six: [OE] The Indo-European ancestor of six was *seks, which also produced Latin sex (source of English sextant, sextuplet, etc), Greek héx, Welsh chwech, Russian shest’, etc. The word’s Germanic relatives include German sechs, Dutch zes, and Swedish and Danish sex. => sextant
six (n.)
Old English siex, six, sex, from Proto-Germanic *sekhs (cognates: Old Saxon and Danish seks, Old Norse, Swedish, and Old Frisian sex, Middle Dutch sesse, Dutch zes, Old High German sehs, German sechs, Gothic saihs), from PIE *s(w)eks (cognates: Sanskrit sas, Avestan kshvash, Persian shash, Greek hex, Latin sex, Old Church Slavonic sesti, Polish sześć, Russian shesti, Lithuanian szeszi, Old Irish se, Welsh chwech).
Six-shooter, usually a revolver with six chambers, is first attested 1844; six-pack of beverage containers is from 1952, of abdominal muscles by 1995. Six of one and half-a-dozen of the other "little difference" is recorded from 1833. Six-figure in reference to hundreds of thousands (of dollars, etc.) is from 1840. Six feet under "dead" is from 1942.
Phrase at sixes and sevens originally was "hazarding all one's chances," first in Chaucer, perhaps from dicing (the original form was on six and seven); it could be a corruption of on cinque and sice, using the French names (which were common in Middle English) for the highest numbers on the dice. Meaning "at odds, in disagreement or confusion" is from 1785, perhaps via a notion of "left unsettled."
双语例句
1. They identified six plants as having potential for development into pharmaceutical drugs.
他们验明6种植物有可能提炼出药物麻醉剂。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The election was held six months ahead of schedule.
选举提前了6个月举行。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Their countries had been at war for nearly six weeks.
他们的国家陷入战争状态已将近6个星期了。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Any property which does not sell within six weeks is overpriced.
任何房产如果6周内还卖不出去就说明定价过高。
来自柯林斯例句
5. She bought Ann two bras and six pairs of knickers.