Bobbie in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, wonders about the expression What’s the lowdown?, meaning “What’s happening?” Lowdown, meaning “the skinny,” “the scoop,” or “the details” originated in the idea of something low-down being “dirty” or “naughty” or otherwise “close to the ground.” When it was first used to mean “information,” the implication was that the information itself was base, or that the act of sharing the information was naughty. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Lowdown Meaning and Origin”
Hi there. You have A Way with Words.
Hey, Martha. How are you?
My name’s Bobby, and I’m from Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
Oh, excellent. Welcome to the show.
Here’s my thing.
I was born in Toledo, Ohio, and moved away from there when I was like 11.
But while I was there, my brother, who is 10 years older than me, would often come in and say, hey, guys, what’s the lowdown?
And I would be like, what does that mean, the lowdown?
You know, being a kid, I was like, I didn’t understand.
So later in life, I really never heard it in Kentucky, but often would go back and visit family in Ohio.
And again, people would say, what’s the lowdown?
And I never really understood what it mean.
I just always assumed it meant what’s happening.
Okay. Yeah, that sounds about right.
What’s the lowdown?
So just tell me about the situation.
Well, I can’t really give you a situation.
It was just like he would come in from being out and just, you know, the family be all around and he’d come in and say, hey, guys, what’s the lowdown?
Yeah, usually when people see that, they mean, give me the skinny or the scoop or the details or tell me what I don’t know.
Well, I never really understood the lowdown part.
I kind of was like, is she talking about the bottom line?
The bottom line is that lowdown on the bill.
That’s a good guess.
That’s a good guess.
Well, thanks.
Well, no, it comes from the idea of low, meaning shameful or naughty or bad.
You know, when something is low, it’s near the ground, it’s dirty.
And so…
That would be my brother.
Excuse me? What?
That would be your brother?
I said, that would definitely be my brother.
He’s so bad.
Well, originally, and when this first appears in the early 1900s with the idea of information, it was the idea that the information might be secret or that the secret is shameful or naughty or that sharing the secret or the information is shameful or naughty.
Kind of makes sense.
But I’m curious, Grant, is it more geographical?
Because I’ve really never heard it from people in Kentucky, and I didn’t know if there was something more.
No, it’s fairly widespread in the United States.
Oh.
It comes from an older word, an adjective lowdown, just as in like, you lowdown dirty dog, something you might hear.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
From around the 1860s, which itself meant disreputable or unworthy or shameless or trashy or contemptible.
That’s pretty cool.
Yeah, and it’s got a modern slang derivative, too.
This is the adverb, the down low.
So if somebody says something on the down low, they do it secretly.
So they’ve switched the, it’s not low down, it’s down low.
Or on the DL, right?
Yeah, on the DL.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it’s all related.
So this has got all these little tributaries from this one main idea of low meaning contemptible or naughty or shameful.
Well, I really appreciate you clearing that up for me.
Thank you so much.
You got the low down, Bobby.
That’s the scoop.
That’s the skinny.
Finally got the lowdown.
You did.
Take care now.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
We’ll give you the lowdown, the scoop, the skinny, the scuttlebutt on whatever your language question is.
