At sixes and sevens
To be "at sixes and sevens" is an English phrase and idiom used to describe a state of confusion or disarray.
Common in the United Kingdom, it likely derives from a complicated dice game called "hazard".[1] It is thought that the expression was originally "to set on cinq and six"[1] (from the French numerals for five and six). These are the riskiest numbers to shoot for (to "set on"), and anyone who tried for them was considered careless or confused.
The similar phrase "to set the world on six and seven", used by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Troilus and Criseyde, dates about the mid 1380's and seems from its context to mean "to hazard the world" or "to risk one's life".[2]
It is possible an ancient dispute between the Merchant Taylors' and Skinners' Livery Companies may have helped to popularise it.[1] The two, which were founded in the same year, argued over sixth place in the order of precedence. After more than a century, in 1484 the then Lord Mayor of London Sir Robert Billesden decided that at the feast of Corpus Christi, the companies would swap between sixth and seventh and feast in each others' halls. Nowadays they alternate in precedence on an annual basis.[1]
Compare this with the Chinese phrase qi shang ba xia (七上八下), with similar meaning, but instead uses the numbers seven and eight.[3]
