the whole nine yards

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Aha! Associations, not etymology. Fine with me. Such associations
>are part of the backbone of folk linguistics. Far be it from me to
>trash any of that!

dInIs (who more often remembers third and twelve, third and
eigthteen, third and twenty-six, etc...; hell, I was just waiting for
basketball season anyway)

>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>>  At 7:48 PM -0500 1/2/01, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>  >>What nine yards (in football)?
>>  >
>>  >dInIs (a former blocking back)
>
>>  Well, with inflation, it's up to ten yards (in football).
>
>I didn't say it made any sense, I've just always associated that phrase
>with football, since I was pretty young.  Third down and nine yards to
>go, they got the whole nine yards, hooray! - that sort of thing.  If my
>six-year-old self could, he'd explain it to you :-)

--
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