WebMay 1, 2001 · In Reply to: The Whole Nine Yards posted by Barney on June 09, 2000 It's a phrase used often by military personnel and attributed to a military enterprise of some sort but no one is certain of it's origin. Conceptually it seems to imply - to go the distance, give'm all you got, damn the torpedoes full speed ahead WebFeb 17, 2002 · The phrase: "the Whole nine yards " is a phrase borrowed from Scotland and is a refererence to the scottish kilt, the kilt having mine yards of material. This is where it comes from and I believe that it means completeneteness, or totality. --Jathan Pfeifle =================

Radio 4 in Four - Eight ingenious idioms and their origins - BBC

WebApr 8, 2013 · One says that the phrase comes from the nine yards of material a tailor needed to make a really nice suit. A few tailors I talked to, though, say four to five yards of fabric should be sufficient ... WebWhole nine yards - meaning. Used since the 18th century to describe a ship. 'Ship' is a pretty homogenous term these days, but back then, to describe a vessel as a 'true' ship, it had to have 3 masts (fore, main, and mizzen) and on each of these were 3 sails (main, top, and topgallant) suspended from horizontal 'yards'. To handle so many sails, a fairly large crew … nerve to obturator internus muscle

The Whole Nine Yards About a Phrase’s Origin - New York Times

WebDec 31, 2012 · The phrase “the whole nine yards” is akin to a little organism or gene. Richard Dawkins famously calls such migrating or viral language units memes. This particular meme has a readily identifiable geographic origin (in this case, Kentucky), increased its range over time, mutated its “six” to a “nine,” etc. The second thing I notice ... WebApr 10, 2024 · The phrase ‘the whole nine yards’ is said to come from: The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes during WW2 that was in chains that were 27 feet long. Therefore, if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target, he was said to have given his adversaries ‘the full nine yards.’ WebApr 10, 2024 · The phrase ‘the whole nine yards’ is said to come from: The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes during WW2 that was in chains that were … it takes big hearts to shape little minds svg