Everyone who has lived even a little in this world has something to hide: secrets are small or large, interesting and not very. The social person that we show people is unlikely to contain all the features of our being. The missing elements of the image lurk in the ins and outs. This is the word we will discuss today.
Origin
In this case, we are lucky, and the roots of the word are well known. If we decompose it into its components, we get the preposition “under” and the noun “nail”. In a not so loose translation from Russian into Russian it will turn out: this is what is stored under the nail. In fact, the definition arose from the phrase "secret secret." Over time, the last noun has been forgotten, there remains only an adjective, which is now not quite an adjective, or rather, not an adjective at all. But more about this later, when we consider the meaning of the word "ins and outs."
The phrase itself arose due to a special kind of torture that existed in Russia, when, in order to find out the secret, needles were driven under the nails. If the reader forgot how unpleasant it is, then let him remember at least a splinter under the nail. And immediately everything will become clear.
Value
But let us leave these passions and turn to the cold judiciousness of the explanatory dictionary. So, the venerable source says the following about the object of study: "secret, hidden details."
Now, of course, no one is torturing anyone. People themselves give the ins and outs, sometimes even make money out of it. Those show business stars who have already safely gone out, are trying to attract the attention of the public.
It remains for us to discuss another important technical point: is the object of study a noun or an adjective? Good question. In fact, the ins and outs are an adjective that has survived substantivation and has become a noun. In its turn, substantiation is a transition to the category of nouns of other parts of speech.
Advice of Don Corleone and Omar Khayyam
Despite the secrecy of the ins and outs of secrets, we readily share them with friends and relatives. Sometimes we talk a lot of superfluous, and then we regret. In this sense, I recall the advice of don Corleone given to his eldest son Sonny: "Never tell anyone other than family members what you think." Good advice, however, is difficult. Because the human soul cannot be in a solitary state all the time, it longs for self-disclosure!
In addition to the cult book by Mario Puzo, I recall Omar Khayyam. He, too, insisted on silence, because the person controls the inexpressible words, and those said, on the contrary, command them. The poet, of course, expressed himself more elegantly.