# the whole nine yards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/527852>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 5, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/527852 "2010-02-05T21:40:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/527852/5 "2010-02-05T22:20:30Z")

</div>

Yeah, this comes up often, and this ammo belt length “explanation” shows up a lot. Here’s the [most recent](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=542640), from December. Post 4 there gives links to a bunch of previous threads. I’ll just quote it here for convenience.

> [@Whole (Full) Nine Yards ?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whole-full-nine-yards/520100/4):
>
> I was going to try to post links to all the threads we’ve had about this in the past, but it’s a bit daunting. This is, shall we say, one of the Great Questions of the SDMB.
> 
> Instead, I’ll just give you the most recent 5 threads. The fifth one has an excellent set of links in the second post to many more discussions here.
> 
> [The Whole Nine Yards - from Vietnam?? - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=532360)
> 
> [did the whole nine yards issue ever get resolved - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=166516)
> 
> [Whole nine yards (again) - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=460533)
> 
> [The Whole Nine Yards - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=425744)
> 
> [The whole TEN yards! - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353458)
> 
> As of now, I believe the earliest reference in print of this phrase is the one discovered by our own **samclem** , which is referenced in the OP of the third link above. It is from 1964, which makes the kilt theory implausible.
> 
> Sam’s discovery includes not just the phrase in print, but a definition. It is stated to be space-program slang for a line-by-line report on a project.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/527852)._