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. Chaucer wrote, “But manly sette the world on six and sevene; and if thow deye a martyr, go to hevene!” To paraphrase Chaucer, ‘set the world on six or seven’ meant to risk everything and the allusion here was most probably to the game of dice, where risking everything on a throw of the dice was common practice. Nevertheless, the question remains how did this original meaning evolve into the current meaning of disorder or confusion. Most sources, including the OED, maintain that it is due to the association with bad luck and resulting disorder of losing one’s money, possessions, etc through gambling. This is quite a leap, etymologically speaking, and that is why other sources like Brewer’s set great store by the dispute, during the 14th and 15th centuries, between two of London’s ancient guilds, the Merchant Taylors and the Skinners. This dispute was about precedence in annual parades and was finally settled in 1484 by the then Lord Mayor of London, Sir Robert Billesden, who decreed that the two guilds should alternate in successive years in sixth and seventh positions in the parade. For many years before this, even during Chaucer’s time, the two guilds were constantly jockeying for positions in parades and causing disorder and confusion by being in positions six or seven. Certainly, by Shakespeare’s time, the current meaning of disorder and confusion, rather than the older one of risk, was well established. In Richard II, Act II, Scene II, Shakespeare wrote, “All is uneven, and everything is left at six and seven.” It was only later, during the 17th century that the expression began to appear regularly in its current plural form of sixes and sevens. The first citation of the plural form was in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611) by Randle Cotgrave, who wrote, “Set all on sixes and sevens.” The first appearance of the expression as we now know it, at sixes and sevens, was in a work published by Thomas Hill in 1648. Did the expression originate with Chaucer and its meaning evolve over time as the OED maintains? Alternatively, did the guilds’ dispute coin the meaning we know today? The jury is still out on this one.