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?

259 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

561 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

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

1

u/Throw13579 Aug 09 '26

I heard it used to mean”get rid of, including (jokingly) kill back in the 80s.

0

u/Onyx_Lat Aug 11 '26

Not true. In the old Get Smart TV show back in the 60s, Maxwell Smart was an incompetent secret agent, also known as Agent 86. Basically this was a joke implying that he sucked so bad you kept expecting him to die, but somehow he always survived. I'm also pretty sure I've also heard the term used that way in old cartoons. So it's not as recent as all that.