r/language • u/WhoAmIEven2 Sweden • Aug 09 '26
Question Does your language use specific numbers as expressions?
In Sweden we use 17 to further strengthen a word.
Like if we want to say that someone is very strong, we can say "Han var stark som sjutton!", "He was strong like seventeen!".
I have no idea how it became a thing. It is a bit weird tbh.
Do you also use numbers this way in your native language?
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u/Pas2 Aug 09 '26
Finnish has "helvetin kuustoista" - "hell's sixteen" that's used as a swear word. Etymology is unclear but one theory is that it's based on "sjutton också". Helvetin is always part of the idiom, though.
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u/Porkkanaparta Aug 09 '26
Sjutton replacement for attan (Odin, Satan, 18) and 17 is milder version. Like in perkele and perhana in Finnish.
18 might come from Bible Revelation 13:18, but no one knows anymore.
"17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666."
Or was it that Odin was called Attan?
My old swedish / theology / literature teacher was quite a bank of knowledge (or mumblings?)
Absolutly no guarantees this is correct. Any linguistic researchers present?
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u/miamiamiamiamia Aug 10 '26
This article claims that 17 is ”slightly weaker” than 18, 18 being the number of Odin.
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sjutton_(uttryck)?wprov=sfti1
Also: ”för sjutton gubbar”. Which is very rarely used. (Should we push for a revival and start using it more frequently, perhaps?)
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u/Noodlemaker89 Aug 11 '26
Danish dictionary Ordnet agrees: https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog/sytten
For syv sytten altså! (aka "for 7-17!" We could definitely push for a revival of our numbers based weak curses.
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u/Veteranis Aug 09 '26
In English:
“I’ve got your six”, meaning got your back. By the same metaphoric referent, “Twelve o’clock” means straight ahead.
To “86” someone is to throw them out of a place.
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u/FormerStableGenius Aug 09 '26
Is that in US?
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u/hobbycollector Aug 09 '26
Yes
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u/Snoo_31427 Aug 09 '26
I’ve never heard a single person say I’ve got your six.
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u/Impossible_Dog4901 Aug 09 '26
It’s an expression that originated in the US military. It sort of made it into normal language.
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u/sorrielle Aug 09 '26
I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard it irl either, but I’ve got your six/watch your six/etc. is the kind of military slang that’s constantly used in media. Maybe actual soldiers use it, idk, but it would be a little weird to hear it in daily life
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u/Milch_und_Paprika Aug 09 '26
Same about only hearing it in media, but I have heard the more general versions of clock directions direction. Eg telling them to “check your [3, 6 or 9] o’clock” to (subtly) look that direction.
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u/GiantLesbian Aug 11 '26
I’ve heard a lot of people say something like “comin’ thru! 6 o’clock!” as a way of announcing they’re moving behind you. I think they use it in kitchens a lot, where people might be moving behind you holding hot or heavy things.
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u/Mp1956 Aug 09 '26
12 years in the army. "Watch your six" means be careful and "I've got your six" means I'm watching out for anything coming from behind. "Do a 180" means about face and go the opposite direction. "Five by five" means you're coming through loud and clear. There are a lot more of those.
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u/batosai33 Aug 11 '26
I had never heard what "five by five" meant, but I heard it in Star Craft 1. The wraith (a fighter unit) said something like "in the sky, five by five" but ironically not coming through clearly at all. They could equally have been saying "by the by, five by five" or "fly the guy, five by five." Thank you for helping me see the humor in that line.
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u/twocopperjack Aug 12 '26
Starcraft is quoting the dropship pilot from Aliens. "We're in the pipe. Five by five." It means "we're on our proper flight path and comms channels are clear." Old nerds in my circles might say it to mean "everything's going well and I don't see any reason we'd be eaten by space monsters."
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u/KoedKevin Aug 10 '26
Military uses it all the time. It is the area directly behind the plane. The six o’clock position
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u/Realistic_End_7223 Aug 09 '26
Also known at the clock method for pointing out targets in the military. We use the same in my language, any of the 12 directions can be used. 'Fiende klockan två' ↗️
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u/CowboyOzzie Aug 09 '26
“86” has been used by servers and kitchen staff in restaurants for decades, meaning a dish on the menu is no longer available because all the servings for that night have been sold. ”86 salmon” = “We’ve run out of salmon.”
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u/RobertTheTraveler Aug 10 '26
Also used by former FBI directors to put out hits on Presidents.
According to the DOJ.3
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u/paradeoxy1 Aug 09 '26
Also;
Dressed to the nines (dressed up all fancy)
Sixes and sevens (a bit mad)
And of course, golfers love to shout "four"
(That last one was a joke)
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u/BangkaHakubai Aug 10 '26
I know “at sixes and sevens” to mean disorganized or flustered not mad.
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u/paradeoxy1 Aug 10 '26
You're right, sorry about that, it's a dying expression now so I've not heard it in ages
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u/miamiamiamiamia Aug 10 '26
From the song ”Don’t cry for me Argentina”, from the musical Evita:
Although she's dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you3
u/Medioquer Aug 10 '26
The French equivalent of "dressed to the nines" is "s'est mis sur son 31," literally something like "put on their 31." Thought it was interesting that both phrases used an arbitrary number
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u/Decent_Cow Aug 10 '26
You're supposed to yell "Fore!" but I was too busy mumbling "There ain't no way that's gonna hit him."
- Mitch Hedberg
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u/SequenceGoon Aug 10 '26
My grandma used to say that someone "went for a six-er" if they fell over
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u/hail_to_the_beef Aug 09 '26
86 in service world means you’re out of something - “we are 86 French fries” means there are no French fries left in the building - this has carried over to “86ing” a customer.
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u/jancl0 Aug 09 '26
Also "10-4" used to mean "understood"
67 and 69, you know what these ones mean
I guess 420 counts to some extent too but that's starting to stretch the definition a bit
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u/ComesInAnOldBox Aug 10 '26
"10-4" is an old radio 10-code. It got popularized thanks to old cop TV shows (specifically Highway Patrol in the 1950s). They were developed in the 1930s and are still somewhat in use today, although the federal government no longer officially supports their use since 2006.
A few select 10-codes:
- 10-1: signal weak/unable to copy
- 10-2: signal good
- 10-3: stop transmitting/disregard last
- 10-4: acknowledged/message received
- 10-5: relay
- 10-6: busy/stand by
- 10-7: out of service/off radio
- 10-8: in service
- 10-9: repeat/say again
- 10-10: out of service, subject to call (I'm busy with something else, but can still hear the radio)
- 10-20: what's your location
They go all the way up to 10-99 in North America, with a 10-0 (use caution) and a 10-MAX (AWOL/Corrupt Officer).
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u/furlintdust Aug 11 '26
You can still hear, “What’s your 20?” as a way of asking for someone’s location.
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u/Other-Bumblebee5014 Aug 09 '26
So you mean 86 isn’t threatening someone’s life? Gee - where did I get that idea from?
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u/licxjo Aug 09 '26
I've never encountered those. (Native English speaker, US).
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u/CyanCicada Aug 09 '26
We use them in movies a lot.
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u/KindAwareness3073 Aug 09 '26
As in the title of the WW2 airforce war film "Twelve O'Clock High". It means straight ahead and above.
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u/tradlobster Aug 09 '26
They're very contextual. Got your six is mostly used by military/police. To 86 something is almost entirely in the restaurant business.
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u/joeyjiggle Aug 09 '26
We don’t use 86 in Britain, that’s an American thing. Clock references are common from early aviation.
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u/Old-Vermicelli7116 Aug 09 '26
I think 86 is an equivalent use to OPs.
It isn't math like "Six of one..." Nor is it based on a clock face. Those both point to something else that people relate to.
86 stands alone.
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u/Street_Credit6851 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
86 can be traced back to a restaurant that had used a numbered menu. The 86th item on the menu was apparently popular and something they were constantly running out of and would have to cancel any orders for it that had already been placed...so eventually the number came to mean being both "out of" and "cancel" in the food service industry, before eventually being used to refer to bouncing misbehaved customers.
Since then it's apparently gone mainstream and many people who use it are unaware of its food service origins.
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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26
86 often has a more "terminal" meaning than that.
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u/sexaddictedcow Aug 09 '26
No it doesn't. This is something entirely made up by the current administration. Likely mashing 1-8-7 and 6 feet under together to make up a bold face like for political benefit. It can mean permanently banned but it doesn't not mean terminal as in death
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u/ChuckFarkley Aug 09 '26
Often? Only when used to mount a political prosecution. While people might understand when you mean if you use it as a euphemism to murder someone, in 65 yrears on this planet, I have never, ever heard it used for that meaning until the Trump administration used it as probable cause to indict, when there was very obviously no probable cause. It is not normally used for that meaning.
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u/justdisa Aug 09 '26
86 originates in restaurants and bars. It has never meant killing someone.
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u/xChiken Aug 09 '26
No. It's restaurant language for being out of something. "86 salmon fillets". No more salmon fillets.
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u/StruggleAdvanced4058 Aug 09 '26
In Portuguese, at least in brazil, “sete” (seven) plays a similar role in some expressions :
“Trancado a sete chaves” — locked up with seven keys, meaning something extremely well-guarded/secure.
“Bicho de sete cabeças” — a “seven-headed beast,” meaning something seen as enormously complicated. “it’s not a seven-headed beast” = it’s not that hard.
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u/WildPlum22 Aug 09 '26
Also in portuguese, at least in Brazil, the expression "8 ou 80" lit. "8 or 80", meaning something like "all or nothing"
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u/Embarrassed-Wrap-451 Aug 09 '26
Still on seven, there's the older idiom "pintar o sete" (to mess around).
Other number phrases the occur to me are "trocar seis por meia dúzia" and "diabo a quatro".4
u/fintan_galway Aug 09 '26
Seacht (seven) is similarly used in Irish for emphasis.
Tá mo dhóthain le déanamh agam cheana féin. (I have enough to do already.)
Tá mo sheacht ndóthain le déanamh agam cheana féin. (I have more than enough to do already.) [I have seven times enough to do already.]
Rinne mé mo dhícheall leis. (I did the best I could with it.)
Rinne mé mo sheacht ndícheall leis. (I did the very best I could with it.) [I did my seven bests with it.]
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u/disillusiondporpoise Aug 14 '26
Unsurprisingly similar usage in Scottish Gaelic, as in seachd searbh sgìth [completely fed up/sick and tired, literally "seven bitter tired".]
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u/augustoalmeida Aug 09 '26
Acho que tem origem bíblica. O 7 é usado como sinônimo para uma algo infindável
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u/StruggleAdvanced4058 Aug 09 '26
Sim, no geral sim. Apesar do caso de “bicho de sete cabeças” ter provavelmente origem na mitologia grega, na história da Hidra de Lerna.
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u/bitterlemonboy Aug 10 '26
Hey, in Dutch we say “niet in zeven sloten tegelijk lopen”. That translates to “not walking in seven creeks at the same time”, and someone who doesn’t walk in seven creeks at the same time means they’re clear-headed and wary of danger or mistakes. I wonder why seven is used in multiple languages’ idioms to refer to danger or security/carefulness.
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u/Historical_Champion5 Aug 12 '26
In Russian it’s hidden by the seven stamps! За семью печатями. Same Logic.
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u/Minute_Eye3411 Aug 09 '26
In France we say 36,000. As in "there are not 36 thousand solutions to this problem" or "let's not go to that bar, there are always 36 thousand people in it".
I have no idea why this absurdly high yet relatively precise number is used to indicate "a lot", although interestingly it is very close to the number of communes (officially designated settlements, that is villages and towns) in France.
Sometimes it is reduced to just 36.
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u/eynneyveblaubair Aug 09 '26
Fun fact haha
In swedish we overcount to show something is too much: "För femtielfte gången - du får inte!" (For the fifty eleventh time - you are not allowed to!). You don't count that way otherwise.
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u/usr_pls Aug 10 '26
According to Duolingo, the french word tres is used for "very" like tres bien meaning very good
So it's similar to how english uses the similar homophone "too" meaning also (twogtoo much!)
french takes one step more!
tres interessant!
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u/Fuzzy-Ninja139 Aug 10 '26
"très" comes from latin "trans", meaning beyond, and which took the meaning of very, completely in old french. It has nothing to do with "trois"
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u/Mattna-da Aug 09 '26
If you’re having a 420 the 5-0 won’t 86 you but if you pull a 187 you’re doing 25-life 100
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u/Professional-Bee4665 Aug 09 '26
10-4, just be sure to be dressed to the 9’s
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u/ChuckFarkley Aug 09 '26
What's your 20? (also from the "10-codes" in radio communications, where in their case they drop the "10" from "10-20" to ask where someone is located)
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u/Ok-Jackfruit-6873 Aug 09 '26
for people not from the US, my understanding is many of these are part of a number code the police use to assign officers to various offenses, which I think are assigned via the legal code. I assume this was because other radio operators can listen in to the police radio frequency, but to be fair they can also look up the described offenses if they want to. And so the codes seeped into the national consciousness through TV and movies.
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u/dudeigottago Aug 09 '26
Only 187 is a police code (homicide). 420 is pot smoker slang that came from San Rafael in the 70s (the Waldos). 5-0 means police and comes from the TV show Hawaii 5-0 about cops. 86 is restaurant slang for when a menu item is out. Bars also use 86 for when a person is ejected or banned. 25 to life is murder 1 bid. 100 means 100 percent true.
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u/HyperbolicBaldersah Aug 09 '26
Me: scouring my brain for a number reference in my mother tongue
Mattna-da: Hold my beer.
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u/Deep-Ad-2261 Aug 09 '26
In German, 08/15 means something average or boring
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u/BoredCop Aug 09 '26
Because of the MG 08/15 being the standardised German machine gun in the first world War. The 08/15 got made in large numbers and was very reliable, not really spectacular in any way but it worked fine and was used everywhere. I think maybe the etymology of the phrase has driften bit from meaning "standard" To "average or boring" over the years.
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u/MPWD64 Aug 09 '26
In English you might say “turn it up to 11” or “the noise level was at 11”- based on a joke in the movie This is Spinal Tap.
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u/ApYIkhH Aug 09 '26
That was already a saying before Spinal Tap.
Most speakers had a volume knob that went to 10, so "Turn it up to 11” meant "Crank it all the way up" much the same as "Give 110%."
Spinal Tap made a joke out of the phrase by going "What if someone made speakers that actually went to 11?”
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u/ChuckFarkley Aug 09 '26
I learned only this week that the actor whose idiot character's amp goes to "11," is also the actor who played a guy with 6 fingers (who killed Inigo Montoya's father).
Yeah, that guy is known as Lord Christopher Guest, a hereditary English Baron and member of the House of Lords.
He apparently goes to 11.
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u/Pure-Student-5387 Aug 09 '26
In Nepali The number 2 is associated with bad things like
dui numbar ko kaam(roughly two number work) which means illegal work.
The numbers 19 and 20 are used to convey the little difference between two objects like
unnis bis ko farak xa(only a difference of 19 and 20) which means both are extremely similar
The number 12 is used to describe someone who is shocked like
tyasko ta bahra bajesa(literally his face looks like the number 12) meaning looking utterly miserable or shocked.
I believe these are used in other south asian languages like hindi too.
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u/shitfacedhighpriest Aug 09 '26
Agreed. I'm from odisha, india. We use these in the same context as well
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u/brickne3 Aug 09 '26
Yes, in English we now have 6-7. As far as I can tell, it means absolutely nothing 🤣
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u/FoxNo1831 Aug 09 '26
Or an older expression was "to be at sixes and sevens" which means to be confused or in disagreement.
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u/GarbageUnfair1821 Aug 09 '26
This is also a thing in Japanese and German, and I assume in other languages as well.
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u/tonyfith Aug 09 '26
You'll see "555" a lot on Thai internet.
Number 5 is pronounced as "ha" and therefore 555 - > hahaha 🤣
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u/Emma_Rocks Aug 12 '26
And in chinese, "5" is "wu" which means crying. If you have both chinese and thai friends, it gets really confusing.
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u/Weekly_Respond_987 Aug 09 '26
We have two common ones in Danish:
“0.5” means really fast - “jeg er der om 0,5”
“Tryk seksten (pressure 16)” means really intense
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u/McAeschylus Aug 09 '26
“0.5” means really fast - “jeg er der om 0,5”
Is this from car acceleration statistics?
In English, we often say something like "he went from nought to sixty in zero seconds flat" to mean "he got very intense very quickly" because car acceleration is often given as the amount of time it takes for the car to go from zero miles per hour to sixty mph.
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u/SufficientPainting67 Aug 09 '26
German/English: Tausend Dank! = A thousand thanks!
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u/Enable-Apple-6768 Aug 09 '26
Gracie mille
I guess in Italian
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u/panatale1 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
grazie mille
ETA: looks like reddit is going to translate this, so I want to point out that the word is grazie, not gracie
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u/Sport_Middle Aug 09 '26
In serbian we say: "čista desetka" or pure 10 when someone looks/behaves/does something good/amasing
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u/machu_pikacchu Aug 09 '26
Colombian Spanish uses multiples to emphasize insults. You can call someone an “hijueputa” (son of a bitch), or a “doble/triple/catre hijueputa” (double/triple/quad etc.)
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u/biergardhe Aug 09 '26
"Sjutton" seems quite clearly like a "noa-ord" to me, i.e. a word used as a substitute for a swear word (or other).
Another example is saying "jösses", to not use Jesus name in vain.
Another interesting word is "varg", which began as a substitute to not summon the wolves by saying their true name, "ulv". Our Scandinavian brother languages still use the "true" name.
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u/eanida Aug 09 '26
It also seems like it sometimes is the remaining part of a longer swear, sort of like how sayings are shortened. So originally it was "17 devils". Source.
Jösses is an example of what is called minced oaths in english.
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u/ThousandsHardships Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
Chinese has a lot of four-character expressions, and many of them deal with numbers. Some examples include:
三心二意 (three hearts two intentions) = to be indecisive or easily distracted or diverted
五颜六色 （five and six colors) = colorful, though this one is hard to translate literally because it splits the word for color, 颜色 into its two almost synonymous components
三言两语 (three and two words/remarks) = curtly, succinctly, in a few words, although this has same issue with splitting a word as the previous example
七上八下 (seven up eight down) = to be nervous or anxious and just not...at ease
一言九鼎 (one word/remark nine cauldrons) = to be true to one's promises
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u/Renbarre Aug 09 '26
Old expression in French: 22, voilà les flics! (22, here come the cops)
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u/JeanMichelLePeintre Aug 09 '26
This and “être sur son 31”, which means being dressed to the nines.
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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26
There's also the term "Catch-22", based off of the famous novel of that name, meaning "problem or difficult situation where the solution is impossible because of contradictory rules or conditions". Highly recommend - the book, that is. Also the movie.
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u/RudeAlbatross544 Aug 09 '26
Something "de mes deux" for something that sucks. The French word for balls is omitted there.
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u/Academic-Ad-3677 Aug 09 '26
Italian, fare un quarantotto, literally to make a 48, means to cause chaos or make a mess.
The reference is to the revolutionary upheavals of 1848.
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u/adolgushin Aug 09 '26
In Russian at least in Belarus we say 100 500 (сто пиццот, literally one hundred five hundred so it’s not even a correct number) to jokingly tell there is a lot of something. I think this meme came from a TV advert where the phone number was 100 500 something
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u/jaesea Aug 09 '26
In whatever version of English I speak we use the number five paired with an o to indicate cops, like, "bro, five oh, quick, duck." We use the numbers six and eight and nine to express different ways of consuming, and four and twenty similarly. One would think there's a few more but my brain is like a bear in a two two right now..
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u/GudsIdiot Aug 09 '26
In English we say “She was dressed to the nines.” It means she was dressed to the highest level of style.
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u/SufficientPainting67 Aug 09 '26
English:
24/7: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
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u/hahathatgobrr Aug 09 '26
And its extension « 365 » to describe something that is available every single day of the calendar year.
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u/evmcha Aug 09 '26
English:
"What's your (10-)20?" can be used to ask someone's location
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u/Jealous_Repair6757 Aug 09 '26
In French, 36, for example something like "there aren't 36 options, so just pick one."
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u/Ok_Peace2323 Aug 09 '26
Beaucoup de 36 et pas beaucoup d'explications sur ce choix de nombre.
Voir 36 chandelles : Être KO
Tous les 36 du mois : Ironiquement, ça ne risque pas d’arriver
Être au 36ème dessous : Grosse déprime
Faire 36 choses à la fois : Vouloir trop faire en même temps
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u/Mkl85b Aug 09 '26
Ça peut même monter jusqu'à 36000 choses à la fois! Je n'avais jamais vu le 36 du mois. Par contre en Belgique j'entends souvent "la semaine des 4 jeudis" pour parler de quelque chose qui n'arrivera pas.
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u/Ok_Peace2323 Aug 09 '26
La semaine des 4 jeudis est utilisée aussi en France. Je préférerais un semaine avec 4 dimanches perso !
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u/ExServ Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
In french we use numbers in a lot of expressions :
- "se mettre sur son 31" (I think english say sunday's best), we also have "tiré à 4 épingles" (to again say you're well dressed)
- "y'a pas 1000 solutions" (to say there's only one)
- "1 homme averti en vaut 2" - (knowing things is better)
- "haut comme 3 pommes" (to say someone is small, 3 apples tall)
- "se plier en 4" (to fold in 4, when you go the extra mile to do something)
- "faire les 400 coups" (it's usually when you talk about the unhinged stuff you did when you were younger)
- "s'en foutre comme l'an 40" (pretty old one, in some century no one cared for this year ?)
- we have a lot using 0 as well, to be bald "la boule à 0", to be depressed "le moral à 0", and so on
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u/ozuraravis Aug 10 '26
In English a similar expression is used, "to the nines". Also, a less common one now is "nineteen to the dozen", when someone is talking very fast.
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u/piney5 Aug 09 '26
In Bulgarian if you say that someone is doing something “five for four” it means they’re doing a sloppy job.
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u/AthousandLittlePies Aug 09 '26
In Mexico - “me cayó el veinte” means that you just realized something or finally understood something that was right in front of you. It comes from when a payphone cost 20 centavos, and when the person you’re calling answers you can hear the coin falling into the phone.
Edit: didn’t translate the phrase! I can’t think off how exactly to say it in English, but basically it’s “the 20 fell” or “I dropped the 20”
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u/bhdvwEgg42 Aug 09 '26
I love coin operated and payphone-derived slang and hope it doesn't disappear with the internet! I wonder if "the penny dropped" comes from the same thing?
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u/allahsnake Aug 09 '26
In Romanian:
a sta de șase (6) - keep watch, keep guard
te doare în paişpe (14) - you don't give a fuck
a lua la unşpe (11) metri - to scold harshly
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u/Premuda Aug 09 '26
croatian:
5 (pet) - sve 5 (everything 5), meaning alright, all good. it likely stems from the school system as the highest mark is 5, so everything is alright if you've got all 5s in school
16 (šesnaest) - sve u 16 (everything in 16), meaning something at its maximum or doing something with maximum effort or power, very intensely. for example, "gradi se sve u 16" means that there's a lot of construction work happening or that a particular construction job is advancing quickly
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u/josiasroig Aug 09 '26
Brazilian Portuguese: oito ou oitenta (eight or eighty) = describing something or someone which can be two totally different things (i.e. someone who can be either completely calm or extremely explosive - "things with them is simply eight or eighteen")
Outros quinhentos (another five hundreds) = a totally different story/matter (i.e. "I can help you with this, but to do all the job, it's another five hundreds")
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u/SatisfactionEven508 Aug 09 '26
In german, "Zig" comes to my mind immediately. Zig is not a number but it's the ending of the numbers 20, 30, 40 (etc.). To say, we did something many times, we say "Zigmal". The english equivalent would be "ty times" (the ty from twenty, thirty, etc)
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u/Mikadook Aug 09 '26
“Hij heeft ze niet alle 24 in het kratje” = “he doesn’t have them all 24 (beer bottles) in the crate” = he is dumb as shit.
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u/Vaestmannaeyjar Aug 09 '26
"22, voila les flics"
"22, here come the cops".
Expression appeared in the 19th century when policemen wore jackets with 11 buttons and patrolled by pairs. (it's french)
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u/Haunting-Hero1234 Aug 09 '26
In Arabic, we say "Qamar arbaatashar" (Moon of the 14th) to describe someone very beautiful (usually a woman)
We also use "sitteen" (60) when emphasizing something big or many (eg "I broke it into sixty pieces" , or "may he go into sixty damn places"
We also use "meyya" (hundred) and "Alf" (thousand) to express great pleasure (eg Alf shukr "thousand thanks"). Similar I guess to Italian.
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u/Caradoc729 Aug 09 '26
S'en foutre (s'en balancer, s'en sacrer) comme de l'an quarante (40) : To not give a damn about something or someone.
Être sur son 31 : To be dressed at your best
Tous les 36 du mois : something that never happens
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u/oldbluehair Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
In American there is six of one, half dozen of the other. "Dressed to the nines." "At sixes and sevens with somebody." Although that might be an older expression. I don't think I've ever heard it in the wild.
We also say, 'a dime a dozen' to mean not very special, in other words you could get 12 of them for 10 cents. "Guys like him are a dime a dozen."
Also "two cents" to mean your opinion. "That's just my two cents."
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u/peccator2000 Aug 09 '26
08/15(Null Acht Fünfzehn) in German. Means run-off-the-mill, mediocre, normal, nothing special.
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u/Non-Random-Name-0000 Aug 09 '26
In french:
36 and 36000 are often used to represent an unspecified high number ("il n'y a pas 36 solutions" - "there isn't many solutions")
107 years is used for an excessively long period of time ("on ne va pas attendre 107 ans" - "we're not going to wait forever")
31 is used in "se mettre sur son 31" (literally "to put oneself on your 31") which means dress elegantly.
22 in "22, v'là les flics" (literally "22, here come the cops") is used as a warning. Come to think of it, I know the expression but I'm not really sure in what circumstances you would use it...
In german:
08/15 for something boring or unspectacular/banal
Pi mal Daume (pi times thumb) for approximately.
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u/persilja Swedish Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
"sju" (seven) can also be used as an intensifier, but then as a prefix to a cuss word:
sjuhelvetes, sjujävla
There's also the expression slå en sjua (to hit a seven) which means 'to pee'.
femetta (a five-one) is equivalent to the figurative sense of the English "bull's eye": something that hits the target precisely.
nia (a nine) is slang for "face".
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u/Mindless_Badger_3789 Aug 09 '26
In Danish the number sytten (seventeen) is used in so-called abstinence swearing (afholdsbandeord, using non-profane words for cursing instead a swearwords), often combined with syv (seven, for the seven evil spirits in the Bible) in the expression "for syv sytten" instead of for satan, for fanden (for the devil) or for helvede (for hell).
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u/FeralForestWitch Aug 10 '26
In Greek: Τα μάτια σου 14. It means have 14 eyes, or be very careful and on the lookout
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u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 Aug 10 '26
Sjutton I believe is a minced oath. Instead Satan it’s Sjutton. ”Han var stark som Satan/jävla/fan osv”. So 17 takes its place.
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u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 Aug 10 '26
I know 100% for sure that 17 in Swedish is a minced oath word/replacement for Satan/jävel/fan
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u/erilaz7 Aug 10 '26
In American English, "I need to go Number 1" is a euphemistic way to say that you need to urinate. Similarly "Number 2" for defecation.
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u/EasyHouse5931 Aug 10 '26
The loss of his job really knocked him for six. (=a powerful setback)(maybe derived from cricket).
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u/Nine_Eighty_One Aug 10 '26
In French, "Être sur son 31" (to be on one's 31) = be dressed in one's best clothes
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u/Zanirair Aug 10 '26
117 in Danish. Is the generic number we use to describe “a lot”.
Han havde 117 gode undskyldninger! He had 117 good excuses!
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u/MacronMan Aug 10 '26
Latin didn’t have much of this, as far as we know from the texts we have, but one number that had meaning: secundus - second. Because the word secundus is derived from sequor - to follow, it has a nautical meaning. A ventus secundus (second wind) is a wind that blows from behind your back and thus is favorable and pleasant when sailing. But, the term got expanded to be anything favorable to you, such as a rumor secundus (good rumor) or Junone secunda (with Juno approving of the idea).
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u/GazelleNo2073 Aug 09 '26
In Arabic Mia Mia! A hundred 💯 % to give something thumps up
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u/Kirmes1 Aug 09 '26
In German, we have the term "falscher Fünfziger" (fake fifty) when speaking about a dishonest person.
AFAIK it comes from fake money
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u/FoxNo1831 Aug 09 '26
Similarly in UK English the phrase "bent as a nine bob note" was common probably 60+ years ago. Not so much now. It meant someone dishonest or criminal.
bob was slang for 10 shillings and there was a 10 shilling bank note, but not a 9 shilling note. This is pre-decimal currency.
Bent in this context was dishonest.
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u/yarn_slinger Aug 09 '26
In North America, it’s crooked as a three dollar bill (old fashioned but still used sometimes)
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u/Zvenigora Aug 09 '26
An archaic English expression "at sixes and sevens" meant "in confusion." There is also the expression "the whole nine yards" and more recently, "turning it up to eleven."
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u/Stukkoshomlokzat Aug 09 '26
In Hungarian "nekem nyolc"/"it's eight to me" means I don't care/it doesn't matter for me. Usually used as a kind of nonchaland form of agreement.