On 6/30/2014 7:36 PM, Jack Davis wrote:
So interesting, John. Thanks. I've parked much of the information to
be read later. As an aside; claimed basis for the expression,"whole
nine yards." Explained to me some years ago: Second WW fighter plane
machine guns were supplied with bullet bandoliers of nine yards in
length. If a gunner emptied the bandoliers of bullets, it was said:
"he gave them the whole nine yards." I wonder where the expression
"really" comes from. <G>
Jack
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-nine-yards.html
: Earliest citations in print
:
: The earliest known example of the phrase in print that I know of is from
: an Indiana newspaper The Mitchell Commercial, 2nd May 1907:
:
: "This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that
: will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play
: the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not
: promise the full nine yards."
:
: It appeared again in the same paper the following year, on 4th June 1908:
:
: "...Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to
: stand while he unloads, He will catch some unsuspecting individual some
: of these days and give him the whole nine yards."
The phrase's origin is, at best, indeterminate. It was apparently common
enough in 1907 that a newspaperman could use it without feeling a need
to explain its meaning or etymology.
I'd also heard an explanation that a concrete mixer truck held 9 [cubic]
yards of concrete back when I was doing construction work.
... and tat nine yards of cloth were needed to make a Scotsman's kilt, even
though the phrase appears to be an Americanism.
--
Science - Questions we may never find answers for.
Religion - Answers we must never question.
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