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in a confused, badly organized, or difficult situation: We've been at sixes and sevens in the office this week. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Confusion, confusing and feeling confused. addled. all of a doodah idiom. all over the place idiom. alphabet soup. at sea idiom. discombobulation. disordered. disorganization. disorganized.
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The derivation of this phrase is rather difficult to trace, not least because it has changed in both form and meaning over the nine centuries or so that it has been in use. The phrase was originally 'to set on six and seven' and is thought to have derived in the 14th century from the game of dice. The meaning then was 'to carelessly risk one's enti...
'Six and seven' is probably a corruption of 'cinque and six', French for the numerals five and six. Some may feel that this is a step too far, and the theory does set the folk-etymology antennae twitching. The OED supports the idea though, which will be good enough authority for most people.
If things had stayed that way the origin of the phrase would be fairly cut and dried and there would be little more to say. As we know though, it is now given as 'at sixes and sevens', having mutated via 'at six and seven', and the current meaning refers to a state of confusion, disorder or disagreement, not one of risk.
There's no question of these different versions arising independently; the movement from one to another was gradual and they overlap each other in time. The first appearance in print of 'at six and seven' is in 1535 and the last citation of 'on six and seven' in 1601. The first appearance of 'at sixes and sevens' was in 1670, in Leti's Il cardinali...
There are two other stories that contend for the honour of being the source of this phrase (or one of the versions of it at least). One is the biblical text - Job 5:19 (King James Version):
" At sixes and sevens " is an English idiom used to describe a condition of confusion or disarray. Origin and early history. It is not known for certain, but the most likely origin of the phrase is the dice game "hazard", a more complicated version of the modern game of craps. [1]
in a confused, badly organized, or difficult situation: We've been at sixes and sevens in the office this week. SMART Vocabulary: palabras y expresiones relacionadas. Confusion, confusing and feeling confused. addled. all of a doodah idiom. all over the place idiom. alphabet soup. at sea idiom. discombobulation. disordered. disorganization.
5 de sept. de 2016 · The phrase at sixes and sevens means in a state of total confusion or disarray. Based on the language of dicing, the phrase was originally to set (all) on six and seven. It denoted the hazard of one’s whole fortune, or carelessness as to the consequences of one’s actions.
traducir AT SIXES AND SEVENS: confuso, hecho un lío. Más información en el diccionario inglés-español.
Sixes and sevens. To be at sixes and sevens means to be in a state of disorder or confusion and the expression has been around in its singular form ‘six and seven’ since at least the 14th century, although when it first appeared in Chaucer Troilus and Criseyde (c.1385), it meant something quite different from its current meaning.
