Does anyone know where the term " the full nine yards" originates from?

Answer 1

Yes.
During the second world war, the US fighter planes were equipped with a belt-fed machine gun. The belt wass 9 yards long. So a pilot was told to go the whole 9 yards and use up all his ammunition

Answer 2

There are two recognised theories for the whole nine yards. The first (and most popular) is that it is the length of the ammunition belt for an anti-aircraft machine gun - first coined by the Americans in the 1960's. To go the whole 9 yards is to shoot all your ammunition at once. The other theory is that it is the distance from the holding cell to the gallows in a British prison. The gallows were kept in a cell adjoining the prisoners cell. When the executioner came in they would slide a bookshelf to expose the gallows and the prisoner would be on the trap within 9 paces. This means that the expression suggests that if you go the whole nine yards you are comitting yourself to a point of no return

Answer 3

It comes from football. it was originally the full ten yards. But then inflation caught up with it and it was reduced to save money. soon it will be the full five yards and then the full inch and a quarter..

Either that or 9 yards is what was contained in a bolt of cloth.

Answer 4

If you Google search on the full nine yards, you get lots of information for you to have a look at!

Answer 5

The length of a belt of machine-gun ammuition used in some WWII fighter planes was nine yards

When used completely, they were said to have used the full nine yards

Answer 6

It originated from World War Two.

(The actual phrase is "the WHOLE nine yards" by the way).

The length of the ammunition belt feeding the machine guns in the Supermarine Spitfire was nine yards. Therefore, when a pilot had shot all his ammunition he would say he had 'shot the whole nine yards'.

Answer 7

its the length of an ammuntion belt for a machine gun.

EXTRA - this saying comes from the length of the belt for the WWI Vickers 30.06 machine gun belt.(not all machine guns use belts that length etc..) The belts held 250 rounds and were of a canvas leather makeup. The rounds had a diameter, with the leather holder in the belt of about 5/8ths of an inch. The distance between rounds, was about 5/8ths of an inch. All together when added up you would have about 8.7 yards. with the belt (tongue) that goes first into the receiver, and the belt ending, you would have approximately 9 yards. The Vickers gun was a British manufactured item in 303 cal. until WWI when the US asked that it be chambered for the American rimless round of 30.06 cal. After the advent of the German invention (Fokker), of the device making it possible to fire between the propeller blades of a persuit ship, the Germans soon mounted 2 Spandau Maxims on their planes. This, in turn was followed, when the Allies inspected the device, on a downed German plane, by the mounting of first one and then two Vickers on the Sopwith Camel and other persuit ships, utilizing the German syncronizer method

There is some debate about it also referring to a length of cloth used to make a suit and from building / mixing concrete. But these were RECORDED uses of the word AFTER it's first use in WW1, so the record first use is the machine gun ammo belt.

It is also not WW2, but earlier. Not American football either, to many recorded uses before those records uses. To be classed a recorded useage the phrase, must be used in a written format, dated and with a clear sign of the context with which it was used.

Answer 8

I believe that the machine gun belt in WW2 spitfire fighters was 9 yards long...dso to give it the full nine yards was to throw everything at a problem....

Answer 9

I was told it was the full load of an American concrete mixer lorry and when you wanted a lot you asked for the whole nine yards, (cubic,that is,)

Answer 10

The length of a machine gun belt of ammunition from WW1. Thus the term "Going or Giving the whole 9 yards.