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Here is a good example of an author trying to put too much into an article with very sad results.
First, he already noted, earlier, that it is almost certainly an expression of American origin. The only Americans who flew Spitfires were those who went to Canada and got into either the RAF or RCAF–and they didn’t fight in the Pacific.
In addition, the Spitfire was originally armed with eight .303 caliber machine guns. (The usual versions of this “etymology” always specify .50 caliber, although I have no idea how many rounds of .50 caliber ammo constitute 27 feet). The later Spitfires were armed with four 20 mm canon. There was one model (I believe the Mk V–but I’m going on memory) that used two 20 mm and two .50 caliber guns, but it would certainly not have been widely used by American pilots in the Pacific and it seems unlikely that a pilot would pick the length of only one weapon in a mixed battery to describe using all his ammo.
Other problems with the gun theory (in general):
- no one has ever provided a citation for the phrase in any biography or combat report from the war;
- no one has actually provided a citation for the length of any actual ammo belt;
- the notion of a pilot claiming that he had given any target all his ammo is odd, at best, suggesting that the pilot was simply shooting for the sake of expending ammunition.
Regarding the OP, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has several entries on
Nine
Nine
Nine
Nine Day’s Wonder
(The) Nine Gods
Nine Points of the Law
(The) Nine Spheres
(The) Nine Worthies
… Am waiting for someone to bring religion into this thread …
… Probably quote from the Bible, too …
… Maybe from the Book of Numbers …
You forgot that possession is nine points of the law - usually misquoted as nine-tenths of the law.
First, do a search in the archives for the SDMb on “the whole nine yards.” We have discussed this many, many times. The conclusion is that no one knows the origin of the term. None of the standard explanations are completely plausible.
The trick with adding digits together and looking for multiples of 9 is called “casting out nines.” Do a search on Google for that term and you’ll find explanations of why it works. There are also discussions of this in the SDMB archives, I believe.
Whenever I hear someone ask about why there are so many phrases with some given number in them, I think of the line from the 1967 movie Bedazzled, where the devil is asked why he gives seven wishes when someone sells his soul. He says, “It’s the standard contract. Gives you seven wishes in accordance with the mystic rules of life. Seven Days of the Week, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Seas, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers…”
Seems to be between the Nine Gods and the Nine Spheres.
Man you guys are killing me. I have an OCD that entails me adding any numbers I see together than dividing by 3. I don’t know what is so special about three. I also count the letters in sentences and add them up and also divide by three. You don’t even wanna be around if it is not divisible by three, because I will cheat to get to that magical number of three. Basically I spend 95% of my day dividing a bunch of stupid shit by three.
[Schoolhouse-Rock]
Three … is a magic number!
[/Schoolhouse-Rock]
Haven’t followed all the links (so it may be mentioned) , but another little fact about nine -
It is the gestation period (months) for humans, and also for corn.
Hence its use in Mexican pyramid constructions as these timings were the most important to the Mayas and others.
Maybe Mr. Hendrix should comment on the relevance here, too:
Now if a … 6 … turn out to be 9
I don’t mind. I don’t mind.
No, it isn’t. That’s nine points of the law for success in a lawsuit, but has nothing to do with possession.