War terms that we now use in everyday conversation

[Gawain of Orkeny]

There are things we say today that come from military or war sayings and now most people dont know the original meaning. Things like the saying the whole 9 yards We noe use it to say something is done all the way. It originaly was the amount of coed a musketeer carried. There fore using up the whole 9 yards meant he had done his duty all the way.

Heres another deadline This comes from the civil war. When they caputured prisoners they would draw a line in the dirt and say anyone who crosses it will be shot. Reporters started to use it as a line drawn in time that they had to get their stories in or their would be shot by their editors.

The term square meal came from the square plates used on sailing ships.

[Finn]

not enough room to swing a cat, comes from the cat o 9 tails whip on boats, but i think evreyone knows that already

POSH - Port Out Starboard Home, is from sailing cruises where it gave you the best sun on the cruise so was the most expensive tickets

used to know more but i seem to have forgotten them all

[lancelot]

There is one about calling a child a nipper (or wee nipper if you are from 'oup narth' )

Comes from navy, they had kids who could get into some of the smallest parts of the ship to fix ropes and stuff.

Its something like that anyway....memory is a bit fuzzy....

[Beirut]

Interesting. I heard that the whole nine yards came from the length of the ammo belt or feed or whatever for the .50s in a P-51.

[Lord Ovaat]

How about FRAGGED; RANK & FILE; LOCK, STOCK & BARREL; SNAFU; FUBAR; FLAK; IN THE TRENCHES; F... IT, IT DON'T MEAN NOTHIN'; TAKING THE HIGH GROUND; KEEP. And the list goes on. Recognize most when I see or hear them. Mind now blank, though. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Goofball]

Quote[/b] ]Interesting. I heard that the whole nine yards came from the length of the ammo belt or feed or whatever for the .50s in a P-51.

I don't think so. A nine yard long belt of .50 ammo would last about one minute in a firefight.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Quote[/b] (Goofball @ May 18 2004,16:43)]
Quote[/b] ]Interesting. I heard that the whole nine yards came from the length of the ammo belt or feed or whatever for the .50s in a P-51.

I don't think so. A nine yard long belt of .50 ammo would last about one minute in a firefight.
I think one minute of continuous fire sounds about right. A quick search reveals that The P-51D carried 1880 rounds, in total. That's 376 rounds per gun. Anyone know how fast the .50s fired?

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Quote[/b] ]Interesting. I heard that the whole nine yards came from the length of the ammo belt or feed or whatever for the .50s in a P-51.


I don't think so. A nine yard long belt of .50 ammo would last about one minute in a firefight.

I think one minute of continuous fire sounds about right. A quick search reveals that The P-51D carried 1880 rounds, in total. That's 376 rounds per gun. Anyone know how fast the .50s fired?

A P-51 did have about one minute worth of ammo if you were to hold the trigger down. People seem to think that you could fire for a long time. This is not the case. You only fire in short bursts. I looked it up and the ammo belts were slightly shorter than 27 ft.

[Ja'chyra]

You only fire machine guns in short bursts or you'll burn out the barrel.

[Beirut]

Just a quick bit o'calculation; 376 rounds, at an inch per round (at the base with the link seperation I'm guessing), makes 31 feet. That makes 10.4 yards. If the width of the .50 is and distance in the link separation is smaller, that might cut down a yard or so.

Hmmm... going have to look into this some more.

[Beirut]

Saw a few other things about the whole nine yards.

One refered to the average amount of cement in a cement mixer. Nine cubic yards. To use the whole truck was to use the whole nine yards.

The other refers to old sailing ships and to use the whole nine yards meant to use all the yard arms and sails or something like that.