What's In A Word?

Previous legend || What's In A Word? || Next legend

It's the Length of AFU Postings on the Subject

What is known about the origin is that it is US in origin and dates to the mid-1960s. Nothing else is known about it, including what the significance of "nine yards" is.

If anyone tells you otherwise, they are wrong.

Documented: There is no good etymology for the phrase "The whole nine yards."

Documented: Suggestions have included: Volume in a concrete mixer, coal truck, or a wealthy person's grave; amount of cloth in a man's custom-made (i.e., "bespoke") suit, sports games, funeral shroud, kilt, in a bolt of cloth, square area in a ship's sails, and volume in a soldier's pack. In 1998-99, the WWII fighter plane ammo belt theory came back in vogue. None of these explanations has any evidence to support them.

Documented: We don't want to hear your explanation of "nine yards," unless you have documentable evidence to indicate that it is true.

References:

• AFU Archive: Nine Yards