Where does the term " dressed up to the nines" come from?

Answer 1

an old jeweler's phrase "nine nines fine," referring to gold of 99.9999999 percent purity

Answer 2

Over twenty years ago I was taught that this phrase derived from a Middle English throwback to Anglo-Saxon, and that the phrase was a corruption of 'Dressed up to then eyenes' (sp?)which meant: 'Dressed up to the eyes' or fully kitted out in good clothing.

Which is right?

Here are three theories from the archives:

"dressed to the nines means dressed in a very elaborate fashion. One of the great word sleuths of all time, Walter Wilson Skeat, thought that the expression originally must have been 'dressed to the eyes.' The way it might have appeared in Old English would have been: 'To the eyne.' It's very easy to see how that could have been transformed into 'to the nines.'" From the "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (second edition, copyright 1977, 1988. HarperCollins).

"Dressed to the nines" is a shipping term from back when ships had 3 masts each with 3 primary yards. Usually not all in use - hence "the whole nine yards". Therefore, on very formal occasions or to celebrate a victory the ship would be in full sail or "dressed to the nines". For more info see yacht-volant.org/sailortalk/seaterms01.html

"TWO IDEAS,CUFF LINKS WERE CALLED" NINES",AND MANY FANCY DRESS SHIRTS HAVE NINE BUTTONS.

Answer 3

There are at least half a dozen theories about this one. What we do know is that the phrase is first recorded in the late eighteenth century in poems by Robert Burns.

One very persistent theory is that the British Army’s 99th Regiment of Foot were renowned for their smartness, so much so that the other regiments based with them at Aldershot were constantly trying to emulate them—to equal “the nines”. The big problem with this theory is that the story dates from the 1850s, and the phrase is older.

Other attempts at explanation connect it with the nine Muses, or with the mystic number nine, or even perhaps reaching a standard of nine on a scale of one to ten—not perfect, but doing very well.

Walter Skeat (the editor of the Oxford Etymological Dictionary and the first secretary of the English Dialect Society) once proposed that it could originally have been “dressed to the eyes”, which in medieval English would have been “to then eyne”; the phrase could afterwards have mutated by the same principle that caused “a norange” to change to “an orange”. But the reverse problem of dating arises here, in that if it were truly medieval in origin one would expect examples to have turned up before Burns’ time. As a result, that suggestion is now not accepted by anybody.

Short answer: nobody knows.

Answer 4

England

Answer 5

in phrase to the nines "to perfection" (1787) first attested in Burns, apparently preserves the ancient notion of the perfection of the number as three to the third power (e.g. the nine Muses, etc.
"[T]he Book of St. Albans, in the sections on blasonry, lays great stress on the nines in which all perfect things (orders of angels, virtues, articles of chivalry, differences of coat armour, etc.) occur." [Weekley]
No one seems to consider that it might be a corruption of to then anes, lit. "for the one (purpose or occasion)," a similar construction to the one that yielded nonce (q.v.).

Answer 6

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nin1.htm