Etymologist William Safire once claimed, “The whole nine yards is one of the great etymological mysteries of our time.” Indeed, the phrase “the whole nine yards” has different meanings depending on who you ask. To film buffs, it’s a 2000 movie starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. To NFL refs, it’s one yard short of a first down. But to most people, it’s a colloquialism indicating an all-out effort. However, this idiom’s etymological origins aren’t certain.
According to the OED, one of the earliest printed uses of the phrase can be traced to an 1855 short story in the New Albany Daily Ledger titled “The Judge’s Big Shirt.” The phrase has a more literal, albeit lighthearted, usage in that context, as the plot describes using nine yards of fabric to craft a comically oversized shirt. By 1907, the phrase took on a more figurative meaning in printed periodicals, and while that offers us a timeline, linguists still debate its etymological origins.
In a 1982 article, Safire offered several possibilities that he struggled to both debunk and confirm. One theory relates to cement mixers; typical mixers could hold 9 cubic yards of cement, so the idiom may be derived from the concept of using an entire tank’s worth of cement for construction projects. Safire also cited anecdotes from the world of fashion and sailing, though he stopped short of denying or confirming any.
Linguist Geoff Nunberg also struggled to provide a definite source in a 2013 NPR piece. He mentioned potential ties to bridal trains, World War II ammunition belts, and even jokes about well-endowed Scotsmen. Nunberg also noted the idiom “whole six yards” — a similar phrase used in the South as early as 1912. This led Nunberg to theorize that as long as you start the idiom with “whole,” the words that come next (e.g., nine yards, enchilada, shebang, etc.) don’t matter, as they all achieve the same effect.
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