you got sand

[tree123]

American movie- Django Unchained

A white says to Django who is a black slave, 'you got sand'. And then he turns to another people, 'Boy's got sand'.

sand = grit ?

got sand = be gritty?

 

[Phaedrus]

American movie- Django Unchained

A white says to Django who is a black slave, 'you got sand'. And then he turns to another people, 'Boy's got sand'.

sand = grit ?

got sand = be gritty?

Yes. I wasn't familiar with that slang use of "sand" (though I am a native AmE speaker and do like that film), but it's in the Oxford English Dictionary:

7. slang.
b. Chiefly U.S. Firmness of purpose; pluck, stamina. sand in one's craw. Cf. grit n.[SUP]1[/SUP] 5.

1867 G. W. Harris Sut Lovingood 102 I tell yu he hes lots ove san' in his gizzard; he is the best pluck I ever seed.
1872 Newton Kansan 5 Dec. 3/3 We hope to see Mr. Pettibone with sufficient ‘sand in his craw’ for this new position [sc. police judge].
1874 B. Harte in N.Y. Times 28 June 2/7 Blank me if I didn't think he was losing his sand, till he walked to position.
1881 N.Y. Times 18 Dec. in Notes & Queries 6th Ser. 5 65/2 Sand. To have ‘sand in one's craw’; to be determined and plucky. Equivalent to ‘grit’.
1883 E. Ingersoll in Harper's Mag. Jan. 202 Good, solid man he was, too, with heaps of sand in him.
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn viii. 65 When I got to camp I warn't feeling very brash, there warn't much sand in my craw.
1924 J. Galsworthy Forest iv. ii. 120 By Jove, Mr. Farrell, there's sand in you. Tell me, isn't he ever ashamed of himself?
1933 J. Buchan Prince of Captivity iii. i. 264 A plain face with nothing showy about it, but all the horse-sense and sand in the world.
1954 ‘W. Henry’ Death of Legend 4 You losing your sand, Buck?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Yes. Sand = guts = nerve = grit = moxie = spine.

It's old-fashioned.

 

[Tdol]

I've not heard it in BrE.

 

[Tarheel]

American movie- Django Unchained

A white says to Django, who is a black slave, 'you got sand'. And then he turns to another person, 'Boy's got sand'.

sand = grit ?

got sand = be gritty?

Rather than another person, you could say somebody else.