the whole nine yards

Dennis R. Preston preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU
Wed Jan 3 00:48:36 UTC 2001


>What nine yards (in football)?

dInIs (a former blocking back)

>Any chance that "the whole nine yards" came out of American football
>jargon?  Just speculation, but it's been my impression since I was a kid
>that the phrase is somehow related to football (maybe cos my family was
>big into football).
>
>OK, I read the WSJ article and thought I'd put in my 2¢, Barry.

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736



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