In Germany we have a saying: It's 08/15. Which means it's inferior quality. Also poor average. It comes from the German machine gun 08/15, which was neither a heavy nor a light machine gun. Greetings from Germany.
One of my favourite nonsense claims this one. I wrote a blog post about it many years ago. No-one knows where it originates but the earliest cites are from The Mitchell Commercial newspaper in 1907, reporting on baseball games. So whatever it is, it's nothing to do with machine guns. It very likely began as an IRL meme - someone commented on some actual length of *something* (cloth, perhaps, but who knows) and it 'went viral' because it sounded good. The number probably varied in the retelling until 'nine' stuck. Not everything has a specific, meaningful origin.
Without wishing to sound too ackchewally, the earliest cite is actually from a comic story (The Judge's Big Shirt) about a judge ordering 3 shirts, but receiving only one made from The Whole Nine Yards, circa 1855
Thanks Jonathan. It’s one we’ll never know the origins of really but it does get tedious when it’s said on nearly every visit we have, even when the whole belt is there for everyone to see.
Oh! I should have looked again, someone must have found an older cite while I was doing my day job lol. Thanks. That's a really great find, very plausibly the origin I think. @@stevegifford5201
The true origin is unknown, however the earliest cites are from The Mitchell Commercial newspaper in 1907, reporting on baseball games. So whatever it is, it's nothing to do with machine guns.
Thanks Rich (and team). I've always thought the term came from aircraft usage, not least because you cannot just reload another belt mid-fight in a fighter. But perhaps someone will be able to point where the term is first used in the media.
I love your content I didn’t even know about you guys until recently wish I could and see it all but I live in North Yorkshire. I’d love to work there I love military history and guns, it would be my dream job to work with machine guns
Thanks for the kind comments. I have to say, it’s not really a job. Those involved in the regular work and firing these are all volunteers that are trained up to support the association over a series of months. There are very few opportunities to actually work with machine guns but, given your location, you could look at the volunteering programmes with the likes of the Royal Armouries where it would give you a general overview of the historic arms world.
Could "Give the the whole nine yards" be a platoon of riflemen in line. 30 solders in a tight fireing line would be about Nine yards across. A volly from all the men at once. cheers from downunder.
It would be very tight to get a frontage of less than one foot or even two if they’re in two ranks. A few other origins have been suggested as well, which aren’t military at all but seem more appropriate. Perhaps a civilian phrase later applied to machine gun use whether correct or not - soldiers often don’t worry about such details!
Well that's a nice little after lunch video - and nice to see there is an explanation that predates the myth by quite a long way. You always know you're watching a good channel if Jonathan Ferguson drops in to comment.
Oh, suddenly occurred to me I was suggesting you hadn't done well here, which is far from the case; should have said something to the effect that no one seems to know where this expression came from. Please excuse me.
