Getting Down to Brass Tacks
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. English uses it for senior officers, for cheek, and in the phrase brass tacks, meaning the practical details.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and English has built a lot on it. *Get down to brass tacks* means to deal with essentials, and the likeliest explanation is drapery: brass tacks were set into shop counters at measured intervals, so getting down to them meant measuring the cloth exactly rather than estimating. *Top brass* comes from the metal on senior officers' uniforms.
- A copper-zinc alloy. *A brass handle.*
- Brass instruments. *The brass section.*
- Senior officers. *The top brass.*
- Cheek (British). *He had the brass neck to ask.*
- Brass tacks — practical details. *Down to brass tacks.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | brass | Polished brass. |
| Adjective | brass | A brass band. |
| Adjective | brassy | A brassy sound. |
| Compound | brassware | Antique brassware. |
| Related | bronze | Bronze and brass. |
- The fittings are solid brass.Material.
- Let's get down to brass tacks.Idiom.
- The top brass approved it.Military.
Brass or bronze?
- Brass — copper and zinc, yellow and easy to machine
- Bronze — copper and tin, harder and older
- Bronze Age came first; brass needed zinc, which was harder to isolate
- Brass instruments are usually brass, though the family is defined by how they are played
- Both resist corrosion better than plain copper
Old English *bræs*, of unknown origin and with no clear relatives in other Germanic languages. The idioms are nineteenth-century.
Where does brass tacks come from?
Most likely from drapers' counters, where brass tacks marked measured lengths. Other explanations exist, none proven.
What is a brass neck?
British informal for shameless cheek. It suggests a face hard enough not to blush.