Why fad phrases like "6-7" spread so quickly, and then fade away.
There is a long history of fad words gaining intense popularity only to suddenly disappear.In recent months a curious fad has taken hold among many adolescents: saying “6-7.” But what does it mean and why are so many young people saying it? This fad can be traced to the song “Doot Doot ” by the rapper Skrilla which was released in December 2024.
In the song, 6-7 apparently refers to 67th Street in Chicago – an area known forand gun violence, and Skrilla appears to be referring to someone being gunned down on the street. By January, videos began popping up on TikTok and Instagram featuring the phrase as it quickly became a popular internet meme. On Tik Tok, there have been no less than 1.4 million videos. The trend went viral after an influencer posted a video of NBA basketball player LaMelo Ball, in which a voice says that while he moves like someone who is 6-foot-1 or -2 – he’s actually 6 foot 7 – at which point the video cuts to the song where the lyrics say"6-7." So what does it mean? Six-seven is an ambiguous term that means whatever you want it to. As it spread across , it lost its original meaning and became a nonsense phrase being used in an array of lighthearted and humorous contexts. So, if you ask your child what it means, they may have a hard time explaining it.Fad words are nothing new. These are words that gain rapid acceptance for short periods. British writer Charles Mackay wrote about the variety of fad words and phrases that spread throughout London during the 19th century. One was “Quoz.” Mackay wrote: “Every alehouse resounded with Quoz; every street-corner was noisy with it, and every wall for miles around was chalked with it.” Perhaps the biggest fad word at that time was “flare up.” Mackay observed that during its peak, “Nothing was to be heard all over London but ‘flare up!’ It answered all things, settled all disputes, was applied to all persons...and all circumstances, and became suddenly the most comprehensive phrase in the English language.” Occasionally a fad word or phrase will endure for years. During the early 1900s in America the word “go-getter” was seemingly on everyone's lips. “Lounge lizard” was used to describe a womanizer in the 1920s. A “hepcat” was 1930s slang for someone who was hip. A “drugstore cowboy” was a 1940s teen who hung out at the local soda fountain. Fad words typically gain intense popularity for short periods and just as quickly fall out of favor. Phrases from the 1960s such as “Here comes the fuzz” may be unrecognizable to many people under age 60. Fewtoday are likely to know that “fuzz” was a term for the police. In 1947, there was a short-lived fad that involved talking in rhymes. For instance, a girl might ask a guy, ‘What’s cookin’ good lookin’?' To which he may reply, ‘Got no story, Mornin Glory.’ Fad words come and go. It is unlikely that “6-7” will survive much longer; it's destined to be replaced by another novel phrase. Fad words have always been with us, driven by the propensity for humanBartholomew, Robert, and Hassall, Peter .Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Volume 2Noble’s Book of Writing Blunders and How to Avoid Them. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, p. 162.
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