The Whole Nine Yards

Note: I originally published this column in January of 2007,but it still has relevance today, so I'm going to edit it only slightly and repeat it.

While I was watching one of the bowl games, I heard an announcer use the term “the whole nine yards.”  That phrase has always held a certain mystique for me.  It sounded incongruous in the context of a football game, since ten yards is the distance required to gain a first down.  “The whole nine yards”’ is a yard short of the marker. 

Since I first heard that discordant expression, I have heard and seen it used several more times, including in the title of a movie starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry.  I even ran across it in a book I was reading.  I’m fascinated by etymology anyway, so I decided to do a search for the term online to see where it originated.  Boy, was I surprised!

I’m convinced that everybody thinks they know what “the whole nine yards” means, but there are a whole host of differing opinions as to where the term originated.  To save you the time and effort, I’m going to summarize them for you.

                       

1. It refers to the amount of cloth needed to tailor a three-piece suit of the finest quality.  A gentleman who wanted to get “dressed to the nines” would order “the whole nine yards” from the tailor.
2. Nine cubic yards is the capacity of a ready-mix cement truck.  A big job would require “the whole nine yards.”
3. Coal trucks in England supposedly had three sections, each containing three cubic yards of coal.  If an especially cold winter were forecast, the customer would order “the whole nine yards.”
4. Three-masted sailing ships had nine yardarms, the horizontal poles that held up the sails.  When the captain wanted to get full advantage of the wind, he would call for “the whole nine yards.”
5. The amount of material in a bride’s wedding train could be any amount, but if she were to have the finest wedding she would require “the whole nine yards” in a bolt of material.
6. The amount of dirt removed to dig a proper grave is said to be nine cubic yards. If a person goes “the whole nine yards” he has expired.  (Interesting, that one)
7. As long as we’re on the subject, a funeral shroud is also supposed to be “a whole nine yards” of material. (Hmmm!)
8. Material used to come in bolts of nine yards at the general store.  Embedded in the counter were brass nails spaced three feet apart to measure the material.  When someone needed only a few yards, then they “got down to brass tacks,” but otherwise they requested “the whole nine yards.”
9. The term supposedly refers to a football team that didn’t play their best game.  They went “the whole nine yards” and lost.
10. It refers to the length of a belt of bullets used in fighter planes (or bombers turrets, depending on who’s version you read) during the Second World War.  If the enemy plane was really hard to shoot down, the gunner was said to have used “the whole nine yards.”  Alternately, if the mission was going to be a long and difficult one, the gunners requested “the whole nine yards.”

Of all these definitions, the first and the last seem to be the most popular, although none of them, including those two, is entirely accurate.  And surprisingly, the term, “the whole nine yards” only came into being sometime in the late 1960’s; the first printed reference was in 1967.  Surely there would have been some reference to it in all the films, books and articles written during and after WW II if it had been a common term used by aviators.

I’m afraid the term, “the whole nine yards” will remain shrouded—Oh Gosh, another pun—in mystery.  In short, there is no definitive answer as to where the term came from or who originated it.  It’s no wonder it covers a multitude of situations, and usually means “went the distance.”

If anyone out there knows the true origination of the term, please feel free to write back to me and clear it up.  I’ll be happy to publish an addendum.