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The term the whole 9 yards came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the
Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber
machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet before being loaded into
the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target,it got the
"whole 9 yards".
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated
that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
The name "Jeep" came from the abbreviation used in the army for the
General Purpose vehicle, GP.
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month
after a couple?s wedding, the bride?s father would supply his son-in-law
with all of the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because
their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month
or what we know today as the "honeymoon".
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England,
when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind
their own pints and quarts and settle down. Its where we get the phrase
"Mind your P's and Q's".
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the
rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they
used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase
inspired by this.