Six-seven times measure: memes kill proverbs and sayings
Zoomers are less likely to understand the meaning of proverbs and sayings, replacing them with Internet memes, Russian philologists come to this conclusion. Folk wisdom, anchored in stable expressions, is in danger of disappearing. In response to this process, scientists are developing a special pragmatic dictionary that should explain to young people how and in what situations it is appropriate to use proverbs. Izvestia talked to experts and found out which words and expressions are gradually disappearing from spoken language, what contributes to this process and whether it can be stopped.
Why do we need a pragmatic dictionary?
Proverbs and sayings are becoming less common in everyday speech. Instead, memes come: short, ironic, and instantly readable. Linguists are sounding the alarm — the language is losing a whole cultural layer. And it's not just about the fashion for Internet humor.
— Proverbs are a legacy of the XIX—XX centuries, folk wisdom. They are still relevant in many ways, because they affect the life situations that people have been in, are in, and will continue to be in. But they are gradually leaving, because this is the figurative system of that time," Igor Sharonov, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Russian Language Department at the Russian State University, told Izvestia. — Our generation also read a lot, and there we met proverbs. But the new generation has stopped reading, their vocabulary is getting poorer and their interest in these expressions is disappearing. They don't know how to use them.
That is why the scientist develops a pragmatic dictionary of proverbs. And not academic, but applied, so that it explains not the meaning, but the situation of use.
— Why do we say: "If you drive more quietly, you will continue"? We want to stop someone in a hurry. And if, on the contrary, you need to speed up, we say: "Strike the iron while it's hot." In fact, the proverbs describe the same everyday scenes that today are accompanied by phrases like "well, wait" or "let's hurry up." They just do it figuratively, succinctly and accurately. It's such a beautiful figurative thing — I don't want to use it. But they forget about her," Sharonov explained.
This trend is described in detail by teacher and publicist Tatiana Hartman, who works directly with children on a daily basis. According to her observations, young people do not know the meaning of the expressions "fire, water and copper pipes have passed" or "grated roll", therefore, for greater expressiveness, they use a meme about "candybober", which has not lost popularity for 15 years, and say: "I went through the Afghan war" (this is another Internet meme). The phrase "there is no money, but you are holding on" easily replaces the saying "God was patient and told us to," and "British scientists" displace the "hundred-dollar club."
— I noticed that many children do not know what many phraseological units mean — "to be smart," "barely make ends meet," "grandma said it in two," but they enthusiastically explain in what situations it is appropriate to say "six-seven," — said Hartman "Izvestia".
The Six-Seven popularity phenomenon
The popularity story of this meme deserves special attention. Many people consider the phrase to be a meaningless set of words. However, the expression has become so popular that it has been recognized as the word of the year 2025 by the website. Dictionary.com .
The expression "six-seven" appeared thanks to the American rapper Skrilla. In 2024, he released the song Doot Doot, which had this line: Six-seven, I just jumped right on the highway ("Six-seven, I just jumped out onto the highway.")
Then the phrase went to the people and became a meme. First, American basketball players picked it up, then schoolchildren. And not only in the USA, but also in Russia.
Rapper Skrilla
— I was surprised to see how gradually this linguistic unit absorbed meaning from an incomprehensible wordplay. Now children are asked how things are at school, and they answer: "Six or seven." This means that things are normal, as usual," Igor Sharonov noted.
Maxim Krongauz, Doctor of Philology, Professor at the Russian State University of Economics, says that young people do not always distinguish between the concepts of "sensual" and "sensitive", do not know where to use the word "dozen", do not know the meaning of the word "ambivalent" and do not understand when they say "quarter to five" or "quarter to six." At the same time, the scientist claims that these words will not leave the language as long as those who know them and at least sometimes use them are alive.
Hartmann also notices another symptom of language changes — the departure of French vocabulary. Sideboard, chiffonier, dressing table, secretary, bookcase are replaced by neutral "wardrobe", "table", "bed". The language loses its redundancy and decorativeness, adapting to a more utilitarian lifestyle.
Goodbye, "hello"
Another frequently discussed example is the word "hello". Foreign and Russian media have noticed that buzzers prefer to remain silent when receiving a call. They are waiting for the initiator to start talking. The trend is linked to the spread of spam calls and a new culture of communication.
— The word "hello" does not leave the Russian language, the situations in which it is used disappear. Young people have a more developed concept of personal boundaries, and they take great care of them and are very unhappy when someone violates them. These boundaries are primarily related to communication. In this sense, an older person's call prompts them to say "hello" and thus start a conversation, while for young people it is just an excuse to press a button, but not to start a conversation," explains Krongauz.
A similar position is held by Ekaterina Zorina, head of the Linguistic clinic at St. Petersburg State University. According to her, zoomers can't "make anything obsolete." This requires decades and extensive research. The disappearance of "hello" is an extralinguistic reason: technology is changing the way we communicate, not the language itself. Only historicisms, words associated with changed realities, quickly become obsolete. Everything else is a slow and inertial process.
— Let's say children are reading Pushkin at school and they are greeted: "Winter!... The peasant, triumphant, renews the path on firewood." What is a drow? This is historicism. We just don't have such a sleigh right now. We don't use them. Or archaisms are words that have fallen out of use. For example, "eyes". Now we don't use this word and say "eyes". This replacement takes a very long time. But it's easier to fix new words. In Russia, for example, the dictionary "Akademos" does this," Zorina told Izvestia.
All experts agree on one thing: without a steady habit of reading and without reliance on the book culture, language inevitably loses depth and expressiveness. According to Maxim Krongauz, it's not that people in general have started reading less: the volume of reading is still high. However, the very nature of texts has changed — fiction is increasingly being replaced by messages on social networks and short publications in telegram channels that do not form a complex linguistic picture of the world and do not support the richness of the dictionary.
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