Tuesday, October 5, 2010

quicko: the whole enchilada

I found some Americanisms!  I was told today that the whole gamut of "whole" phrases sounds very American, including but not limited to:

--the whole nine yards
--the whole shebang
--going whole hog
--the whole enchilada

4 comments:

Unknown said...

While the film was freaking hilarious, I've never understood the phrase "The Whole Nine Yards". Is it a baseball reference or something?

KIM said...

No clue. Wikipedia doesn't know either, though it does mention an interesting anecdote about the phrase probably not being in use in 1961 because that year some guy set the long jump record at 27 feet (i.e., nine yards) and no journalists managed to make the obvious pun.

Sam said...

Very cool! I think we use these too now with the possible exception of ---> the whole enchilada! I can't imagine what an enchilada is. Is it some type of food?

KIM said...

Yep -- Mexican food :)