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The whole nine yards
"The whole nine yards" or "the full nine yards" is a colloquial American English phrase meaning "everything, the whole lot" or, when used as an adjective, "all the way". Its first usage was the punch line of an 1855 Indiana comedic short story titled "The Judge's Big Shirt".
The earliest known idiomatic use of the phrase is from 1907 in Southern Indiana. The phrase is related to the expression the whole six yards, used around the same time in Kentucky and South Carolina. Both phrases are variations on the whole ball of wax, first recorded in the 1880s. They are part of a family of expressions in which an odd-sounding item, such as enchilada, shooting match, shebang or hog, is substituted for ball of wax. The choice of the number nine may be related to the expression "To the nines" (to perfection). Use of the phrase became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. Much of the interest in the phrase's etymology can be attributed to New York Times language columnist William Safire, who wrote extensively on this question.
The Oxford English Dictionary places the earliest published non-idiomatic use of the phrase in the New Albany Daily Ledger (New Albany, Indiana, January 30, 1855) in a comedic short story titled "The Judge's Big Shirt."
The humorous anecdote follows Judge A., who regularly neglected packing a second shirt during his travels. He arrives in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of a business trip. While hoping to find a shirt to borrow, he hints to his lawyer friend (Mr. C.) that he needs one in order to attend a prominent party the following evening. (The narrator clarifies that ready-made shirts were not purchasable "in those days", likely setting the story in the early 19th or late 18th century.) To teach Judge A. a lesson, Mr. C. specifically orders a comically large shirt and promises to have it delivered before the party. Minutes before their departure, the shirt arrives; Judge A. initially praises the craftsmanship, then struggles to pull it on, until he "[finds] himself enshrouded in a shirt five yards long and four yards broad". He is unable to see beyond the collar and expresses his astonishment at the "monstrous shirt".
At the punch line of the story, Mr. C pretends to be innocent of his prank and exclaims, "What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get just enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!" Despite this, the Judge attends the party, stuffing the shirt into his undergarments. He is later forced to explain the story to his wife, after which the lawyer feels at liberty to share the story with friends.
The first known use of the phrase as an idiom appears in The Mitchell Commercial, a newspaper in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana, in its May 2, 1907, edition:
This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards.
The idiom was used three more times in the Mitchell Commercial over the next seven years, in the forms give him the whole nine yards (i.e., tell someone a big story), take the whole nine yards (i.e., take everything), and settled the whole nine yards (i.e., resolved everything).
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The whole nine yards
"The whole nine yards" or "the full nine yards" is a colloquial American English phrase meaning "everything, the whole lot" or, when used as an adjective, "all the way". Its first usage was the punch line of an 1855 Indiana comedic short story titled "The Judge's Big Shirt".
The earliest known idiomatic use of the phrase is from 1907 in Southern Indiana. The phrase is related to the expression the whole six yards, used around the same time in Kentucky and South Carolina. Both phrases are variations on the whole ball of wax, first recorded in the 1880s. They are part of a family of expressions in which an odd-sounding item, such as enchilada, shooting match, shebang or hog, is substituted for ball of wax. The choice of the number nine may be related to the expression "To the nines" (to perfection). Use of the phrase became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. Much of the interest in the phrase's etymology can be attributed to New York Times language columnist William Safire, who wrote extensively on this question.
The Oxford English Dictionary places the earliest published non-idiomatic use of the phrase in the New Albany Daily Ledger (New Albany, Indiana, January 30, 1855) in a comedic short story titled "The Judge's Big Shirt."
The humorous anecdote follows Judge A., who regularly neglected packing a second shirt during his travels. He arrives in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of a business trip. While hoping to find a shirt to borrow, he hints to his lawyer friend (Mr. C.) that he needs one in order to attend a prominent party the following evening. (The narrator clarifies that ready-made shirts were not purchasable "in those days", likely setting the story in the early 19th or late 18th century.) To teach Judge A. a lesson, Mr. C. specifically orders a comically large shirt and promises to have it delivered before the party. Minutes before their departure, the shirt arrives; Judge A. initially praises the craftsmanship, then struggles to pull it on, until he "[finds] himself enshrouded in a shirt five yards long and four yards broad". He is unable to see beyond the collar and expresses his astonishment at the "monstrous shirt".
At the punch line of the story, Mr. C pretends to be innocent of his prank and exclaims, "What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get just enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!" Despite this, the Judge attends the party, stuffing the shirt into his undergarments. He is later forced to explain the story to his wife, after which the lawyer feels at liberty to share the story with friends.
The first known use of the phrase as an idiom appears in The Mitchell Commercial, a newspaper in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana, in its May 2, 1907, edition:
This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards.
The idiom was used three more times in the Mitchell Commercial over the next seven years, in the forms give him the whole nine yards (i.e., tell someone a big story), take the whole nine yards (i.e., take everything), and settled the whole nine yards (i.e., resolved everything).