Settle an argument for me, who developed the F4U's curved approach for carrier landings.

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I doubt I could even find the artical I read many years ago, online, but we had a heated argument in the shop about the origins of the expression so I looked it up one evening.

I recall that the expression had been first noted in a British newspaper in the 1800's and was in reference to garments.
What it had been in reference to, I forget - it may have been regarding Indian women's garments (Sari), which do, in fact, use between 6 and 9 yards of fabric.
 
The origin of the whole nine yards is probably never going to be settled although there are mid 1800's references which equate to
other phrases such as the whole ball of wax and the whole enchilada. One reference was the silly woman story where a man told
his wife to buy enough material to make three shirts and she used 'the whole nine yards and made just one'.

Just to muddy it further, in Kentucky and South Carolina a similar expression to the whole ball of wax used to be 'the whole six yards'.
Inflation ?

Regarding idioms, "the greatest thing since sliced bread" poses an obvious question: what was the greatest thing before sliced bread came along? Apparently, to something I heard or read somewhere long ago, it was "the greatest thing since radio."
 
Regarding idioms, "the greatest thing since sliced bread" poses an obvious question: what was the greatest thing before sliced bread came along? Apparently, to something I heard or read somewhere long ago, it was "the greatest thing since radio."
Wrapped bread according to this. "An American inventor named Otto Rohwedder devised a machine that sliced a loaf of bread into individual slices. First sold in 1928, it was touted as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped," which led to popular phrase "the best thing since sliced bread."
 
Wrapped bread according to this. "An American inventor named Otto Rohwedder devised a machine that sliced a loaf of bread into individual slices. First sold in 1928, it was touted as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped," which led to popular phrase "the best thing since sliced bread."
I like it and I'm sticking with it.
 

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