17

What is the origin of the phrase "the whole nine yards"? Is it a reference to some game of sports I am not familiar with (as a continental European)?

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    Since you posted this question, there have been some interesting developments in tracking down the origin of this phrase.
    – Callithumpian
    Apr 12, 2011 at 13:08
  • Ken Greenwald, at Wordwizard, gives his usual thorough and balanced overview. There's no definite answer.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 21, 2017 at 22:03
  • @Edwin It might be too late to be interesting now, and when I just tried to follow Ken Greenwald, at Wordwizard, your link took me to a site-name sale at some web-service provider…
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Sep 5, 2023 at 14:44
  • It looks like Phil White eventually gave up funding the site. Ken was a master at researching etymologies. I hope his legacy persists somewhere.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Sep 5, 2023 at 16:05

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

There's a lot of exciting possibilities listed on Wikipedia, but it sounds as if nobody knows for sure.

Improve this answer
0
4

Like Gaurav said, nobody knows for sure. Here is a well sourced and interesting article on the topic. Here the author writes about the impassioned responses that the article evoked from his readers.

Improve this answer
1
  • +1 for an amusing read, though after looking closer I noticed that it is actually referenced in the Wikipedia article, so I'm inclined to mark Gaurav's answer as accepted.
    – RegDwigнt
    Aug 21, 2010 at 9:33
2

New research suggests the nine was just an arbitrary number.

A recent discovery of a whole six yards of this "Holy Grail among word sleuths" suggests the modern phrase is an example of "phrase inflation", similar to cloud nine's inflation from the earlier cloud seven and cloud eight.

Yale law librarian Fred R. Shapiro wrote in the Yale Alumni Magazine (Jan/Feb 2013):

[Bonnie] Taylor-Blake’s next discovery took the research in a completely unexpected direction. Searching Google News Archive, she found, in the sports section of the Spartanburg (South Carolina) Herald-Journal of May 7, 1921, an article about a baseball game between the Spartanburg Spartans and the Greenville Spinners. With it was a more detailed, at-bat-by-at-bat description of the same game. The headline of the detailed account? “The Whole Six Yards of It.”

That headline appears to use “the whole six yards” in exactly the same sense as we now use “the whole nine yards.” I found confirmation via the database Chronicling America. An article in the Mount Vernon (Kentucky) Signal of May 17, 1912, states: “But there is one thing sure, we dems would never have known that there was such crookedness in the Rebublican [sic] party if Ted and Taft had not got crossed at each other. Just wait boys until the fix gets to a fever heat and they will tell the whole six yards.” And again, in the June 28, 1912, issue: “As we have been gone for a few days and failed to get all the news for this issue we will give you the whole six yards in our next.”

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Very interesting. Rather than resolve anything, though, this discovery seems to open up more lines of inquiry.
    – Callithumpian
    Feb 3, 2013 at 16:20
0

There is a high likelihood that it refers to nine yards of fabric. Nine yards of fabric was a common standard length for retail sale at least in the mid-to-late 1800s and into the early 1900s. http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/02/nine-yards-to-dollar-history-and.html

Improve this answer
-3

It's a reference to the length of a typical machine gun ammo belt in the First World War, I do believe.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    I do believe you mean the Second World War, and it referred to the length of the ammo belts used by waist gunners in B-17s.
    – Robusto
    Aug 30, 2012 at 14:10

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.