Waaaaay OT

[Don Jordan]

Driving home - listening to the radio - and the guy said something about "the whole nine yards".

I'm not a sports person but I don't think it has to do with football...

If anybody would know it's the old coots on this board.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I had always associated it with the firing of the entire length of machine gun belt

[RobertKB]

During World War Two the machine gun/cannon belts on the P51 Mustangs and likely other fighter planes were nine yards in length giving the fighter pilot about 10 seconds of actual firing time. When they let off a long burst you gave the enemy "the whole nine yards" and that is where our saying of today came from.

[greg g]

There is also a naval reference to old sailing ships of the line, or in US terms Frigates. These ships had three masts, each with three primary yardarms or yards from which the sails are hung. Using the whole 9 yards gave the ship its most sail area and therefor its most sailing power or speed.

might also refer to the length of linen used for strips for wrapping mummies.

Those getting the whole 9 yards were getting the full treatment.

[Frank Elder]

The nine yards of cement that a cement truck carrys.

[randroid]

Gents,

So many valid answers I thought I might ask if it also applies to how I buy a jock strap?

-Randy

[Plymouthy Adams]

only if you are shopping for king kong

[Don Jordan]

I guess the machine gun story could work but that means the belt would be 27 feet long - that's a big belt.

I'm trying to remember (way back when) I was an ordinance man in Viet Nam - I'm straining my brain - the belts for an A4 were about 100 rounds each - not 27 feet. Of course the A4 had 20mm and in WWII I believe the Hellcats (I can't remember their number) had 50 cal. Still, 27 feet...

[Don Jordan]

I'm sure this is more information than is needed but just for the record:

The F6 Hellcat had 6 .50 cal, wing mounted machine guns with 400 rounds each.

Okay - maybe now we are up to 27 feet. 9 yards!

[Robin (UK)]

Here's some information from Answers.com:

The origin of the phrase is not known.

One of the most common explanations is from the Second World War. To "go the full nine yards" was to use up an entire aircraft machine-gun ammunition belt, which was nine yards (27 feet) in length. The expression has been reliably dated back only to early 1964, in U.S. Space Program slang.[1][2] It was also apparently popular among Air Force personnel in Vietnam.[3] By November 1967 it was recorded in use in the U.S. Army, likewise from Vietnam, and by mid-1969 was appearing in newspaper advertisements in the United States.[4] The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1970, in the magazine Word Watching.[5]

The earliest known use of the phrase dates from 1942, in the Investigation of the National Defense Program: Hearings Before a Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program[6], by Admiral Emory Scott Land. Land said:

"You have to increase from 7.72 to 12 for the average at the bottom of that fifth column, for the whole nine yards."

In context, Land is referring to shipyard production, and "the whole nine yards" means the combined output of all nine plants. Land does not seem to use the phrase in a whimsical fashion; it is a matter of fact statement. As such, it is likely that the phrase did not have its idiomatic meaning at the time. There is a small possibility that this represents the origin of the phrase.

While no written occurrences with the modern meaning have been found predating 1964, a number of anecdotal recollections suggest the phrase dates back to sometime in the 1950s, potentially into the 1940s. One of the better-documented cases is provided by Captain Richard Stratton, who recorded in 2005 that he encountered the phrase during naval flight training in Florida in July 1955 as part of a ribald story about a mythical Scotsman.[7] It has been suggested that there is strong circumstantial evidence it was not in general use in 1961, as Ralph Boston set a world record for the long jump that year at 27 feet, or nine yards, but no news report has been found that made any reference to the term, suggesting that journalists were unaware of it or did not regard it as common enough to use as a pun.[8]

Of course, popular etymology has risen to the challenge; a vast number of explanations have been put forward to explain the purported origins of the term. Suggested sources have been as diverse as the volume of graves or concrete mixers (in industry, volumes of concrete or dirt are noted in cubic yards); the length of bridal veils, kilts, burial shrouds, bolts of cloth, or saris; American football; ritual disembowelment; the above shipyards; and the structure of certain sailing vessels. Little documentary evidence has ever surfaced supporting any of these, and many labour under the significant disadvantage of being several centuries earlier than the first recorded use of the term.

[Don Coatney]

Gents,

So many valid answers I thought I might ask if it also applies to how I buy a jock strap?

-Randy

Restauranteering must be difficult these days. I never knew a jock strap was required to do that job. Guess the chefs today probe a lot to find the right stuff.....

Silly me thinking that is where it is required.

I have thought about becoming an author but like randroid I would have a difficult time finding sufficent yardage to use for protection. :D