The term "pushing the envelope" originally comes from the field of aviation. It is a reference to the flyable portion of the atmosphere thatenvelopes the earth. Pilots would push the envelope when they were testing the speed or elevation limits of new aircraft.
I thought a trivia thread could be fun.
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In World War II, fighter pilots aircraft guns were loaded with 9 yards of ammunition. When they ran out of ammo during a mission, they were said to have "gone the whole nine yards", meaning that they did everything that they could.
In World War II, fighter pilots aircraft guns were loaded with 9 yards of ammunition. When they ran out of ammo during a mission, they were said to have "gone the whole nine yards", meaning that they did everything that they could.
I heard a different origination; a cement truck has 9 yards of concrete in its barrel, if one job doesn't use the whole 9 yards, the rest has to be dumped or it will harden inside the barrel of the truck.
Hey! we are both right!
One of the most popular tales is that “9 yards” was the length of machine gun magazines during World War II, and soldiers were encouraged to use “the whole nine yards” against enemy soldiers. While many different phrases did come out of war, we couldn’t find any war literature that mentions this phrase (nor could other reputable linguists), and the earliest mention comes over a decade after WWII’s end. So, regardless of whether or not machine belts really were 27 feet long, this one is likely incorrect.
Nine yards is the length of cloth it takes to make a suit (or kilt, or bridal veil, or kimono, etc.). However, none of these garments actually takes anywhere close to nine yards of fabric to make, usually, nor is nine yards the standard length for a bolt of fabric. As for the kilts, “the whole nine yards” is largely an American phrase that didn’t catch on in the UK initially, so the idea that it might have something to do with Scottish kilts is extremely unlikely.
The average capacity of a concrete truck was 9 yards. And it might have been, back in 1980—but in the 60s when the phrase was starting to appear, it was only about 6.5 yards, which is closer to the “six yard” version, but at a time when “nine yards” was appearing in print. This one just isn’t true. Other versions of this origin theory conclude that it was actually a coal truck or garbage truck, but these two have even less evidence to back them up.
Rather than a unit of measurement, “yards” refers to the yardarms on a square-rigged ship from which the sails were hung. Square-rigged sailing ships were not used often in the 50s and 60s when the phrase started appearing, however, so it seems unlikely that they would inspire a phrase at the time. Those ships that were around typically had more than nine yardarms, anyway.
It comes from a medieval test that required a person to walk nine steps over hot coals to prove their innocence. It seems strange that the phrase would only pop up hundreds of years after the fact, don’t you agree?
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