Why do they say "dressed to the nines"?

[ceyjen]

I have always wondered about the origin of this phrase, and why 9s and not 10s or 8s?

[tanstaafl]

Uh-oh! According to my usual source for such questions it’s related to that “whole nine yards” thing.

**Meaning **
Dressed flamboyantly.
Origin
Many theories as to the origin of this phrase. One has it that tailors used nine yards of material to make a suit…

Hopefully someone will come along with a better answer shortly.

[ceyjen]

I always thought “the whole nine yards” had something to do with ammunition loaded into an airplane’s guns. Like the strips were nine yards long and they had to load the whole nine yards.

But, then again, my sources are rarely very reliable.

[tanstaafl]

No, there is really no concensus on where “the whole nine yards” came from. Your thought is one theory on the origin as is the one I referenced and there are dozens more. Cecil did a column on it (which I have tried to find but the search hamsters seem to be on their coffee break at the moment) and there are probably a dozen old threads floating around on the origin of the “whole nine yards”. My “Oh-no!” at the start of my reply was the fear that we were about to open that whole can of worms again. :smack:

FWIW, a co-worker just came by, saw what I was doing, and gave her interpretation. She always thought that “dressed to the nines” meant that you were completely dressed up for a formal night out. That is you were wearing pants, shirt, vest, tux, hat, shoes (2) and gloves (2) for a total of 9 items.

Sounds as good as anything at the moment.

[Ice_Wolf]

The Great Master has tried to tackle the “whole nine yards” business, with no real conclusion to that debate.

“Dressed to the nines” also seems to have more theories than solutions as far as that puzzle goes, too, but this one looks interesting:

This phrase dates from the 18th century, first reported in 1787 in the form ‘Twad please me to the nine.’ The dressed is a later addition, so the nine does not necessarily refer exclusively to clothing. The phrase is also often seen as up to the nines.
One explanation is that nine, in some numerological systems, connotes perfection. So that dressed to the nines means that you have achieved sartorial perfection.

So … blame numerology?

[phlebert]

According to my favorite etymology site…

As for dressed to the nines, you’ve found a phrase with quite a contentious history. Etymologists quibble and quake over this one. Almost every etymologist, however, cites the following explanations, even if he doesn’t agree with either of them:

1. The phrase comes from dressed to then eynes, Middle English for “dressed to the eyes” (we always thought that sounded like a painful condition). The only problem, and it is a serious problem, is that the phrase does not appear in the written record until the 1820’s, and even then it took the form togged out to the nines (this was in a British periodical). How did it arise among Anglo-Saxons (despite no record of it there) and then manage to hide from all English speakers’ pens until the 19th century?

Hmm!

2. The second explanation is that the phrase comes from the association of the number nine with perfection or even mystical importance, e.g. a cat having nine lives, the nine levels of hell, a tripling of the Holy Trinity (in Christianity) to produce a number of mystical importance, etc. The sense here is that someone who was dressed to the nines was dressed to perfection.

Frankly, most etymologists seem to spurn the latter history and, with nothing better to offer, they give a partial nod to the former explanation.

…the debate continues. But at least now you can fight etymological ignorance just a little more fervently (by making use of the link) while wasting countless hours…

[Kalhoun]

I thought I once heard that it had something to do with addresses in NYC. Like the 9 addresses were chic or something and if you were really stylin’ , you’d be dressed to the nines. Or something.

[Hari_Seldon]

It means you are dressed like a square.

[samclem]

JUst to elaborate on the first cites relating to “the nines” we find:

1787, by Robert Burns, “'Twad please me to the nine.”

1793, again Burns, “Thou paints auld Nature to the nines.”

1820, a dictionary, “He was always togged out to the nines.”

1836, Haliburton, “A-praisin’ a man’s farm to the nines.”

So, the “dressed” part was just one aspect of using the term “to the nines.”

[ltfire]

Nobody mentioned this one. I heard it on a show business talk show. Dressed to the nines were the people in the first nine rows of a stage play. Stage lighting illuminated those rows, so the patrons of those seats dressed more fancy than the rest of the audiance.