"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 08/03/18 (the whole nine yards)

I have a big ethymological mystery. It's a phrase or expression, that's attracted more conjecture, possibly, than almost any other - apart from "cloud nine" - any other idiom that I can find. And that's "the whole nine yards". So many theories abound for this one. I thought I would whizz through a few of them, and then maybe point to one that could be the best explanation of it, although we're still not completely sure. One is that the whole nine yardswas a rubbush required to fill a whole dustbin lorry, or that it was the standard amount of cloth needed.  Now, cloth certainly was made originally in multiples of three. So the whole nine yards was said to be a standard measurement, perhaps to make a three-piece suit. So that is sounds quite plausible. The volume or size required for a rich man's grave, which is quite an interesting one. There are some records showing that, if you were wealthy, you might be able to afford nine yards of earth around you, or at least of space around you, which is a little bit morbid. So many. One of the most plausibe ones, actually, is because it came about pretty much in print after World War II, is that, during World War II, the 50-calibre machinegun ammunition belts could be let our exactly nine yards. So it's said that each soldiers would say to each other, "Give them a full nine yards," for the enemy. So that one is definitely close to the top of plausible ones. But, intriguingly, fairly recently, some new evidence has come to light, and that's about some jargon in the space programme in the 1960s. And there was the article "How To Talk Rocket". So it was a glossary of, as I say, jargon that was spoken by astronauts, and its defined the whole nine yards as an item-by-item report on a new project. And the conjecture is that that the report would have been written on folded stacks of perforated printer paper that could be let out the whole nine yards. But who knows? Perhaps it did originated with NASA. Only time will tell. I won't say, "Watch this space", and use a very bad pun. But that could be the origin of it.