Jackassalope

The Whole Ten Yards?

According a website describing the origins of idioms, there are several possible reasons why we say “the whole nine yards.” One Comes from World War II fighter pilots, whose planes typically wereoutfitted with enough machine-gun ammunition to extend 27 feet. If a pilotexpended all his ammunition on a mission, he would say, "I gave them thewhole nine yards".

Another says the term comes from the Scottish Great Kilt. The amount of wool for a full Great Kilt is a "whole nine yards".

While a third states concrete held by a concrete truck is measured in the unit 'yards'. The truck holds a total of nine yards of concrete. When all the concrete was needed they would say, give me the Whole nine yards.

I’m not refuting any of these explanations. I’m just amazed at how many things are measured out to nine yards when at full capacity. Ten just seems like a nice round number, but no, everyone feels the need to go with nine. Maybe they wanted ten, but it was too much work, so they always stopped at nine. Who knows? From now on when I go above and beyond, I’m going to say I went the whole ten yards. You won’t see me stopping one yard short.