Sevens

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group or set consisting of seven items or units
2. A numeral representation of the quantity that is one more than six and one less than eight
3. The term used in card games to refer to the card that bears the number seven

Etymology: "Sevens" is simply the plural of "seven," so its story is the story of the numeral, and the numeral is one of the oldest and most widely shared words in the Indo-European family. "Seven" descends from a reconstructed ancestor whose descendants include Latin "septem," Ancient Greek "heptá," Sanskrit "saptá," Russian "semʹ," and German "sieben," which is why the numbers look so alike across these languages. The plural form adds a practical twist. The numeral itself was used for counting, but "sevens" in the sense of cards showing seven pips is a shorthand for the card faces, so the plural is what makes the word refer to a set of such cards rather than to the number. The ending "-s" marks many items, and the card sense simply treats each seven-faced card as one of a group.