<P> The Oxford English Dictionary finds the earliest published non-idiomatic use in an 1855 Indiana newspaper article . The earliest known idiomatic use of the phrase is from 1907 in southern Indiana . The phrase is related to the expression the whole six yards, used around the same time in Kentucky and South Carolina . Both phrases are variations on the whole ball of wax, first recorded in the 1880s . They are part of a family of expressions in which an odd - sounding item, such as enchilada, shooting match, shebang or hog, is substituted for ball of wax . The choice of the number nine may be related to the expression "To the nines" (to perfection). </P> <P> Use of the phrase became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s . Much of the interest in the phrase's etymology can be attributed to New York Times language columnist William Safire, who wrote extensively on this question . </P> <P> The Oxford English Dictionary places the earliest published non-idiomatic use of the phrase in the New Albany (Indiana) Daily Ledger, January 30, 1855 in an article called "The Judge's Big Shirt ." "What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get just enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!" The first known use of the phrase as an idiom appears in The Mitchell Commercial, a newspaper in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana, in its May 2, 1907 edition: </P> <P> This afternoon at 2: 30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see . The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we cannot promise the full nine yards . </P>

Where did the term whole 9 yards come from