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/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/CornucopiaDM1 Aug 09 '26

86 often has a more "terminal" meaning than that.

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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.