the whole nine 'yards

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

  Incuriosity? Au contraire. If Stephen Goranson would compile his evidence on "the whole nine yards" into a unified treatment, I'd be pleased to consider it for publication in my Comments on Etymology (series of working papers, received by lexicographers/scholars/educated laymen).  That would be a good preliminary step to having it appear, say, in American Speech.
   Btw, if "the whole nine yards" did in fact refer to nine Montagnard tribes ('Yards, for short), why wouldn't the expression be "all nine yards"?

Gerald Cohen

> ----------
> From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Stephen Goranson
> Sent:         Monday, December 27, 2004 8:38 AM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:           the whole nine 'yards
>
        [...]The occasional incuriosity--even on this of all lists--itself perhaps explainable.