to get down to brass tacks
colloquialism

- to start talking about the most important or basic facts of a situation

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

This phrase seems to have originated in the southern USA. It first appeared in print in January 1863 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.”

It is reasonable to assume that the phrase was coined in Texas the 1860s. Interestingly, the phrase crossed the Atlantic and was used in the London dialect “Cockney rhyming slang” to mean “facts”.

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SYNONYMS

essentials, fundamentals, basics, ropes, realities, nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts, the basic facts, essential facts, BRASS TACKS, truth of the matter, basic details, inner workings, point, rudiments, ABCs

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IDIOMS using “brass” & “tack”

- top-brass = the top management
- as bold as brass = to do something with extreme confidence or without the respect or politeness people usually show
- brass-monkey weather = extremely cold weather
- as sharp as a tack = very intelligent
- tacky = cheap, crude, and unrefined
- ticky-tacky = made of cheap or shoddy materials

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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, discuss something like:

“Now we’ve heard everyone’s opinion, let’s GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.”

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Paul Smith