OLD-WORDS-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Re: Cool Word: the whole nine yards
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 23:01:10 EDT

>
>> >The most popular theory refers to World War II war planes, which carried
>> machine
>> >gun ammunition belts 27 feet (nine yards) long. To discharge the whole
>> nine
>> >yards was to fully empty the belt.
>> >

This sounds reasonable to me. And there were probably enough people around
who knew what it meant back them to keep the saying going.

When my husband came back from VietNam he brought with him a few favorite
sayings, one of which sounded like "didimou", or 'get the ----out of there".

I know there were others, but that's the one that stands out in my mind.

This thread:

• Cool Word: the whole nine yards by Shirley <>
  • Re: Cool Word: the whole nine yards by "Inez Ward" <>
  • Re: Cool Word: the whole nine yards by Shirley <>
  • Re: Cool Word: the whole nine yards by "Gus Carroll" <>

  • Re: Cool Word: the whole nine yards by <>