Where does the expression 'the whole nine yards' come from?

Question

Where does the expression 'the whole nine yards' come from?

Answer 1

here's what i found:

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

Answer 2

it's a phrase from way back when, when you would go into a yarn shop and rolls of yarn came in rolls of 9 yards, so if you wanted the whole thing you would ask for the whole nine yards, and it has just evolved since then into everyday situations

Answer 3

There's a lot of different theories on the origin, and no one really knows.  But it may have come from New England, where coal trucks originally had three sections that contained three cubic yards of coal apiece.  If you anticipated a bitterly cold winter, you would ask for the whole nine yards.

Another theory is that the expression comes from the nautical term 'yard' meaning one of the horizontal poles that hold up the sails on a square-rigged sailing ship.  A typical ship would have three masts with three yards apiece, or nine yards in all.  A captain who had sent up all the canvas he could in order to squeeze out max velocity would thus be said to be giving it "the whole nine yards".

Answer 4

One of the most common explanations is that it dates from the Second World War, where "nine yards" was the length of an aircraft machine-gun ammunition belt, and to "go the full nine yards" was to use it up entirely. Machine gun belts were 27 feet long. The expression has been reliably dated back only to early 1964, in U.S. Space Program slang.[1] It was also apparently popular among Air Force personnel in Vietnam.[2] By November 1967 it was recorded in use in the U.S. Army, likewise from Vietnam, and by mid-1969 was appearing in newspaper advertisements in the United States.[3] The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1970, in the magazine Word Watching.[4]

The earliest known use of the phrase dates from 1942, in the Investigation of the National Defense Program: Hearings Before a Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program[5], by Admiral Emory Scott Land. Land said:

"You have to increase from 7.72 to 12 for the average at the bottom of that fifth column, for the whole nine yards."

In context, Land is referring to shipyard production, and "the whole nine yards" means the combined output of all nine plants. Land does not seem to use the phrase in a whimsical fashion; it is a matter of fact statement. As such, it is likely that the phrase did not have its idiomatic meaning at the time. There is a small possibility that this represents the origin of the phrase.

While no written occurrences with the modern idiomatic meaning have been found predating 1964, a number of anecdotal recollections suggest the phrase dates back at least a further decade, potentially into the 1940s. One of the better-documented cases is provided by Captain Richard Stratton, who recorded in 2005 that he encountered the phrase during naval flight training in Florida in July 1955 as part of a ribald story about a mythical Scotsman.[6] It has been suggested that there is strong circumstantial evidence it was not in general use in 1961, as Ralph Boston set a world record for the long jump that year at 27 feet, or nine yards, but no news report has been found that made any reference to the term, suggesting that journalists were unaware of it or did not regard it as common enough to use as a pun.[7]

Of course, popular etymology has risen to the challenge; a vast number of explanations have been put forward to explain the purported origins of the term. Suggested sources have been as diverse as the volume of graves or concrete mixers; the length of bridal veils, kilts, burial shrouds, bolts of cloth, or saris; American football; ritual disembowelment; the above shipyards; and the structure of certain sailing vessels. Little documentary evidence has ever surfaced supporting any of these, and many labour under the significant disadvantage of being several centuries earlier than the first recorded use of the term.