David Abrahams writes:
Aleksey Gurtovoy <agurtovoy@meta-comm.com> writes:
David Abrahams writes:
IMO, in context, "the whole enchilada" is sufficiently obvious, but if non-native speakers contradict me I'll happily remove it.
FWIW, I wasn't familiar with the expression and had to look it up.
Had to because it was unclear, or just because you were curious?
I guessed that it means something like "the whole thing", so mostly the latter.
Also, and also FWIW, according to Cambridge International Dictionary of English (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=90418&dict=CALD), it's an Americanism :).
Yes, believe it or not there's such a thing as "proper American English."
I didn't mean to imply that there isn't, I was just noting that the phrase targets a very specific audience: native speakers of American English. For instance, "... if you're looking for the whole thing" would still be colloquial but more "international", if you will. Anyway, it's your call, like I said, all the above is FWIW :) -- Aleksey Gurtovoy MetaCommunications Engineering