Learned a new Phrase!

**BandanaBandit1** · December 28th, 2011, 08:16 PM

Well I didnt really learn a New phrase, but i learned where it came from! (Quoted from a post on the CMP forum)

"Any one see the episode where Chum Lee and the Old Man took a ride on a vintage B-17? I wonder if they had to pay for the ride or if the B-17 just got free advertisement. Either way, I'm glad the old bird is funded to be active.

What I learned is that the machine gun belts were 9 yards long, and so if the gunner shoots the entire belt, he went the..........and now you know the rest of the story!"

Can anyone fill in the blanks?

**jeep** · December 28th, 2011, 08:23 PM

Ill take a shot at it..... he went the whole 9 yards

**BandanaBandit1** · December 28th, 2011, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by jeep

Ill take a shot at it..... he went the whole 9 yards

I think we have a winner.

**coppery** · December 28th, 2011, 10:35 PM

it all makes sense to me now. i always wondered, "why not all 10 to the endzone? why just 9?" now i get it.

**t1066** · December 28th, 2011, 10:51 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_nine_yards

Not likely on the ammo belt. Didn't show up in the OED until the 70's. Also, belts are measured in rounds, not lengths. Other factors listed at wikipedia.

**PA Rifleman** · December 28th, 2011, 11:52 PM

Originally Posted by t1066

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_nine_yards

Not likely on the ammo belt. Didn't show up in the OED until the 70's. Also, belts are measured in rounds, not lengths. Other factors listed at wikipedia.

Same here until I did a little homework. Another conflicting report:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/t...ine-yards.html

What I am sure of is that the phrase wasn't in wide circulation before 1961 - which tends to rule out many of the suggested sources. Why? In May 1961, the American athlete Ralph Boston broke the world long jump record with a jump of 27 feet 1/2 inch. No one had previously jumped 27 feet. This was big news at the time and widely reported. Surely the feat cried out for this headline?:

"Boston goes the whole nine yards"

And yet, not a single journalist worldwide came up with that line, which is missing from all newspaper archives. The phrase may have been coined before 1961, but it certainly wasn't then known to that most slang-aware of groups - newspaper journalists.
The likelihood that the phrase originated in the mid 20th century is supported by the lack of any evidence prior to the early 1960s and the ample printed citations from the late 1960s. "The whole nine yards" was in wide enough circulation in the USA then for it to be appearing in newspaper adverts. There are many examples of this, as here from the Playground Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 1st May 1969:

'Four bedroom home, located in Country Club Estates. Running distance from Golf Course. Completed and ready to move in. This home has "the whole nine yards" in convenience.'

Earliest citations in print

The earliest known example of the phrase in print that I know of is a short story by Robert E. Wegner, entitled Man on the Thresh-Hold, which was printed in a 1962 issue of a quarterly literary magazine Michigan's Voices. Here's the relevant passage:

**legendarylorot** · December 29th, 2011, 12:30 AM

http://www.etymonline.com

I love this website. Unfortunately, it's entry for "whole nine yards" is among the most lacking of the entire dictionary. It does make reference to origins in the US military, but in the early 1960's, possibly due to the supposition that cement mixers dispensed that amount.

I still like the ammo belt version though.