"the whole nine yards" 1942

[Jonathan Lighter]

An obvious point that may be getting lost.  The national popularity of "the whole nine yards" from ca1970 was unlikely to have resulted from its appearance in _The Doom Pussy_ and a handful of news stories. By the time Elaine Shepard heard it in 1966, it must have had a fairly wide distribution, at least in the U.S. Air Force.

  JL

Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Sam Clements
Subject: Re: "the whole nine yards" 1942
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From:
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: "the whole nine yards" 1942


Also, there's this cite:
> ...
> 23 December 1967, Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, pg. 3A, col. 8:
> Like most of the invisible air force, George wasn't quite sure it was all
> right to mention that he isn't at his home in Alabama. Here's his somewhat
> reluctant story:
> ...
> "We had just dumped our load on the railroad yards near Hanoi when Charlie
> poured everything at us...flak, Sams, Migs...the whole nine yards."
>
In case anyone is interested, that new cite is from a USAF pilot who
graduated the USAF Academy in 1965. He went to Thailand in July, 1967, and
flew most of his missions over North Vietnam.

Sam Clements

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org