The pips on a die, and later on playing cards, used to be numbered in an approximation to French: ace which is still used in card-playing , deuce , trey both of which have persisted , quatre , cinq ue and sice. According to a popular explanation, to set all on six and seven is an alteration of another phrase, to set all on cinque and sice , which meant to gamble on the highest numbers , and figuratively to behave recklessly. For example, the Scottish chronicler and poet William Stewart floruit wrote, in The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland :.
And greit folie to set on synk and syss. And the English playwright and satirist Ulpian Fulwell ? All that I had is now lost at the dice, My sword, my buckler, and all at sink and cise. The popular explanation is that, in the course of time, the numbers six and seven were substituted for cinque and sice , perhaps because the literal meanings of the original words were forgotten: cinque , pronounced sink , would have been incorrectly anglicised as six , so sice became seven , and the whole phrase gradually assumed its familiar form.
Those who spread this rather far-fetched theory content themselves with merely reproducing, and presenting as a fact, what is only a supposition in the Oxford English Dictionary 1 st edition, But the phrase to set all on six and seven seems to have been completely independent from to set all on cinque and sice. The latter is attested in the early 16 th century, whereas the former is first recorded in the late 14 th century, when the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer circa wrote, in Troilus and Criseyde :.
Kith now somwhat thi corage and thi myght; Have mercy on thiself for any awe. Lat nat this wrecched wo thyn herte gnawe, But manly sette the world on six and sevene ; And if thow deye a martyr, go to hevene! Fear not, but have mercy on yourself. Where did the saying Forty Winks come from? Definition: To take a brief nap. The phrase to catch forty winks means to take a short nap. It is not normally used when talking about sleeping through the night.
This idiom first became popular during the 19th century and originated in Britain. What does the idiom in the bag mean? If you say that something is in the bag, you mean that you are certain that you will get it or achieve it. What does the idiom draw a blank mean? Meaning: to fail to get an answer or a result; be unsuccessful. You draw a blank when you attempt to recall something and fail, or when you try to come up with a solution to a problem and can't think of one.
What does the whole 9 yards mean? Has both feet on the ground meaning? In a sensible, realistic, or practical manner. For example, You can count on Tom not to get cheated in that deal; he has both feet on the ground, or Jean is a dreamer, but her husband is a man with his feet on the ground. The first appearance of 'at sixes and sevens' was in , in Leti's Il cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa , translated or, as the subtitle of the work helpfully notes, 'faithfully Englished' by G.
There are two other stories that contend for the honour of being the source of this phrase or one of the versions of it at least. One is the biblical text - Job King James Version :. Other than being old and including the numbers six and seven, this doesn't seem to make a very strong claim.
Chaucer would though have been familiar with earlier versions of this Bible story in Latin. The other is an appealing tale. The precedence of the companies was set in , but these two companies disputed their positions and a compromise was agreed by which they exchange sixth and seventh place each year, at Easter.
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