<P> In a short story published in 1962, the phrase is attributed to "a brush salesman". A letter published in an auto magazine later that year describes a certain new car as containing "all nine yards of goodies". In 1964, several newspapers published a syndicated story which explained that "Give' em the whole nine yards" was NASA talk for an item - by - item report . This early usage can be read as suggesting length, but can also be read as suggesting detailed completeness . </P> <P> Two 1965 newspaper articles quote U.S. military personnel serving in Vietnam using the phrase . The phrase was explained as something "teenagers say" in a military - oriented magazine in 1965 . Citations from 1966 show the phrase was used by a former U.S. Army airman, and also in a publication for military test pilots . It is also recorded in two contemporary novels concerning the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam, Carl Krueger's Wings of a Tiger (1966), and Elaine Shepard's The Doom Pussy (1967). </P> <P> William Safire, a language columnist at the New York Times, asked listeners for information regarding the origin of the phrase on Larry King's radio show in 1982 . Safire ended up writing nine columns on this subject and is largely responsible for the interest in it . In 1986, the phrase was added to the Oxford English Dictionary with the earliest citation given as 1970 . The Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1997) cited Shepard's novel, thus pushing the earliest known usage back to 1967 . </P> <P> Several key discoveries in further antedating the phrase were made by Bonnie Taylor - Blake, a neuroscience researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an amateur member of the American Dialect Society, an association of professional and amateur linguists whose mailing list often serves as a forum for word and phrase discoveries . In 2012, Taylor - Blake discovered the 1956 and 1957 uses in Kentucky Happy Hunting Ground, and later that year she and Fred R. Shapiro found the "whole six yards" examples from the 1912--1921 period, which received substantial publicity . In 2013, Taylor - Blake posted her discovery of the Mitchell Commercial uses from the 1907--1914 period . </P>

Where did saying the whole nine yards come from