Expressions with Number Variation

[Dave Wilton]

There's "Eskimos have ## words for snow." Lots of variability in that one.

There's also "seventh heaven" and "third heaven," although these derive from
different theological concepts rather than linguistic variability, the seven
from Judaism and Islam, and the three from Paul's vision of three heavens.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 5:00 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Expressions with Number Variation

In connection with the discovery that the original formulation of "the whole
nine yards" may well have been "the whole six yards," Dave Wilton has
pointed out that "there are many examples of phrases with numbers that went
through multiple versions with different numerical values before settling on
the one that became canonical (e.g., 'cloud nine')."  Can Dave or anyone
else give me other examples of this kind of number variation?

Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org