# The whole 9 yards.....

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-9-yards/24710>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 6, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-9-yards/24710 "2000-07-06T04:11:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_McH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@Jeff\_McH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_McH)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-9-yards/24710/1 "2000-07-06T04:11:46Z")

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The term the whole nine yards does not originate from the amount of fabric used to make certain clothes, or the cloth that covers a casket. It actually originates from WWII piolets. One string of bullets was nine yards long, if the piolet shot all the shells, it was said he shot “the whole nine yards”. I saw this on an old movie on the history channel, but the name of the film, I do not know.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-9-yards/24710/2 "2000-07-06T15:54:11Z")

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Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment.  
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.  
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL).

Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link:  
[What’s the origin of “the whole nine yards”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_252.html)

The column ( **including** Slug Signorino’s illustration) can also be found on pages 252-257 of Cecil Adams’ book “[_More of the Straight Dope_](http://www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/books.html)”.  
**Jeff McH** , you may be interested in reading other discussions on this surprisingly controversial topic in this same forum (in which you will see that your hypothesis is discussed):

[The whole nine yards](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=2905) - 3 replies - Last Post 04-21-2000

[the whole nine yards](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=1734) - 30 replies - Last Post 03-24-2000

[yards, and nine of them …](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=1379) - 7 replies - Last Post 03-11-2000

[The Whole Nine Yards Explanation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=573) - 38 replies - Last Post 01-26-2000