The Whole Nine Yards

[Moosehead]

Any sources? As you can see, theories abound to the origin, but nothing with any substance from a research perspective.

I'm from Missouri, so you'll have to "Show Me"!

Todd

What am I, a lawyer? Actually, just found that surfing around, so don't ask me where, 'cause I'd probably never find it again.

[macwilkin]

What am I, a lawyer? Actually, just found that surfing around, so don't ask me where, 'cause I'd probably never find it again.

Nope...but I'm a librarian and a history teacher! :mrgreen:

Be careful with the 'net -- I tell my students that every semester. ;)

Todd

[Moosehead]

Grasshopper hears you, Master.

[arrogcow]

For what it is worth, 10 years ago when I had material woven for my first kilt (private weaver), she told me that I needed 9 yards for a kilt. Granted I know more now.

Additionally one of the Welsh Cilt makers sells 9, 10 and 11 yard kilts.

Adam

[freddie]

A British or English phrase meaning exactly the same thing is 'the full monty'. Apparantly this phrase was coined following the opening artillary barrage at the Battle of El Alemain (not the right spelling I know) which was ordered by the British General Montgomery. British troops said the enemy had received 'the full Monty' (Montgomery's nickname) so a military source for the phrase 'the whole nine yards' is very plausible.

[haukehaien]

It appears extremely unlikely that "The Full Monty" has anything to do with Field Marshal Montgomery - again, if a phrase is supposed to come from the Second World War, there should be some evidence that it might have actually been used during the war, and not 20-40 years later.

Please see the following links for some discussion of "The Full Monty", a phrase which first cropped up in the mid-eighties.

http://www.word-detective.com/093098.html#monty

http://www.wordorigins.org/

[auld argonian]

I'm really going to have to side with the often refuted explanation that it has it's origins in American football. Since there's evidence that the phrase originated in the 1960's, a time when football gained a new popularity because of televsion coverage, I have to think that it came from a running back's taking the ball and running nine yards to accomplish a first down...I know that a first down is ten yards but I gotta think that on the previous down the back tried to get through the line and managed to pick up only one yard and then came back on the next play to break through and run nine yards for the first down only to be tackled by the defensive backs. I've always heard the expression phrased in ways like "he went the whole nine yards for me" or "if you're going to do this then you're going to have to go the whole nine yards"...I've really never heard it phrased as the whole nine yards being given to someone. I gottta go with the footbal origin theory.

Best

AA

[The Wizard of BC]

OK, I can't resist adding my own totally stupid and improbable origin of the phrase.

In Viet-Nam there was this stuff called 90 mile-an-hour-tape.
That is Duct Tape to you who are not old enough.

Anyway, the stuff was green, available in vast quantities and the best thing in the world to repair holes in the rotor-blades of your helicopter 'cause it was so sticky that it would stay on up to, you guessed it, 90mph.

I came in small 27 ft. rolls that fit real nice in the pockets of your flight suit.

Around the bar at the officers club you can just hear all the hot-shot pilots;

"There I was, and this is no s*^t, 50 ft. over the canopy, inverted, with tracers so thick I could light my cigarette on them, my CP was spewing blood from a 7mike-mike and the DG was spewing his lunch. Heck when I got us home there were so many holes in the Heubert it took the whole nine yards just to keep even with the hydraulic fluid leaks.

I'll now take my grayhaired old butt and slink back behind the sewing machine.

[freddie]

It appears extremely unlikely that "The Full Monty" has anything to do with Field Marshal Montgomery - again, if a phrase is supposed to come from the Second World War, there should be some evidence that it might have actually been used during the war, and not 20-40 years later.

Please see the following links for some discussion of "The Full Monty", a phrase which first cropped up in the mid-eighties.

http://www.word-detective.com/093098.html#monty

http://www.wordorigins.org/

Sorry but I have to disagree with you on this point. I looked up the phrase 'The Full Monty' and found this reference: 'Field Marshal Montgomery, General Montgomery as he was during the Second World War, certainly had the nickname Monty (there was a film, you may recall, with the title I Was Monty’s Double, about a man who impersonated him). The stories about Montgomery mostly refer to his liking for a good breakfast, even in the desert during the North Africa campaign. It is said that the phrase was taken up after the War, presumably by ex-servicemen, as a name for the traditional English breakfast of bacon, eggs, fried bread, tomato, mushrooms, toast, and cup of tea. However, this is just as likely to be a rationalisation of an existing expression, but attached to a well-known public figure in the way such things often are. However, I have been told that it was in common use in transport cafés in the 1950s, so there may be something in it.' In the opening artillary barrage of the Battle of El Alamein 'Monty' ordered up every gun at his disposal (over 1,000!) and created a massive artillary barrage. This impressed his troops so much that they may have refered to anything that included everything available as 'The Full Monty'. This has always been my understanding of the phrase, but of course no one really knows for sure.