I have come across this website in my effort to learn the origin of the prase “The whole nine yards.” I don’t know if this is a tired, old debate on this message board, but I do know this:
I hear this phrase more and more it seems;
There doesn’t seem to be consensus on the origin;
Most people assume it’s related to football;
Nine yards in football means you came up a yard short!
So I propose this:
I want the phrase “The whole nine yards” replaced with “The whole ten yards.” It just makes total sense!
So please, from now on, ten yards…not just nine. Make the first down, reach that goal, don’t come up a yard short!
Yes, very old, very tired. No one in the language game seriously believes it comes from football, either. Although that’s just a fraction of the silly things people do believe about this expression.
Link to Cecil’s original column.
Some of the many older threads.
Interesting how most of these threads were started by guests. It’s the one answer that everybody thinks they know the answer to, and that “what I heard someplace” is a good enough piece of research to share.
Still no definite answer in sight, though.