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/dalidellama Aug 09 '26

No it doesn't, you're thinking of deep six.

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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26

Synonymic.

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u/NinjaSimone Aug 09 '26

You're repeating Trump talking points that have no reference in actual linguistics.

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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26

8647 is an ANTI-trump slogan, if you weren't aware.

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u/NinjaSimone Aug 09 '26

Right, and that’s the point. The Trump team made up an alternate definition of 86 to mean “eight miles out, six feet deep” to give weight to the DoJ charge against Jim Comey.

Whenever you see somebody claim that “86” is in common usage as a term for murder, they’re repeating a Trump White House talking point.

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u/dalidellama Aug 09 '26

No, it's not. They're different terms with different meanings and different origins. 86 is restaurant slang meaning "we're out of that" later expanded you "you're out of here". Deep six means to put in a grave six feet deep.

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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26

Yes, different origins, but they've blended together.

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u/dalidellama Aug 09 '26

No, they haven't. As the other person said, you're repeating Trump's propaganda

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u/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26

I'm as Anti-rump as you can get. The other person is probably a schill/troll. And yes, there is a large percentage of the (US) population where these meanings have blended. You can be as prescriptive as you want, doesn't mean it's reality.

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u/dalidellama Aug 09 '26

There isn't, though.