Whole Nine Yards

[Michael B Quinion]

Barry Popik wrote:

> We've known about a possible military origin for "whole nine
> yards" for some time.

Yes, indeed. My piece yesterday started from the presumption that
everybody on the list knew the story about the military origin of the
phrase. As you say, firm evidence is lacking. But I couldn't remember
ever having seen it stated as confirmed fact that the Spitfire
machine-gun belts actually were 27 feet long.

Duane Campbell wrote:

> I mentioned, perhaps not on list, that on NPR about a year ago
> there was a piece on the whole nine yards. It was a two-way with
> someone I didn't recognize and can no longer remember, but he
> referred to a piece of sheet music he had from WWI (that's WW ONE)
> that mentioned "the whole nine yards" in the lyrics. As I have
> understood it, the machine gun theory goes back only to WWII. So
> how long were the machine gun belts in The Great War?

Well, the Browning machine gun, in land use with the US Army, dates
back to 1918, so it is just possible it was being referred to. But
somehow I doubt it, since (I am told) it was a different calibre to
the one that was fitted to aircraft and so presumably the belts were
different lengths.


--
Michael Quinion