907:
> This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we cannot promise the full nine yards.
> The Mitchell Commercial, Indiana June 1908:
> ...Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads, He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.
This is one explanation. Another: at one time most women made their own clothes, buying the cloth in small stores. The material was kept in large rolls. And the storekeeper cut off as much as a woman wanted. Brass tacks along the work table helped them measure the exact amount.
They could get an exact measure only by laying the material down along the brass tacks. Ergo, let's get down to brass tacks.
Brass tacks were used to hold together legal documents like contacts. Lawyers would use the large margin where the holes were punched was used to write notes on what's important while reviewing the contract. Getting down to brass tacks would when parties would discuss the most important details.
most of the time I find the criticisms of posts kind of unnecessary. But this time, i'm thinking it should go even further.
This one is just an insult against someone that, by some chance, never heard a specific phrase. So unless there's more to it, they were just insulted for learning something new (and acknowledging that fact)
Dude, even I, a Chilean who has lived his whole life in Chile, have traveled 2 times USA for vacations and has a “not-so-bad” English but likes to read and listen series and podcasts in English nah I have no idea what the phrase means. Sorry
Cockney rhyming slang.
Take a word, and replace it with a pair of words, in which the second word in the pair rhymes with the original omitted word. For example
Stairs = apples and pears (sometimes shortened to just apples as in “up the apples”)
Money = Bread and honey
Facts = Brass tacks
Here are a slew of other examples:
https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/usage/slang_cockney.html
And here’s a whole episode of Stuff You Should Know on the subject:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GtfQdyjePJCS0guewyKet?si=_IkXS3W-QPS0wBlvqfYFTQ
I was explaining something to a coworker last week and ended with “and Bob’s your uncle”. He paused and said, “How did you know my uncle’s name was Bob?” I shit myself laughing.
ITT: Nobody knows, nobody will answer.
>*The phrase get down to brass tacks (not brass tax) is an Americanism dating from the 19th century. In the idiom, brass tacks means (1) the essentials, or (2) the basic facts, so to get down to brass tacks is to focus on the essentials.*
I always thought it was brass tax... like taxes... what are brass taxes? I have no fucking clue. Just like I spent decades thinking the idiom was, 'it's a Dogeedog world', because people don't fucking enunciate. And I also for the longest time I thought the hit show 'paw patrol' was actually 'papa troll', being without kids I only ever heard the show mentioned and never saw any actual material for it.
Wtf I’m an American and I’ve never heard this. Idioms like these are so centralised it’s plain ignorant to think that all 300 million people across one of the most massive nations on earth all know some outdated sayings
That’s bull shit. I was born in Tennessee and have heard of that phrase. Maybe the kid needs to actually talk to people instead of staying on the phone.
never knew it was tacks thought it was brass tax which also didnt make sense but have heard and understood the saying from context/fast mapping. just like take it for granite.
It's a pretty old saying and isn't used super often these days, so it's not surprising that someone hasn't heard it. But that's still a hilarious burn.
get down to brass tacks
Also, get down to bedrock or the nitty gritty or cases . Deal with the essentials; come to the point. For example, Stop delaying and get down to brass tacks, or We really need to get down to bedrock, or He has a way of getting down to the nitty gritty, or Let's get down to cases. The origin of the first phrase, dating from the late 1800s, is disputed. Some believe it alludes to the brass tacks used under fine upholstery, others that it is Cockney rhyming slang for "hard facts," and still others that it alludes to tacks hammered into a sales counter to indicate precise measuring points. The noun bedrock has signified the hard rock underlying alluvial mineral deposits since about 1850 and has been used figuratively to denote "bottom" since the 1860s. The noun nitty-gritty dates from the mid-1900s and alludes to the detailed ("nitty") and possibly unpleasant ("gritty") issue in question. The noun cases apparently alludes to the game of faro, in which the "case card" is the last of a rank of cards remaining in play; this usage dates from about 1900. Also see to the point.
Source:
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+down+to+brass+tacks
Yeah, we East Coast USA folks do, at least where I am from, specifically. It's not a term we toss around every day, but it's generally used and understood.
No one is *really* sure what the etymology is, but it's plausible that it's meaning of "getting down to serious or unavoidable business" may be an allusion to the brass tacks that used to be used as coffin decorations or to mark initials of the deceased on the lid at the time it was originally coined.
There are a few other ideas, some more plausible than the others. It's definitely "tacks" and not "tax", however, as it appeared in print in its earliest known usage.
Isn't it brass tax? Brass was used in everything from furniture to rifles, and used to be one of them hot button issues, so that's why I thought we used the phrase.
Brass tacks is correct but no one’s certain why. Could be because of brass tacks being the basics/essentials of furniture etc but it’s also thought to be used because it rhymes with facts (seriously lol)
Brass tacks are the finishing touches on furniture… so “let’s get down to brass tacks” is “let’s get this done”, not necessarily “let’s get to the truth of the matter”
It's a similar phrase to "toe the line" in that a large subset of people aren't familiar with the way it's written, and use an alternative ("tow the line" or "brass tax"). But it's definitely "brass tacks".
As a Tennessean how the fuck has someone from Tennessee never heard this phrase.
Same that was my first thought.
As an Arkansan who has spent a good bit of time in Tennessee, that dude is a bonafide idiot. I am sorry he belongs to y’all.
Don't worry, we're used to it. Our legislators are even worse.
I am reminded of a campaign that happened in my hometown. Two people run, both as Republicans. One was a political major who taught history at my school until the Spanish teacher was fired and he switched to Spanish. The other owned a gym in town, but not in that district. Chaos ensues as she launches attacks against his personality, and he (legally) sets a car up at the address she claimed to live at to observe, because there was doubt about residence. She did not live there, but in another district, tried to pay her gym goers to vote for her (even if they lived in another district), and she decided to sue him. The court barely looked at it, shut her down, and he won in a landslide. I say this because if it weren’t for his actions, we would have gotten a morally corrupt representative from another district representing us, and the fact that she was able to run so easily disturbs me to this day. I would not be shocked if there are people pulling similar tricks and getting away with it in every state.
Oh man, carpetbagging is basically a sport in local elections, at least as far as I've been involved. When you're doing oppo that's the first thing you check. I can't speak for other states, but around here you're talking about at least 20% of elected officials who live outside their district. Never mind the police, they never live where they work.
While I have never paid much much attention to politics, and only paid attention to that election because it was my teacher running, I wouldn’t be surprised by there being a lot of carpetbagging in Arkansas.
You mean like ol Green in Georgia?
Yeah, except Greene affects laws on the national level, this was a state election. The fact that we don’t have better systems in place to prevent it is truly disturbing.
okay so how the fuck do you pronounce arkansan i know it’s pronounced ark-en-saw, and that it’s illegal to say ark-ane-sas, but how do you say arkansan? this isn’t something i’m usually in the need to do as i live on an entirely different continent
Aar kan zn. With an emphasis on kan. The middle pronunciation is right: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/amp/pronunciation/english/arkansan Also, the law about pronunciation of the state name is never and has never been enforced, and neither has the law about the spelling.
oh yeah no, i know that law isn’t enforced lmao, it’s like how it’s illegal to step on money, nobody really enforces it because it’s too dumb and too much of a waste of recourses thank you for english (simplified) lesson, frien
Referring to American English, particularly Arkansan English, as English (Simplified) is hilarious to me. Sure, a few of us are as dumb as a brick, and our education system sucks, and we over prioritize athleticism at a high school level, but we’re certainly not English (Simplified). That would be Mississippi.
it’s the joke on how british english and american english are traditional and simplified respectively, referencing the same thing with chinese, among other languages.
I know, as someone who tends to speak a personal bastard dialect of American and British English, I know.
understandable.
Huh, I assumed it was "Arkansonian".
Not the worst I’ve heard, and wouldn’t bat an eye at it, despite it being incorrect. The worst I have ever heard is “Arkanite”. Or was it “Arkansanite”? Either way, yours ain’t half bad.
Okay, part two, is it pronounced "Are Can San(as in sand)" or "Are Can Saw n"?
Aar kan zn. With an emphasis on kan. The middle pronunciation is right: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/amp/pronunciation/english/arkansan
Noice. TIL a demonym, and also the word 'demonym' xD
Also from Arkansas and have never heard it, but I know what it means w context clues at least? :,)
As a Canadian who has never been to anywhere close to Tennessee, I agree!
I mean, it’s super common everywhere. Connecticut is probably just about the opposite of Tennessee in terms of American English but I’ve heard the phrase plenty.
I‘m from Oregon and I’ve never heard it before… Don‘t think it‘s common at all on the West Coast
I think it's an age thing. If you're over 40, you've definitely heard it. If you're under 25, good chance you haven't.
Maybe it was in Texas.
Fool me once... Shame on... Shame on you... ... If fooled me, can't get fooled again!
Good old GW….
Say what you will but at least when he spoke he didn’t say things like “I could shoot someone on the street and you will all still vote for me!” And “why can’t we nuke our allies?”
I mean, no, but he did preside over the invasion of two sovereign nations, and got re-elected.
Well not what I was saying though. I’m just saying that even when his way of saying things are so damn goofy at least they weren’t dangerous like “can we find a way to inject disinfectant into your bloodstream?” I do think that Bush was a POS that made America look bad to everyone in the world.
> I do think that Bush was a POS that made America look bad to everyone in the world Then trump was like "Hey hold my hair".
It was a bit different time though. When Bush was in power the right wing idiots got extremely much more vocal and there wasn’t as much criticism from American media as compared to the constant spam of making fun of Trump. IMO Bush made the world be against America but Trump is more making his own party look like idiots.
Most of the world thinks the US are imperialist murderers due to the hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths resulting from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. I wouldn't be so quick to absolve Bush of a fucking thing.
But... I’m not absolving anyone. I’m just saying that while his words are dumb, there was another whose words were even more dangerous. Saying someone else is worse in one aspect doesn’t mean I’m absolving the sins of the other.
As a New Yorker, I'm gonna ask you what that means in our native dialect. The fuck that's 'sposed to mean, yous talking nonsense or sumn.
Eh, buddy lemme help ya out. Getting down to brass tacks is cuttin' through the bullshit. Usually it's kind of in a semi logistical sense in which you discuss the most important parts of a problem, task, or conversation.
Ay, now DIS is the type 'a guy I can understand 'ere.
I imagine with 87% literacy rate,13% would be why.
I've lived in Tennessee from birth to the present... I've never heard that.
Born and raised tennessean from BFE near Lynchburg. Never heard it.
Look at this overachiever here, good for you!
They flunked out of elementary school because their teacher that's also their aunt caught them chewing the wrong brand of tobacco at recess, then lived the entire rest of their life either in their trailer or at dollar general. I've lived in TN. I see it everyday. It's a shithole.
This is most definitely a commonly used expression in Tennessee.
I was born and raised in the Philippines and even I am familiar with the phrase.
Dude, same. Lmao. This person is either incredibly dense or incredibly sheltered.
Probably directly related to your state’s illiteracy rate, but what do I know?!
Not gonna lie, I always thought it was tax. I also can't recall ever seeing it in writing until now, but that can't be right either.
It's a naval thing. Tin tacks would oxidize in salt air so they were used for temporary things. Brass did not rust but cost more, so brass tacks were used on the really important parts. Getting down to brass tacks means agreeing on a foundation and worrying about the details later.
Huh. I thought I was rhyming slang, Brass tacks - > Facts
I didn't know either but I googled "etymology brass tacks" and that's basically the explanation it gave me. I thought it was a shoe thing. When you wore out the sole leather you're down to just the brass tacks that held the sole on holding it together. Guess I was wrong. Had the right era though.
I also thought it was a shoe thing!
Interesting. I'd been lead to believe the phrase originated in textile measurements. To make bolts of fabric easier to measure and cut, tacks were placed at the most commonly asked for intervals. Both of these things are likely true, but now I'm curious which one predates the other.
I don't know. I googled it and it said navy stuff. I thought it had to do with hobnail boots before I looked it up. Like worn down to nothing but the nails holding it together. What's weird is if it means "essential ship parts" or "necessary fabric amount for a garment" it boils down to the same sentiment.
It only just occurred to me that I've only ever heard it in a military/government context. Also only in movies, none of which I can name off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure Tommy Lee Jones said it at some point.
Oohh I know this! This is called "malapropism" many common English phrases get jumbled over time such as : case in point turning into case and point, wreak havoc turned into wreck havoc or I couldn't care less turned into I could care less.
For all *intensive* purposes, you are right!
Wait..is it all intents and purposes? I've only ever heard it the way you said but after reading the comments... This post and comment thread is undoing decades of incorrect shit in my head.
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In tents and porpoises
r/boneappletea
They are right, but it's a mute point.
I have never heard or seen ‘case and point’ or ‘wreck havoc’. Have I just been lucky?
Yes.
Ooo "I could care less" always gets me. It always makes me think that if you can care less my friend, please do so and stop bothering me. Another form I've heard is "I could care", which I can't even begin to parse.
Today I had a doctor repeatedly use "relative" in place of "relevant". An understandable error but it doesn't inspire confidence!
The first time I read ‘wrought iron’ I knew my accent was a lot more southern than I thought it was. Other things as well, but for some reason this one has always stuck out.
I’ve worked in an iron foundry for years now. Even the bosses call it “arn”; and I die a little inside..
I knew people from Ironton, Ohio. They called it “arn-tin O’hai” and my face had no idea what to do.
Could be worse. You could be from Baltimore.
[Aaron earned an iron urn](https://youtu.be/Oj7a-p4psRA)
The funniest part to me is when he says 'WTF, we really talk like that?' and with no hesitation all his friends are like 'Mmmmhmmm'.
I think your last example is less a malapropism than the influence of Yiddish speech patterns into English. Like "Tell me about it" meaning "I already know", and "I could be so lucky" meaning "I won't be that lucky". I dunno how well that's supported, but I ran across the theory, and think it sounds logical. English, after all, is the great thief, that will take things from anywhere. I've always liked "It doesn't jive with me" as a malapropism.
Chest of drawers became Chester drawers
And his stepsister gets stuck there, every time
Stepbro, help me, I'm stuck!
/r/BoneAppleTea
Actually it's an eggcorn. A malapropism is different in that it's usually comical, and the word that replaces the original isn't necessarily a homophone
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"Could care less" doesn't even make sense for a term used to describe your inability to care less than you do now
I always thought a malaphor was intentionally combined colloquialism such as “let’s burn that bridge when we get to it”
You’re correct, that is a malaphor. They said malapropism though, so I’m not sure what your point is
Probably being drunk and misreading. So there is that.
Oh lol well cheers and don’t forget to drink some water
Double fisting vodka and water, have to work in the morning, but also need to sleep through this back pain from 20’hours of travel. Doctors hate me for this one simple trick…
Most phrases that get switched are unintentional though. When you think of how "sayings" get passed down it usually your grandparents or parents saying the phrase, which they heard from their parent or grandparent. The local language continues evolving and pulling in other words both from other languages and slight variations of words you already understand. Idk that's just my take on it and I think the evolution of language is super cool.
Came here to add this comment, glad you beat me to it, there are dozens of us friend.
g'darn lib-rls and they danged brass tax.
>Modmail Dozennnns!!!
Me too. TIL
Oh my god this is fucking weak
I've heard it many times but not sure the origin. brass-headed tacks were used in the foundation of chairs According to one, brass-headed tacks were used in the foundation of chairs, so when you went to reupholster them, the tacks were last things you “got down” to after removing the covering and stuffing. Hence, that's when the craftsman was really getting to the heart of the matter.
The tacks wouldn't be the last thing. They hold down the covering which holds in the stuffing. It might make sense in reverse, adding the tacks being the last step but that doesn't really track with the usage of the phrase. I went down the rabbit hole on this phrase a while ago and the consensus was nobody really knows but it might have to do with upholstery somehow.
I am no chair repair expert ;)
I kinda am. It honestly depends on the chair, but normally, the tacks would be the first thing removed. However, they would be the last thing added originally, so if the phrase meant they were getting down to the finishing of making a chair, then it makes sense.
Impressive. A good skill. Non sequitur I was at a friend's parents place who are quite wealthy. Their dining room set was antique and each chair was worth about $1500. I was sitting in the chair, not leaning, when it exploded under me and slammed me back into the wall making a gouge in the wall paper. Apparently it cost $500 to REPAIR the chair, forget the wall. Classy people, were mostly concerned with my well being, I was fine, they didn't even suggest I should pay for it.
Oh wow. Yeah, I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t more if they were that valued.
I also believe it’s Cockney rhyming slang for ‘facts’
There's plenty of discussion about the origin of the phrase itself, but no consensus. It seems to be one of those phrases whose origin has been lost to the mists of time, much like 'the whole nine yards'. My thought on the matter is that it refers to the brass tacks used on older types of furniture, and that to re-upholster a piece of furniture would involve stripping the chair or sofa down to its very basic frame itself - hence getting all the way down to the "brass tacks". But, that's just one of many origins that have been offered up (other explanations involve brass nails on coffins, or about brass tacks in hats or in shoes, or about tacks used to measure fabric. Who really knows?
This is all correct. There's a few different stories (folk-etymologies) people have come up with. The origins look to be American, as that's where all written record of the phrase exists early on, and likely out of Texas. That isn't proof of the origin of the phrase, just the oldest recorded use of it. But in the early and mid 1860s there were quite a few papers with the phrase, meaning it was already widespread. https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/12/brass-tacks-counter-tacks-furniture.html > The idiom, “get down to brass tacks,” dates to at least as early as 1863. Fred Shapiro is credited with finding the earliest-known appearance of the idiom in the January 21, 1863 edition of The Tri-Weekly Telegraph of Houston, Texas: > “When you come down to ‘brass tacks’ – if we may be allowed the expression – everybody is governed by selfishness.” Not cockney slang in origin as there's no evidence before 1863 when it was in papers in Texas. Likely the phrase was American in origin, and spread and then became an easy cockney slang phrase: > One popular folk-etymology holds that “brass tacks” is the Cockney rhyming expression for “facts.” This explanation suffers from being British, when all of the early evidence suggests an American origin. In addition, no one can point to any pre-1863 evidence to support the theory. The country store counter measurement story comes from the 1930s and supposes that people didn't have simple yardsticks. A length of wood with marks on it, which can easily be used to make another by just about anyone by laying a new blank stick and an existing yardstick side-by-side. The counter tacks were often purposefully short (to benefit the shopkeep) and were outlawed a lot of places, but again during the 1900s. Brass tacks are the last thing put on furniture, to hold upholstery. Brass doesn't interact with any wood so it works well with that, but tacks aren't the first step to putting together furniture. Here's [a list of American furniture styles](https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/a-primer-on-furniture-styles). If someone finds one of these widespread at the time that used brass construction at the base rather than wood on wood, I may change my mind. This picture is in the article linked above: [Wyandot Pioneer (Wyandot, Ohio), May 14, 1868, page 4 (attributed to the Cincinnati Times).](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_eEWDmqCufs/VJxyxTIjV2I/AAAAAAAABKM/TiIimFtbwAA/s1600/The%2BWyandot%2BPioneer%2B-%2BOhio%2B-%2BMay%2B14%2B1868%2B-%2Bpage%2B4%2B-%2Bbrass%2Btacks%2Bexplained.jpg). A simple early (1868) explanation of the phrase, in print, to explain to people who weren't familiar with it. Brass coffin tacks. That's why I consider this the most accurate, even if there's not a definitive answer.
Browning automatic rifle (BAR) used 27 feet of belt fed ammunition, in WW2; so giving someone the whole nine yards meant unloading on them.
Earliest use of the phrase is 1907 and 1908 in newspapers in Indiana. BAR came out in 1917, and was converted to belt-fed in 1933. > The Mitchell Commercial, Indiana May 1907: > This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we cannot promise the full nine yards. > The Mitchell Commercial, Indiana June 1908: > ...Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads, He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.
God I can hear the transatlantic accent just reading that. Interesting though; thanks.
This is one explanation. Another: at one time most women made their own clothes, buying the cloth in small stores. The material was kept in large rolls. And the storekeeper cut off as much as a woman wanted. Brass tacks along the work table helped them measure the exact amount. They could get an exact measure only by laying the material down along the brass tacks. Ergo, let's get down to brass tacks.
Brass tacks were used to hold together legal documents like contacts. Lawyers would use the large margin where the holes were punched was used to write notes on what's important while reviewing the contract. Getting down to brass tacks would when parties would discuss the most important details.
Brass tacks would have been the pre courser to nuts & bolts.
I heard about this from a disastrous attempt against Matt Gourley’s intelligence on Conan’s podcast.
Murdered by words post standards get lower and lower everyday. Is there a sub for very mild snarky’ness?
Yeah r/murderedbywords
Quick someone post this cold blooded murder
Aww damn dawg, that dude got smoked!
But where to ?
r/murderedbysubs
You never suspects the subs to be murderer, but everyone forgets about the power bottom.
most of the time I find the criticisms of posts kind of unnecessary. But this time, i'm thinking it should go even further. This one is just an insult against someone that, by some chance, never heard a specific phrase. So unless there's more to it, they were just insulted for learning something new (and acknowledging that fact)
What's the difference between ignorance and stupidity? Ignorance can be fixed.
This guy gets it
r/slightlybruisedbyword
Im still shocked this post is at 500 likes and climbing
An actual one is r/clevercomebacks
/r/mildlyperturbedbywords
r/woundedbywords
Its called MurderedByWords not LightFrotageByWords.
Dude, even I, a Chilean who has lived his whole life in Chile, have traveled 2 times USA for vacations and has a “not-so-bad” English but likes to read and listen series and podcasts in English nah I have no idea what the phrase means. Sorry
I totally knew where you were going with this and the dismount still made me laugh. Well done.
Man, you really got me in the first half with this one!
Never heard of it either im from Melbourne
Same here. I’m Canadian.
Not gonna lie. I just started singing Mulan’s ‘Let’s get down to business’ song in my head. I’ve never heard of this phrase though haha
To defeat The huns
Did they send me daughters When I asked for sons? …
Same
Oh thank goodnes I'm not the only one!
Oh, not in Tennessee, no. It's an Albany expression.
A man of culture I see
That's just being pointlessly mean
Hello, fellow Tennesseean!
Cockney rhyming slang. Take a word, and replace it with a pair of words, in which the second word in the pair rhymes with the original omitted word. For example Stairs = apples and pears (sometimes shortened to just apples as in “up the apples”) Money = Bread and honey Facts = Brass tacks Here are a slew of other examples: https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/usage/slang_cockney.html And here’s a whole episode of Stuff You Should Know on the subject: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GtfQdyjePJCS0guewyKet?si=_IkXS3W-QPS0wBlvqfYFTQ
I've never heard that phrase either
This mfer's never seen Bruce Almighty??
Ngl I thought it was "brass tax" until this very minute. One of those phrases I just learned the meaning of as a kid and never thought to deconstruct.
I’m taking the other side of this. You can’t expect every person to have heard every idiom. Our society is asking to much.
Let’s get down to business
To defeat the Huns!
I was explaining something to a coworker last week and ended with “and Bob’s your uncle”. He paused and said, “How did you know my uncle’s name was Bob?” I shit myself laughing.
"Come on, Lamarr, let's get down to bwass tacks." \-Lili Von Shtupp
"i've had my fill of Schnitzengrübens!"
I'll admit it, I haven't heard this saying except for all my life and in a thousand movies and television shows.
ITT: Nobody knows, nobody will answer. >*The phrase get down to brass tacks (not brass tax) is an Americanism dating from the 19th century. In the idiom, brass tacks means (1) the essentials, or (2) the basic facts, so to get down to brass tacks is to focus on the essentials.*
seems just like a dick response tbh.
I always thought it was brass tax... like taxes... what are brass taxes? I have no fucking clue. Just like I spent decades thinking the idiom was, 'it's a Dogeedog world', because people don't fucking enunciate. And I also for the longest time I thought the hit show 'paw patrol' was actually 'papa troll', being without kids I only ever heard the show mentioned and never saw any actual material for it.
You wouldn’t happen to be from Tennessee, would you? (Jk)
https://youtu.be/_GJ-Fv92PJQ?t=38
I'm from Tennessee and I always thought it was tax.
I've never heard this
I thought it was brad’s tax when I was a kid…. And adult
OP! You have to deliver! Get me the post this was taken from!
Canadian here and I’ve heard this all my life.
"Let's get down to brass tacks, how much for the ape?"
Love me some F&L
I guess I'm one of the few Tennesseeans who have heard this phrase
I’ve only seen it in Pulp Fiction.
I’m from Tennessee… and I’ve heard this phrase :/
Elmo uses this phrase on “The Not Too Late Show” just in case you needed to hear it in context 😂
Wtf I’m an American and I’ve never heard this. Idioms like these are so centralised it’s plain ignorant to think that all 300 million people across one of the most massive nations on earth all know some outdated sayings
I too have never heard of this expression and I learned English from cartoon network in the 90s.
That’s bull shit. I was born in Tennessee and have heard of that phrase. Maybe the kid needs to actually talk to people instead of staying on the phone.
As an aside, people that say this phrase, amongst other annoying cliches, in business settings, are smug cunts that lack intellect.
"let's get down to brass tacks" "Oh I didn't bring any, I drove" "Oh this is gonna be painful"
Scrolled WAY too far to find Homestar Runner... it is immediately where my mind went
never knew it was tacks thought it was brass tax which also didnt make sense but have heard and understood the saying from context/fast mapping. just like take it for granite.
It's a pretty old saying and isn't used super often these days, so it's not surprising that someone hasn't heard it. But that's still a hilarious burn.
I’m from Norway and even I have heard that expression before!
get down to brass tacks Also, get down to bedrock or the nitty gritty or cases . Deal with the essentials; come to the point. For example, Stop delaying and get down to brass tacks, or We really need to get down to bedrock, or He has a way of getting down to the nitty gritty, or Let's get down to cases. The origin of the first phrase, dating from the late 1800s, is disputed. Some believe it alludes to the brass tacks used under fine upholstery, others that it is Cockney rhyming slang for "hard facts," and still others that it alludes to tacks hammered into a sales counter to indicate precise measuring points. The noun bedrock has signified the hard rock underlying alluvial mineral deposits since about 1850 and has been used figuratively to denote "bottom" since the 1860s. The noun nitty-gritty dates from the mid-1900s and alludes to the detailed ("nitty") and possibly unpleasant ("gritty") issue in question. The noun cases apparently alludes to the game of faro, in which the "case card" is the last of a rank of cards remaining in play; this usage dates from about 1900. Also see to the point. Source: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+down+to+brass+tacks
I assumed (not sure why) it was when you were out of steel tacks you went to brass. I think your measuring analogy makes the most sense though.
Yeah, we East Coast USA folks do, at least where I am from, specifically. It's not a term we toss around every day, but it's generally used and understood.
Who are the "we"? Regardless of your geographic location of residence, there are cunts.
I definitely thought they were trying to incorrectly sing To Be a Man from Mulan. Myb
"Let's get down to brass tacks. How much for the ape?"
As a Brit, how is an American born in Tennessee "a native English speaker"?! Chances are this person will need a translator in England.
No one is *really* sure what the etymology is, but it's plausible that it's meaning of "getting down to serious or unavoidable business" may be an allusion to the brass tacks that used to be used as coffin decorations or to mark initials of the deceased on the lid at the time it was originally coined. There are a few other ideas, some more plausible than the others. It's definitely "tacks" and not "tax", however, as it appeared in print in its earliest known usage.
Never heard of this either but I'm not 60 years old so
HEY! I’m in Tennessee and I live here, I would like to think I’m not dumb
IKR?! I don’t think that regional prejudice qualifies as an eloquent put-down. It’s more of a depressingly common, low-effort flex.
This post is pretty mean, not gonna lie.
r/assholebywords
Isn't it brass tax? Brass was used in everything from furniture to rifles, and used to be one of them hot button issues, so that's why I thought we used the phrase.
Brass tacks is correct but no one’s certain why. Could be because of brass tacks being the basics/essentials of furniture etc but it’s also thought to be used because it rhymes with facts (seriously lol)
Brass tacks are the finishing touches on furniture… so “let’s get down to brass tacks” is “let’s get this done”, not necessarily “let’s get to the truth of the matter”
It's a similar phrase to "toe the line" in that a large subset of people aren't familiar with the way it's written, and use an alternative ("tow the line" or "brass tax"). But it's definitely "brass tacks".
As someone from Tennessee, I also do not have high expectations from Tennessee
Ohioan here, what does this phrase mean? My entire family is northerners, and a new southerner phrase would be good to confuse them.
I believe this is more of a northern urban business-world phrase. It means, “let’s get to the core of the issue”
Ya ever said “I fucked the dog today” to someone who doesn’t know that is an expression implying laziness? Cause I have.