“You love words?” asked the duckling. “Why?”
“Why?” repeated the wombats.
“Because words are …
“ESSENTIAL!”
“MAGNIFICENT!”
“TRANSFORMATIVE!”
And with those wonderful words zinging through the air, the wombats waddled off.
from The Wombats Go Wild for Words
written by Beth Ferry
illustrated by Lori Nichols
Random House Children’s Books, 2025
Since I first heard someone talking about 6 7, not actually saying it to me or anyone else, I wondered how we can say something, anything, really, without it carrying meaning? Isn’t the purpose of communication to relate ideas or explain a concept or entertain each other and ourselves with words and expressed thoughts?
According to Merriam-Webster.com, communication is “the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behavior to express or exchange information or to express thoughts, feelings, etc., to another person.”
So the answer is yes. We communicate to make meaning.
But maybe not.
Trying to get an explanation of 6 7 from a gen alpha kid (born between about 2010 and 2020) is the ultimate definition of brain rot (Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year). The kids insist 6 7 has no meaning. If I ask, “If it doesn’t mean anything, why waste time using it?” or for that matter, “Why waste energy on using the accompanying hand motions?” the best clarification I can get is an eye-roll. No kidding.
I hope you’re laughing. I am!
And that’s the purpose of the phrase. It unites and identifies a generation. It’s their inside joke.
We all have our own slang. Some words even enter the language and become legitimate.
The 1950s gave us cool cats, think James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, then move forward to the 60s update, far out. Or a 1970s opposite of cool and far out, bummer. The 1980s gave us radical and bodacious and their opposites, gnarly and grody.
Dope and da bomb were “cool” in the 90s and why did kids in the 2000s say something was sick if they meant it was cool?
Legit was being used for cool in the 2010s and talking about a person’s coolness as their rizz (short for charisma and the Oxford Word of the Year, 2023) in the 2020s. Taylor Swift and Tom Hanks. They’re cool.
So we are, back in the present.
It’s probably cool to interject 6 7 into a conversation to get a laugh, to divert attention from the current conversation, or to focus attention on yourself for a moment. That is if you’re say around 8 to 13-ish (years old)! It’s a “thing” for tweenagers.
My older daughter teaches middle school. Her days are full of 6 7s. My granddaughters (13 and 15) don’t use it, well the 13 year old does, but with an accompanying eye-roll.
My youngest grandson is 12. So my younger daughter gets her ears full of it, too.
Theories abound trying to explain the origin of the phrase. American rapper Skrilla used 6 7 in a song called “Doot Doot (6 7).” It’s a nonsense phrase that some people have connected to 67th street in Philadelphia, Skrilla’s hometown. LaMelo Ball, the professional basketball player is 6’7” tall. The phrase started showing up in video edits of other players.
Can anything happen in the US without it becoming an advertising tool? On November 6th and 7th, Pizza Hut sold chicken wings for 67 cents each and McDonald’s (in the United Arab Emirates) gave away free chicken nuggets from 6 to 7 pm. And Domino’s sold a one-topping pizza for $6.70 with the promo code 6 7 (take-outs only).
Have you ever heard the phrase “being at sixes and sevens”and wondered what it means? It is old and comes from Geoffrey Chaucer, specifically in a line from his long poem, Troilus and Cressida published in about 1374.
Lat nat this wrechched wo thyn herte gnawe, But manly set the world on sexe and seuene. Or in modern English: Let not this wretched woe gnaw at your heart. But manly set the world on six and seven.
I don’t know about you, but the translation is not very helpful.
One explanation comes from a pair of dice. The French numbers cinque and sice morphed into six and seven. At least as far as WordOriginStories is concerned. I’m not sure about morphing five and six into six and seven, but the article’s author continues. The highest numbers on the dice were five and six, but mistranslated and mispronounced until the phrase came to mean betting on the highest numbers was risky and careless. By 1785, risky and careless became “at odds, in confusion.” So maybe 6 7 has never meant anything!
Next time you’re with a group of kids of the right age, throw in a 6 7 during a conversation. In response you’ll either get an eye-roll or a guffaw. Try turning your palms toward the ceiling and alternating them up and down as you say it.
I’ll try it this Thanksgiving. I’m lucky enough to have almost my whole family (immediate) together. I’ll probably get eye-rolls, but I’m looking for guffaws.
I’m reading The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks (A Borzoi Book/Alfred A. Knopf, 2022). Set in modern Florida, the narrator claims to have found a collection of reel-to-reel tapes made by a property speculator in the 1970s. The bulk of the story is the transcription of these 50-year-old tapes. As we learn more and more about the person who made them, we’re asked to think about truth and secrets, the difference between a crime and a sin, and one society’s definition of Utopia. Recommended.
Be curious! (and have some fun, especially with language and kids)
FB: When the news, or the weather, or watching the sun start to set at 5:00, is getting you down, try counting to 67.
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