six of one, half dozen of another
Who taught: Carol
A few days ago, Carol sent me an email asking “Do you know what six of one, half dozen of another means?” I was in the mode of thinking… thinking …. about what it would mean. Hmm.. I thought it might be something like getting a few here and a few there to make something complete. So maybe getting help from other people to finish something? But I was totally wrong. She explained to me. “Yay! I found something you do not know! Six = half of a dozen. So it means that the two options of a choice are about the same.”
She also gave me a good example of the usage.
If someone says: “We could get lunch from silk elephant, which would be quick but expensive. Or we could go to the bagel factory where the food is cheaper but they take a long time. What do you think, Carol?” And I could say “Eh, I don’t care which, to me it’s six of one, half dozen of another.”
By the way, silk elephant and bagel factory are the restaurants around my company and they are all good.
Now the question is why it is six and dozen. What if I use “five of one, half ten of another!” Is it wrong?
PS: Thanks! Carol. I have a long way to go. So please enlighten me more with good or useful (??) expressions! I wish I could use these kind of ones at the right time without hesitation or thinking.
Hmm, dozen is a special unit – it sounds weird to say ‘half ten’, but a half a dozen is a common count. I think it comes from bakeries, where they usually count cookies and buns in dozens. However, there’s another common term that has to do with ‘dozen’, which is ‘baker’s dozen’ – it means 13. That’s because, traditionally, bakers will give you 13 when you ask for 12 because some of the 12 might be smaller or broken, so 13 makes it definitely fair.
Another term to do with ‘dozen’ is ‘gross’ – it means a dozen dozens, or 144. You can buy bouncy balls or tiny umbrellas to go in your drinks in units of a gross: I would like one gross of drink umbrellas, please!
I actually thought it is originated from the package of eggs. Like if I go to the WholeFoods, one tray of eggs are usually dozen, aren’t they? Gross is a good one to learn. But, that also makes me think that gross also means something disgusting, right?
Hmm, also recipes. A recipe for cookies will say how many dozen cookies it makes.
Eggs are also measured in dozens.
Gross does also mean disgusting, but when you use it to describe a unit of measurement, it doesn’t carry any of that connotation.
You could play with the two meanings to create a pun!
The unit “dozen” is used so frequently when describing quantities of simple commodities like food items and drink umbrellas because in the olden days, most of the Anglo-Saxon tribes exhibited the common genetic deformity of having six fingers and toes on each hand. Thus, they were more accustomed to counting up to 12 items, and that tradition survives today.
Bakers often ended up having even more fingers, with a seventh finger on one of their hands, because mothers of bakers spent so much time around high levels of airborne yeast spores, which at the time could have a toxic effect causing birth abnormalities.
Wow, that is really really interesting. Really? they did have that kind of mutations? How come they are all gone and we all have five fingers now?
What? You’re kidding. Do you have a citation for that?
I call bullshit. I’ve lived here for 27 years and have never heard “six of one, half dozen of another.”
I call bullshit on you never hearing that before
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22six+of+one%22+half+dozen&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
79,100 google results say you’re wrong
Also “couple a few”
Bring me a couple a few cookies.
Many of these phrases are more common among the older generation. I believe that ubiquity of television and internet is causing a lot of these types of phrases to disappear. Also regional differences are disappearing because children are exposed to a “common” dialect more often.