Says Steve Johnson, "director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group," quoted in "'6 7' is Dictionary’s word of the year. What does it say about society? A phrase coined by the rapper Skrilla has swept social media, delighting teenagers and puzzling their parents" (London Times).
Perfect for our time, don't you think? A vocalization whose meaning is no meaning, shouted out repeatedly because it is shouted out repeatedly, that is, it's meme. But it is not just a meme — we're told — because it's a feeling, the feeling of repeating what has already been repeated.
I remember the old days, when words had meaning:
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From California to Maine, Montana to Texas, teachers have heard little else for months
I find it creepy Brits know so much about US geography…
Skrilla, who at 26 is a generation older than the fans who have made his work famous
…math from the people who brought you the story of 6 7, the ‘word’ of the year. Britain is quite broken innit?
The meaning of '86', however, is still a mystery.
Woof! Woof!
A teacher friend of 30-plus years mentioned this to me recently. She said it was the dumbest "fad" she has endured during her entire career. Kids say it incessantly. It puts me in the mood to watch Idiocracy again to remind myself of our future. We're doomed.
“ In fact the term “six-seven” is devoid of any tangible meaning.”
Then how can it be a word. Words have meaning.
Language expresses meaning, conveys a thought. Babies making wet-fart sounds with their tongues and mouths is not language, though it may lead to that, nor is repeating "six seven," which is regressing from language. Morons self-identifying, I guess.
Is this new word UK jive talk or was it derived from American ebonics? Inquiring minds ... (Not really)
Skrilla, who at 26 is a generation older than the fans who have made his work famous
…that would make Skrilla’s fans six, seven…
Why not “three four?”
Nonsense is an age-old source of humor. It can also be a serious part of the search for meaning.
I thought of “23 skidoo”. But I guess that has meaning, which apparently is “ don’t loiter here by the Flat Iron building just to watch for certain effects of the wind.”
Gadji beri bimba clandridi
Lauli lonni cadori gadjam
A bim beri glassala glandride
E glassala tuffm I zimbra
"Christopher B said...
The meaning of '86', however, is still a mystery."
Haha
"'6 7' is Dictionary’s word of the year. What does it say about society?"
That kids these days aren't having 6 9s.
A B! C D B?
L, M N O P!
O S A R…
It's not an abbreviation for 86 47?
Covfefe!
When I was in high school many, many years ago someone would yell "radio" and everyone would laugh. No idea what it meant or where it came from. Some things don't change.
Took the wife to get some goods at TJ Maxx Home yesterday and when our turn to pay came it was register nine. On the way to the car I told her when the taped voice said "Next guest at Register Number 9" I had the urge to say, "Number 9... number 9... number 9..."
But very few will "get it" because it really depended on people listening to the whole Beatles album. At least we still have the Tommy Twotone hit for our common numerology.
Rolling Stone reported yesterday that with Kendrick Lamar's "Luther" falling out of the Hot 100, there is no rap song in the Top 40 for the first time in 35 years.
"...A teacher friend of 30-plus years mentioned this to me recently. She said it was the dumbest "fad" she has endured during her entire career. ..."
That's why you don't trust anyone over 30. It's a fad because it's dumb - that's the entire point of it.
The wonders of the trump regency never cease
Irregardless. A word whose meaning is no meaning, repeated because it’s been repeated. Seems we’ve come full circle.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The video looks like 'typing in tongues.'
Mary Beth said...
"It's not an abbreviation for 86 47?"
That was my thought, too. Saying something without saying it. Wasn't there a song in Scotland or in the British Isles about "Somebody," referring to a deposed king without naming him?
Want there already a post about this, possibly linking it to the old "at sixes and sevens"? The "balancing gesture" with the hands might support such an origin. Which would make this rapper unusually well versed in literature of the early 20th century or thereabouts.
My natal family had a lot of family slang that was completely nonsensical, and my children have nicknames for everyone in the family that bear no or almost no resemblance to their actual names; this doesn't bug me.
YouTube languagejones has a 6 7 video. He says 6 7 is "a great example of how slang originates in the US."
Mah Nà Mah Nà!
Mary Beth, you are pretty sharp. Or abstract. Putting that together is pretty impressive because, it just might be what it sounds like.
Sixes and sevens
Needles and pins-uh
If avoiding offence is the comunicado common denominator (if you will) the ginormous volume found in the socials suggests meaninglessness is King.
… It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that 6 7
heh, I think I started a meme.
Listen to languagejones (linked by Lem Vibe Bandit above). It's got nothing to do with 8647, for sure, as its usage predates Comey's walk on the beach. It seems to have been pulled out from a rap song popular about a year ago and likely plays off the police 10 code of '67' for a dead body though it's likely hardly anybody using it now actually knows that.
YouTube languagejones has a 6 7 video. He says 6 7 is "a great example of how slang originates in the US.
Wow. He covers quite a bit of relevant ground for this blog and the prefects who patronize these posts…
JES mentions that in school "radio" was a joke without a known meaning (probably an obscure meaning known to a few). I can recall a few from my school days (some based on very local and cheap TV commercials for a law firm... I don't want to repeat one lawyer's name that still makes me chuckle). The original meaning didn't matter.
The internet has allowed youth to have such jokes that aren't restricted by geography.
In craps, the 6 is a good number to play the come line the 7 is the number for the don't come line.
Another sexual euphemism: sex and heaven with BFFs (babies and fetuses a feature).
I am not a number, I am a free man!
Butbutbut I thought the bird was the word
When I was in the dorms at Berkeley, there was a period when the word, loudly groaned out windows into the study-time darkness, was "Ooonnnaa!"
A passing fad. For which I'm sure the young lady RA named Oona was (eventually) grateful.
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The purpose of slang, like some other jargons, is to distinguish between the in-group and the out-group.
Like the term "sixes and sevens" ?
Speech act theory. Phatic (not vatic) utterances relate to the contact between the speakers, not to objects in the world.
"Phatic communication (or phatic communion) is the nonreferential use of language to share feelings or establish a mood of sociability."
The answer to the ultimate question is 42.
Doesnt everyone know this
“…the original purpose of "Jabberwocky" was to satirise both pretentious verse and ignorant literary critics. It was designed as verse showing how not to write verse, but eventually became the subject of pedestrian translation or explanation and incorporated into classroom learning.”
But a jabberwocky is a terrifying creature
“…When Alice has finished reading the poem she gives her impressions:
"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate."
It seems to have been pulled out from a rap song popular about a year ago and likely plays off the police 10 code of '67' for a dead body though it's likely hardly anybody using it now actually knows that.
I was using it (saying "six seven" ad nauseum this morning to annoy the kids while they were getting ready for school (1st, 3rd, 5th grades), and my 5th grader immediately mentioned the police code fact. This is all the way out in a random public school on Oahu, so I think knowledge of the dead body thing is likely fairly wide spread in the tweenager group.
"no attempts to shovel the glimpse, into the ditch of what each one means"
What is striking about carroll was he was a mathematician not a linguist
The word of the year will be forgotten by the end of the year.
What do you mean by "meaning"?
"Nonsense is an age-old source of humor. It can also be a serious part of the search for meaning."
People say things.
"No soap, radio."
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