# The Whole Nine Yards **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 21, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851 "2007-06-21T13:38:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/21 "2007-06-22T20:31:48Z")
DS in ten years you will see your explanation on websites along with the cement explanation. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/22 "2007-06-22T20:40:18Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] DS in ten years you will see your explanation on websites along with the cement explanation. [/QUOTE] It won’t take that long. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/23 "2007-06-22T23:22:42Z")
Funny how this topic turned up. I recently received my July issue of _Reader’s Digest_ and what do I find on page 109? The assertion–adapted from “Why Girls Can’t Throw” by Mitchell Symons–that [“The Whole Nine Yards” most likely originated in the South Pacific during WWII](http://www.rd.com/content/say-what-origins-of-everyday-expressions/1/)! I think somebody should set them straight. Weird thing is, immediately following “The Whole Nine Yards” is “OK” and how it’s tough to know its origin. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/24 "2007-06-23T01:24:59Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] It won’t take that long. [/QUOTE] It’s your fault, you know. 😉 Until the last line of your prior post, it never dawned on me that the nine yards didn’t have to be nine yards OF anything. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![WPwilliford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e0b2c6/32.png) [@WPwilliford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WPwilliford)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/25 "2007-06-25T13:17:53Z")
At the Reading, PA WWII air show that airs every weekend of D Day in early June, I was listening to a veteran telling the crowd gathered that this was indeed referred to as the length of the ammo in the wings of the aircraft. These few proud men would refer to giving all the ammo in a dogfight as “The whole nine yards” ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/26 "2007-06-25T13:31:56Z")
[QUOTE=WPwilliford] At the Reading, PA WWII air show that airs every weekend of D Day in early June, I was listening to a veteran telling the crowd gathered that this was indeed referred to as the length of the ammo in the wings of the aircraft. These few proud men would refer to giving all the ammo in a dogfight as “The whole nine yards” [/QUOTE] Sure, but did he say that he actually said that during the war, or was he passing on something that he read in “Reader’s Digest”? No one’s ever been able to come up with a written cite for the expression actually being used in WWII, and it always seems a bit odd that gunners would brag about using up all their ammo in one burst. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/27 "2007-06-26T06:36:53Z")
I just want to add my congrats to **samclem** for finding this antedate. I hope you at least get a nice wall plaque in appreciation for your accomplishment… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851/28 "2007-06-27T14:45:19Z")
> [@Benjamin Zimmer](#): > > Unfortunately, the article still doesn’t help us figure out what the “nine yards” might have first referred to. I highly doubt that an “item-by-item report” was imagined to take up nine yards of paper, so the phrase had already been transferred to a figurative sense by this point. My association with the AF was only peripheral and I have never been associated with NASA, but I still have no difficulty believing that the “figurative sense” was based on only a slight exageration of the length of the actual checklist. Typewritten 12pt Courier, double or even triple spaced for clarity, precise past the point of verbose descriptions, and big honkin’ Gummint margins? Nine yards is less than thirty pages. Nothing, if you think about the complexity of a space mission. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/408851.md?page=1)