Everyone knows that the six is a person who performs small assignments of a higher authority in exchange for his favor. The term is used in the criminal lexicon, but recently it has also been common among people who are not related to crime. There is a verb "gear", meaning "to run errands", "to please", "to serve".
There are so-called woolen - prisoners who pretend to be the main and authoritative, but in fact commit the so-called lawlessness of their own free will or at the request of the administration. In a sense, they are also sixes, because any help and cooperation with the prison administration gives the prisoner a chance for parole. As a rule, they do not receive the coveted parole, since the administration of the colony itself does not respect the sixes because of their unsustainable moral principles.
Who is the Six?
Why are subordinates called sixes? The term comes from the lowest card suit, six. One common strategy in the Fool card game is to throw away all of your sixes at the start of the game. Thus, we see somean allusion to the so-called cannon fodder - no one appreciates the sixes, they are only forced to do what they are ordered to, climb on the rampage at the first request. Despite the fact that the term was originally used among thieves, bandits and other criminal personalities, today ordinary people also actively use it.
Alternative version of the origin of the word
Who is the "six"? According to another version, this term does not take its roots from the criminal world. Sixes in the 19th century were called young guys serving in taverns. They received such a nickname again because of the very card that serves kings and aces. Some say that the sixes were paid 6 kopecks a day, hence the nickname. Taverns and taverns were a frequent gathering place for the local underworld, thieves and cheaters, who adopted this term, spreading it in their circles. Who is the six in 19th century Russia? Servant, errand boy, servant.
Who is called the six?
To date, there is no clear distinction in this matter. So who is the six? With the meaning of this word in the criminal world, everything is more or less clear. Among people who are not related to the criminal world, the six is any person who, out of fear and servility, fulfills every whim of his boss, authoritative comrade, etc.
Very often the six do this in order to get some privileges from their benefactor. Usually their onlyprivilege is a warm place next to authority itself. The authority itself does not appreciate its sixes and uses them to achieve some of its goals. Six can be an office clerk, waiting for a promotion and licking the heels of his boss, and a teenager from a dysfunctional family, trying to cling to street authority. Sometimes informers are mistakenly called that, but they have no obligatory connection with the sixes. Not every snitch is a six, and not every six is a snitch.
