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Comic 1254 - The Longest Yard

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awgiedawgie

The most prolific origin theory of "the whole nine yards" is the "ammunition belt" theory: that a machine gun on a WWII fighter used a belt that was 27 feet long, so if you used the whole thing on an enemy, you gave them "the whole nine yards". But there is the complication of the phrase "the whole six yards" - also used to mean "the whole thing" - being used back in the 1920s, long before those WWII fighters. But wait!... The British Vickers machine gun fitted to aircraft during the First World War had ammunition containers capable of accommodating linked belts of 350-400 rounds, the average length being about nine yards. So maybe that really is the origin of it! (Nah, probably not, but it's still a fun theory)

16th Jul 2021, 11:02 PM edit delete reply