"the whole nine"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Michael Sam is the "beast on the field" referred to elsewhere.

HDAS has a couple of "whole nines" from 1991

JL






On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 9:31 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "the whole nine"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just occurring to me --- being a football player, perhaps he was
> inhibited from saying "the whole nine yards"?  For one thing, nine
> yards isn't enough --- an offense needs ten.
>
> Joel
>
> At 2/10/2014 09:22 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:
> >On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 8:46 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > > An NFL player, being interviewed about possible reaction from other
> > > players, said (essentially) imagine one in the locker room, next to
> > > you, naked, in the shower, "the whole nine."
> >
> >Thanks for bringing this up, Joel.
> >
> >I once went looking for such examples (of a lopped-off "whole nine
> >yards" when the speaker/writer clearly meant the whole idiom) and --
> >as far as I can remember -- shortened versions started appearing in
> >the popular press in the 1990s, though I will admit it was kind of
> >hard to research that and, well, I sort of gave up.  In any event I've
> >often wondered whether the yards-less version of the idiom will
> >predominate in fifty years or so.
> >
> >Anyway, and more importantly, Arnold Zwicky helpfully mentions "the
> >whole nine" as an example of nonce truncation in this August, 2009
> >column,
> >
> >http://arnoldzwicky.org/2009/08/29/may-i-truncate/
> >
> >(He returns to nonce truncation in later postings too.)
> >
> >-- Bonnie
> >
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