Comments on: Sixes and sevens

By: MrHistoricallyInaccurate

MrHistoricallyInaccurate — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:05:54 +0000

Craps, Cribbage and Golf are all outdated by Chaucers reference. The East meets West may have a little validity but the middle east was still in turmoil after the crusades during Chaucers time. I’d say the cinque and cice would hold the most validity as English was the second language of England during this period. The primary (official) language was bastardised French as spoken by the nobility.

By: Jon Camilleri

Jon Camilleri — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:56:04 +0000

In my opinion it more likely to be from the game of Cribbage … if you are all 6′s and 7′s in cribbage you are truly in a dilemma as to which card to throw into the crib … and at a huge disadvantage for the game … unless you are the dealer (as seen in the attache dsolutions to what to do if you are BOTH all sixes and sevens.

By: Ivan Finkle

Ivan Finkle — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:41:50 +0000

I believe “all sixes and sevens” derives from golf. Most golf holes have as par four, some five. When a golfer is all sixes and sevens he’s not making any pars, but bogies (1 over par) and double bogies (2 over par). In other words he’s having a lousy day.

By: Mike Byrne

Mike Byrne — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:49:56 +0000

Surely more likely to be from the early days of east meets west. The figure for 6 used in arabic cultures and the one we use for 7 are such that in the early days when the cultures mixed and one of those figures was written alone it must have been difficult to decide which it was meant to be. Just my theory.

By: David Bovee

David Bovee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:04:37 +0000

Grand Guy Grand and his aunts, in Terry Southern’s The Magic Christian, maintain that the expression refers to craps: you come out on your point (in this case six) and then throw a seven, in which case you lose. “What gives the expression bite,” says Grand, “is that six is usually an easy point to make….”

This reference from memory–I may have it wrong.