We started a family discussion on the origin of the phrase “the whole nine yards” last night. My daughter asked about the phrase, though I don’t know what prompted her particular interest. I looked around on the web, and found that one theory is that the phrase originated with soldiers in Vietnam. Apparently, there are no printed references to the phrase prior to the mid-60s. A particular tribe had a name that partially sounded something like “yard” and there were 9 of these tribes (or villages??) So, the military was poised to go after the “whole 9 Yards”. Can you corroborate this theory?
Welcome to the Boards, JenE. A link to Cecil’s column is always appreciated, as it helps all of us to follow along. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/504/whats-the-origin-of-the-whole-nine-yards
You might be interested in reading a previous thread on the subject. In particular, read posts #7 and #10 in that thread. They’re by me and Tammi Terrell. This is the current state of what linguist know about the phrase, when it first appears in print, what its likely sources are, etc.
Just to address the “tribes” theory, while interesting, it’s no longer viable due to the earlier findings of the phrase.
NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo…!
I dare say you’re thinking of the Montagnards, which is not actually the name of a tribe, but French for “Hillbillies”.
Suppose the Montagnards were on a treadmill behind door number 3. Would they more likely have brothers, or sisters?
Of course I always assumed (before I heard the dumptruck/redimix theories) that it referred to a football team who had 1 down left and had barely moved the ball. Instead of kicking, they were going to try for the whole nine yards in 1 remaining down.
Of course, I don’t have any interest in sports, and I have no idea where I heard this or if I dreamed it up; but the timeline seems to coincide with the boom in football when it began to appear on national TV.
Who knows?
Actually, anyone who has searched the written word for this phrase.
I can’t find a single use of “the whole nine yards” in a football context at any time between 1920 and 1980. But I can find lots of hits using it in advertising between 1968 and 1980. The known printed cites between 1962 and 1966 were nicely summarized by Tammi Terrell in post #10 of the thread above. Where are all the references to a football use? They just aren’t there.