Talk:whole shooting match

Any idea where this expression comes from?

Tea room discussion[edit]

Note: the below discussion was moved from the Wiktionary:Tea room.

Shouldn't this be under "whole shooting match" without the "the"? -- ALGRIF talk 16:33, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would think so. Despite that search wouldn't take a user who typed the current headword to "whole shooting match". Sigh. DCDuring TALK 21:26, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- However, anyone not familiar with the term would search "shooting match" anyway, and so find it no probs. ¿no? -- ALGRIF talk 15:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - Hmmm. whole nine yards redirects to the whole nine yards. But there is also whole shebang (aka "whole chebang") and whole enchilada with redirects going the other way. Pingku 17:24, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The question to ask onesself is whether the article is actually itself part of the idiom. So ask yourself: Do people ever talk of a whole shooting match, a whole nine yards, a whole shebang, or a whole enchilada when using the idiom? Uncle G 11:51, 7 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- Precisely why I asked here. CFI states "Omit an initial article unless it makes a difference in the meaning." I would be interested to know if consensus leads us to keep or omit the "the". The query can extend to some other entries as well, it would seem from the above. -- ALGRIF talk 13:50, 7 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This was in common use when I was an American kid in NYC, but I never heard shooting, always shootin' 2603:8001:D300:A631:0:0:0:10D0 19:38, 16 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]