Language of the Day: Nitty Gritty
The Language of the Day Blog is a weekly blog post by our instructor, Jordan. Each week will introduce a useful phrase in English and tell a story about life in Vancouver. Tune in every Tuesday for another Language of the Day post!
Language of the Day: nitty gritty
Meaning: the most important and basic facts or details about something
Examples:
He deals with the nitty-gritty of running the department.
We finally got down to the nitty-gritty of the problem.
Let's get down to the nitty-gritty and find out what happened.
We left off last time with quite a blunder — I never did tell you what I learned from Vancouver. Mostly because that would be too long a post, and largely irrelevant because we’re here to learn language I suppose.
This year marks my tenth year on the instructional side of education though — was I the same then as I am now? Not at all. I’ve grown a deeper appreciation for language than I ever would have thought was possible. Not just the language I teach in, but the languages of the learners and the languages I’ve had to learn to fit in. I’ve learned that language, like life, is about relationships and all the nitty gritty stuff that makes it fun and disgusting and warm, all at the same time.
I’ve realized that a word can change categories the same way that you can: you’re a child or a parent; a cousin, a spouse. A refugee. An immigrant. Whatever hat you put on, the root of who you are doesn’t change — just the category, or the name.
Take for example, the word tired- what’s that all about? It is tiring to try and figure it out? Do you tire of trying to remember all of this stuff? Did you tiredly head off to work just now? You see, it’s exhausting trying to remember everything, but that’s the key trick. You don’t really have to because you can see how it ticks. Just tirelessly trudge on and on because you know what it means, tired, tiring, tire, tiredly; it’s all the same head underneath the hat. It’s just what colour or style the occasion sets forth.
Sure, maybe I’m mixing metaphors, but that’s the beauty of words. You can tangle and jumble them together in style, get super annoyed trying to figure out what it means. Or. You can enjoy the scenery. Sit on a train and watch the countryside pass by. Jot down notes of all that you see that’s outside. Bask in the sounds of the words you don’t know and the way that get strung together to create new thoughts and new hopes. It’s just new relationships mixed in with the old. It’s the nitty gritty details — that’s where you’ll grow.