Ball of wax

[WeRSauron]

What’s the origin of “that’s a whole other ball of way” or “that’s another ball of wax”? What does it mean?

WRS

[WeRSauron]

Um, that should be “that’s a whole other ball of wax”.

WRS

[Ice_Wolf]

“The whole ball of wax” means the whole thing, everything wrapped up.

There are a number of theories out there as to origin. Word Detective says the jury’s still out, while there is a possibility here:

However, I did find one real clue, in a disintegrating paperback in my library—a science-fiction novel of 1954 by Shepherd Mead, who two years before had written How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Called The Big Ball of Wax, it is a satire on big business and advertising in America and contains this line from the narrator, a market research man, about the story to come: “Well, why don’t we go back to the beginning and roll it all up, as the fellows say, into one big ball of wax?”, that is, put everything together to make a coherent and complete whole. This sounds too much like a fuller and less elliptical early version of the saying to be a coincidence.