Whole Nine Yards (1955!)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've already done it, Doug. No "whole nine yards" in my research.  But no McTavish or McMuff, either.

For starters only, try Ed Cray's _The Erotic Muse_ (1992).

G. Legman's two-volume _Rationale of the Dirty Joke_ (1968-77) summarizes virtually every recoverable dirty joke in English with good attention paid to linguistic quirks.

Good luck !

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards (1955!)
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As I've probably noted here previously I had a similar correspondence a
while ago with a gentleman who recalled "whole nine yards" from the early
1950's from the USN aviation school at Pensacola, where (he stated) it was
used just as it is now, and where it was said at the time to be the length
of an ammo belt. He didn't mention any dirty songs.

Of course the derivation from a dirty song is not hard to believe. If this
is the real origin, one might speculate that the length reflects that
"nine-yard kilt" tradition (genuine or not, I don't know). However a
pre-existing expression might be recycled in a song too.

Of course I am not convinced of anything without documentation from the
time in question. But even dirty songs and stories are recorded to some
degree, aren't they? Where would one look?

-- Doug Wilson


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