Get Down to Brass Tacks
Meaning
Engage with the basic facts or realities.
Origin
The figurative expression ‘getting down to brass tacks’ isn’t particularly old as phrases go. Its first known appearance, in the USA in 1863, was in the Texas newspaper The Tri-Weekly Telegraph:
“When you come down to ‘brass tacks’ – if we may be allowed the expression – everybody is governed by selfishness.”
All of the other known early citations either originate in, or refer to, Texas. It is reasonable to assume that the phrase was coined there, in or about the 1860s. The derivation of ‘getting down to brass tacks’ is uncertain. Nevertheless, it is a phrase that is often asked about, so I will list the most likely possible sources and the evidence for and against them and leave you to make up your mind for yourself.
