- six (n.)
- Old English siex, from Proto-Germanic *sekhs (cf. Old Saxon seks, Old Norse and Old Frisian sex, Middle Dutch sesse, Dutch zes, Old High German sehs, German sechs, Gothic saihs), from PIE *seks (cf. Sanskrit sas, Avestan kshvash, Greek hex, Latin sex, Old Church Slavonic sesti, Lithuanian sesi, Old Irish se, Welsh chwech).
Six-shooter is first attested 1844; six-pack of beverage is from 1952. Six of one and half-a-dozen of the other "little difference" is recorded from 1836. Phrase at sixes and sevens "hazarding all ones chances," is first in Chaucer, perhaps from dicing (the original form was on six and seven) and 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.