Where does the phrase nitty gritty come from - and why has Sky Sports banned it?

Sky Sports has added ‘nitty gritty’ to its list of banned words and phrases, urging broadcasters and commentators to not use the term on air.

That's according to the Daily Mail, who report that “commentators and match reporters have been sent a number of emails with phrases which are deemed out of bounds.”

But it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to say, right? To get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ of something?

Perhaps not; the phrase is believed to have origins with links to the time of slavery.

Here’s everything you need to know:

What does nitty-gritty mean?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, ‘nitty gritty’ now refers to “the basic facts of a situation”.

But it is believed the phrase once had less palatable connotations, with many considering the term to have roots to be in the slave trade – its use is already banned in institutions like the police force.

Theories suggest the expression originally referred to the detritus found in the bottom of boats once a shipment of slaves had been removed from the hold, and was eventually stretched to refer to the slaves themselves.

According to etymology resource phrases.org, claims of the term’s slave-trade links first came to attention in 2005 following an “equality and diversity” course for Bristol Council employees in 2005 (a quick Google search unearths articles discussing the merits of nitty-gritty's origins existed years before this).

Phrases.org claims, “there is no evidence to support the suggestion that 'nitty gritty' has any connection with slave ships,” saying the phrase “isn't even recorded in print” until the 1930s, “long after slave ships had disappeared.”

It lists the earliest example of the phrase in print coming from a catalogue of musical compositions from 1937 which includes a song titled 'That Nitty-Gritty Dance', by Arthur Harrington Gibbs.

They also say the phrase “nitty-gritty gator” was once used by Texas newspaper The Daily Journal in 1956 to mean a '”lowlife hip dude”.

However, phrases.org's isn’t totally impartial on the matter (it complains of a “general touchiness” over language at one point), so it's findings should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Is it racist?

While many publications argue a lack of evidence of the term's use during the time of slavery as proof the term does not in fact have slave-trade links, it’s not hard to see how the term could have once referred to a slave ship's debris.

A nit is the egg of a louse, a parasitic insect that would have been rife among the poor conditions those being transported for slavery would have been kept in.