[Ads-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Re: Nine Yards again

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Hi all,


Geoff,

To help with a summary of the situation, I'm now presenting two bibliographic items

that have appeared in the series of working papers, Comments on Etymology.

Bonnie Taylor-Blake and Peter Reitan deserve great credit for their excellent research,

and if you have something of interest to add, we will of course welcome it.

The two references are mentioned, pp. 13-14,  in a news item in the latest

 issue of Com. on Et. (Oct. 2020).


Reitan, Peter 2015. Origin of the whole three/six/nine yards: the

     sale of cloth in multiples of threes was common in the 1800s and

     early 1900s. Comments on Etymology, vol. 44, no. 4 (Jan. 2015),

     pp. 1-35.    --- On page 2 Reitan presents the following very helpful

     abstract:

     ‘Despite excellent work on the whole nine yards, especially by

     Bonnie Taylor-Blake, the origin of this expression has remained

     unclear. However, I would now like to defend the already noticed

     possibility that the origin is to be sought in nine yards of cloth. Nine

     yards turns out to have been a common, if not standard, length in

     which fabric was sold in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Three yards

     and six yards of cloth were also frequently sold, which may account

     for the lesser known expressions the whole three yards and the whole

     six yards. As long as there were only a few examples spotted for the

     cloth context of nine yards (or six or three), the suggestion of their

     serving as the origin for the whole three/six/nine yards could be

     dismissed as being merely conjectural. But with the compilation of

     examples below—and further searching will no doubt turn up more—

     I believe the suggestion increases considerably in plausibility.’


Taylor-Blake, Bonnie 2014a. ‘The whole nine yards’: recent search for

     antedatings turns up ‘the whole six yards’ and ‘the full nine yards’;

     possible origin in U.S. South. Comments on Etymology, March-April

     2014, vol. 43, no. 6-7, pp. 2-19. – pp. 7-8: 1907-1914 quotes from

     The Mitchell Commercial (Laurence County, Indiana).


Gerald Cohen, editor

Comments on Etymology

Dept. of Arts, Languages, & Philosophy

Missouri University of Science & Technology

Rolla, MO 65409

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2020 10:05 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Nine Yards again

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
Subject:      Nine Yards again
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apologies for bringing this up yet again, but I tried the archives and the
discussion was so scattered that I can't find a way to excavate what the current
theory is.  think I've found something else, but before annoying you all with it, could someone point me
 to a recent blog entry or something that summarizes where we stand at the moment?

Many thanks,

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
geoffnathan at wayne.edu


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

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