# The Whole Enchilada. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284 "2007-10-28T00:29:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/1 "2007-10-28T00:29:10Z")
Where on earth did that one come from. You hear it all the time, but it doesn’t make sense in any context except dining. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/2 "2007-10-28T00:51:36Z")
Somebody made one nine yards long … … and served it to everyone present at a shooting match … ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/3 "2007-10-28T03:39:25Z")
It’s a variant on _der gantze Schnitzel_. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/4 "2007-10-28T03:52:18Z")
I first came upon the term when driving through [Moss Landing, CA](http://www.wenchilada.com/wenchilada/whole-main.htm) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/5 "2007-10-28T06:05:22Z")
The current state of the art in finding it in print or spoken word is from 1954, the movie _Dragnet_. The finder suggested that since Jack Webb, who helped to write the script, was a jazz buff, married to singer Julie London, it might pay to search out a connection. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/6 "2007-10-28T16:17:18Z")
Plenty of restaurants, plenty of recipes, plenty of usage, some silliness but no origin. Ding dong dang! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/7 "2007-10-28T16:36:51Z")
Sam, you haven’t been doing your homework. > **[Whole ball of wax: origin and meaning explained](https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-who5.html)** > > How did an American phrase meaning 'everything' become one of English's most puzzling idioms, and why do popular origin stories about 'the whole ball of wax' crumble under scrutiny? > [@](#): > > I did find what seemed to be a clue to its origins, 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’s a futuristic satire on 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. > > However, many old newspapers have now been digitised, so that they can he readily searched electronically. This has thrown up a number of much older appearances of the phrase. The earliest found so far is from the Atlanta Constitution of 25 April 1882: “We notice that John Sherman & Co. have opened a real estate office in Washington. Believing in his heart of hearts that he owns this country, we will be greatly surprised if Mr. Sherman does not attempt to sell out the whole ball of wax under the hammer.” Another a few months later was in the Indiana Democrat: “The Democrats can beat the ‘whole ball of wax’ this season.” (Note the quotation marks enclosing the expression, a good sign that it was regarded as rather too recently coined or colloquial to be admitted to full membership of the language.) > > The origin has been taken back so far that it is beginning to look as though another often-told story might be the right one. It is said that whole ball of wax is a humorous modification of whole bailiwick, perhaps because of a mental association between bail and ball, and between wick and candle wax. The timing of the Dragnet episode and Mead’s connection to showbiz may indicate that the phrase in various forms was a current vogue word or expression of the day. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/8 "2007-10-28T16:44:49Z")
Underlying my silliness is the observation that we also have: the whole nine yards the whole shooting match the whole ball of wax the whole shebang the whole magilla none of which make particular sense. Quinion on “the whole ball of wax”, in which he mentions the Mexican food item in passing: > **[World Wide Words: Whole ball of wax](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who5.htm)** > > What is the history and origin of the term 'the whole ball of wax'? He cites wax balls from 1882. Perhaps this whole family of expressions derives from a little game whereby “the whole {whatever}” expressions were constructed, with {whatever} being some semi-random word that the perpetrator thought sounded amusing in context. Kind of like the “bee’s knees” formula which produced all sorts of silly “the {animal}'s {unlikely attribute}” usages in the 1920s, most of which died out pretty quickly. ETA: **Exapno** snuck in with the same reference while I was typing. I’m afriad we’re never going to get the whole dope. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/9 "2007-10-28T17:32:24Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Underlying my silliness is the observation that we also have: the whole magilla none of which make particular sense. I’m afriad we’re never going to get the whole dope. [/QUOTE] But for a misspelling, I believe you might have had it. Megillah, as referred to by the same gent you’ve cited: [Megillah: Hebrew Scroll Origin of the Whole Story](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mag1.htm) Leo Rosten, in ‘The Joys of Yiddish’ writes: > [@](#): > > megilleh 2. Anything very long, prolix; a rigmarole. The Book of Esther wanders through a crushing concatenation of detail, and the devout sit through the long, long reading after a day of fasting. Perhaps one schooled in Yiddish can date the origin of megillah, to give us its whole. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-enchilada/424284/10 "2007-10-28T17:52:02Z")
Yeah, I noticed the misspelling afterwards, when I glanced over the Quinion article again, and let it stand. It’s the way a lot of people hear it and spell it anyway, as a quick google will illustrate.