"The Whole Seven Yards" = "The Whole Nine Yards"?

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sat Sep 8 02:47:36 UTC 2012


I have never been a big fan of the concrete-truck theory of the origin of "the whole nine yards," but this citation could be taken as evidence for that theory, with "seven yards" later being changed for some reason to "nine yards":

1953 _Cleveland Plain Dealer_ 6 Sept. 62 (GenealogyBank)  Their concrete was running four inches deep on hard bedded cinders and clay.  The five of them had the whole seven yards of ready-mix concrete spread and troweled on the 72-foot driveway in a matter of five hours, when refreshments were waiting.

Fred Shapiro

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



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