[Ads-l] Major Discovery Relating to "Whole Nine Yards"

[Joel Berson]

Does NGram Viewer provide any insight into "[whole] six/nine yards"?
Joel

      From: Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 7:40 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Major Discovery Relating to "Whole Nine Yards"
   
I'm not sure that I've been a trailblazer on this front (but thanks
for that anyway, Fred); it's pretty much that I've been lucky,
sometimes finding something just barely before any number of you have
found it yourselves.

I thank Fred, too, for letting me know about this a few days ago.

I think Mr. Bucci's find is very exciting, because to me it does
indeed hint at the fuller idiom.  It's not just how "your [last] 'nine
yards'" is used, but also -- as Fred has mentioned -- how "nine yards"
has been set within quotation marks.  (It also tends to support the
theory that the earliest forms of the idiom for the most part seem to
allude to lengthy oral or written presentations, which is something I
lean toward.)

I've tried to track down Edwin Draper's comments in "the Record,"
which Kennedy alludes to in an earlier piece [1], because I think it
would be helpful to see what Kennedy was responding to.  In other
words, what exactly about Draper's commentary or notice made it his
"'nine yards'"?

On the other hand, it occurs to me that we can't rule out the slight
chance that Kennedy is simply quoting from Draper; perhaps Draper had
earlier used "nine yards" in a piece appearing in "the Record" and
that Kennedy is merely repeating Draper's earlier usage of the
apparent idiom.

Trouble is, I can't figure out what "the Record" was.  Was it a
newspaper or similar local publication?  (Draper looks to have been a
Whig; could the Record have been a Whig newspaper?)  I hope someone
else has success with this.

To my mind (for what it's worth), there's still not enough to tell us
whether Kennedy's use of "nine yards" was ultimately based on
something tangible or whether it was just a colorful expression.  And
I try not to dwell on that issue of origin, because it always drives
me a little nuts.  Instead, I'm fine with waiting for still earlier
sightings along the lines of Mr. Bucci's that may give us better
clues.

Anyway, my thanks go to Fred, for passing this along, and to Mr. Bucci
for sending it to Fred.

-- Bonnie


[1] http://tinyurl.com/ptfu93v

MR. EDITOR, -- I ask your indulgence for the use of your columns, for
the purpose of answering the assertions made against me in a
communication in the Record of 20th Sept., signed "Common Sense,"
alias "Old Ball," alias "Edwin Draper."  As he has made as near a
personal matter as he could well, I shall treat it as such in part at
least, as I come in for a good share of his malice in his
communication.

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