[Ads-l] "Full Nine Yards" from 1894

[Jonathan Lighter]

I'm undecided on this.  Wouldn't it be stylistically odd for a physician,
in a clinical lecture delivered in 1894, to suddenly lapse (esp. without
quote marks or printed italics) into a highly colloquial manner of speech?

JL

On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 5:15 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Full Nine Yards" from 1894
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>
> > this does not appear to be a literal use of "nine yards."
>
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> Besides, that this may be a possible *literal* use is far more interesting
> than yet another early instance of the derived use, wouldn't you say?
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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