Chrysti The Wordsmith: The Whole - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. The whole nine yards the whole shootin match the whole ball of wax. English speakers are lavishly equipped with colorful slang low cue sions referring to everything all the total amount the whole she bang the whole Miguel a whole kit and caboodle the whole enchilada. We all know how and when to use these cliches that's easy. But what happens when we try to explain their origins during the next few wordsmith additions. We'll rummage through the histories of these expressions and make an attempt to uncover their sources. Now notice I said attempt since the etymologies of these familiar phrases are surprisingly fugitive. No one is certain what kind of wax is implied in the whole ball of wax for example. Ditto for the cub oodle in kit and caboodle and Decepticon the whole nine yards presents a confusing array of possibilities to begin this series will examine the most evasive in this class of cliches. The whole enchilada

though the origin of this recently coined expression may already be lost to history. An internet search of its contemporary usage reveals that it's been enormously popular in recent decades. Join me next time for the whole enchilada and it's place on the landscape of American Slang. I'm Christie the wordsmith. This series is produced in the studios of TFM on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman. Good day for the horse. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry Web dot com.