"Whole nine yards" : some negative evidence [addendum]

[Sam Clements]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 3:52 AM
Subject: Re: "Whole nine yards" : some negative evidence [addendum]


> Perhaps recall that the earliest available uses are not related to machine
> guns. Nor, really, especially related operations of the Air Force.
>
> 1968 (written 1967 in Vietnam) The Doom Pussy:
> "Most Americans enjoyed getting the full nine yards that is
> included in the French barber's repertoire."(p.161/140pb)
> "God. The first thing in the early pearly morning and the last thing at
night.
> Beds all over the gahdam house [of a woman back home]." (p173/150 pb)
> The same book discusses Montagnards, called yards. And in I Corps area
R.L.
> Mole was teaching GIs about nine tribes of Montagnards. (The full ally
> compliment: the whole nine yards.)
>
> The Current Slang Air Academy issue merely defines as "adv. All the way."
No
> machine gun nor airplane connection indicated.
>
> April 1970 Word Watching v. XLV n.4 "A Little Tale With Footnotes" makes
use of
> Air Force Slang James Work gathered. Again, not especially air force
embedded
> usage. "The whole nine yards [note: "the entire thing"] would really be
numbah
> ten if he augered and bought the farm...."
>
> 1972 Strawberry Soldier by and about a Special Forces, not USAF, vet, p18,
> about the decorations on his uniform, several named, altogether, "the
whole
> nine yards."
>
> Why focus on machine guns when the earliest book has a special sense of
'yards?
>
> Stephen Goranson
>

While the earliest use is Doom Pussy(1967), the second earliest cite is from
" a 1968 cite in one of the _Current
Slang_ volumes, from the U.S. Air Force Academy" (courtesy of a previous
post on ADS by Jesse Sheidlower).  And the third oldest cite is about
apartments in Ft. Walton Beach, FL.--home of Elgin Air Force Base. [1969
_Playground Daily News_ (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) 25 Apr. 15
(advertisement)  This home has the "whole nine yards" in convenience.]
courtesey of Fred Shapiro.

The Air Force origin is inescapable.

Sam Clements