(was: Marvel at my stupidity) Whole nine yards

[Peter Gold <peter -at- HIGHSOFT -dot- COM>]

Barry:

This won't enlighten you with a factual answer about THE source of the
phrase. If you could (or couldn't) care less, bail out now<G>.

I used to think I knew. Actually, I used to be ABSOLUTELY sure I knew this.
But recently I heard on NPR a professional linguist, or at least someone
presented as one, discuss putative sources, going back many years into
history. I couldn't say the list was "nine yards" long, since it was on
radio. I have a short radio, BTW, so that didn't help.

However, the conclusion this authority offered was that NONE of the many
proposed sources was, had been, might have been, has been, is, or is able
to be, verified. In other words, the list of verified sources falls far
short of a first down.

Of course, this won't stop contributors from contributing their favorite
views on the possible origins of this phrase. It could get to be a longer
exercise than the perennials like: "Which is the 'widow' and which is the
'orphan' and how did they get that way?", or "How many spaces are proper
after an end-of-sentence punctuation mark, and why?"

Enjoy!

Regards,

Peter

At 01:43 PM 8/24/99 -0700, barry -dot- kieffer -at- EXGATE -dot- TEK -dot- COM wrote:
>Maybe someone could enlighten me, what does "The Whole Nine Yards" mean?
>
>In football it takes the whole ten yards for a first down.
>
>Is this from a European game?
>
>-Barry

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