Fifty-Eleven, Forty-Eleven, and Other Hyperbolic Numbers

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Robin, and I am calling from Yuma, Arizona.

Hi, Robin. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Robin.

Thank you so much for having me.

So I’m calling because there’s this term, it’s called, it’s 5011.

Well, the way you say it is 5011, but it’s 5011.

And so the way that you use it is to describe an enumerable, a perceived innumerable number or something that is a lot or something that you just don’t know how much. So how many jelly beans are in a jar? You know, like I tell my kids, I told you 15 times to clean your room. So that’s what the limb is. Yes. Now I’m from Virginia and I thought it was like the Southern Virginia, North Carolina thing. And then I heard other people say it, but then I also heard someone from like Chicago and Cleveland say it. And I thought that it was like a black southern thing. But then when I heard someone from Chicago and Cleveland say it, then I was like, wait, it’s a little bit more widespread.

And I just kind of chucked it up to the Great Migration. Like, maybe they just heard it, you know, Grandma say it. And so I’m noticing that it’s, like, catching up a little bit more steam and more people are saying it, like younger kids are saying it. So I just want to know, like, where did it come from?

Oh, boy.

What I grew up was hearing a different version. My Aunt Mazo from North Carolina used to say, I told you, Martha Ann, 40-11 times to get your britches on. So this, Robin, this is just music to my ears to hear your version. And, you know, both 50-11 and, or as you say, 50-11 and 40-11 have been around for close to 100 years. They have a long history.

And often when you hear 50-11 now, it’s in R&B or hip hop. There’s that Usher song, Burn, that goes, you’ve been, you know, it’s got that line in there. You’ve been gone for too long. It’s been 50-11 days, umpteen hours.

Yeah.

There’s a fancy term for these kinds of words. You want to know what it is?

What is it?

Indefinite hyperbolic numerals.

Okay. That makes sense. That actually makes sense. Because as you suggested, it’s a large number, not exactly a particular amount, but you know it’s a really big number. So the fancy term for these words is indefinite hyperbolic numerals.

What’s really interesting is that 4011, I think, was the earlier one, and 5011 is a variant of that. But 4011 was originally in the Northeast, and it seems to have migrated down some into the South because that’s where I hear it more often. And so I’m very interested to hear that you heard 5011 up in Chicago.

There’s some fascinating work that’s been done on these kinds of numbers by a linguistic anthropologist named Stephen Crissimalis, who’s at Wayne State University in Detroit. And he’s done a lot of work on words like 50 lem, 40 lem, and other indefinite hyperbolic numerals like umpteen and umpty.

Yeah.

The most common one of all of these is zillion. And he’s done some fascinating research that shows that zillion was almost exclusively used in the African-American community before World War II. There was about three quarters of the instances of the word zillion in print are in African-American newspapers and magazines. And it was used by a lot of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. And it was only later that this term zillion migrated into more general usage.

How cool is that?

Wow. That is awesome.

So I’m just 50-11 kinds of happy that you called with this question, Robin. I’ve got to say, Robin, you sound like you’ve made Martha’s day.

Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Our pleasure. You call us again sometime, all right?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

You take care of yourself now, right? Be well.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Robin. Bye-bye.

If there’s another language that you speak where they use a specific number to mean an indeterminate amount, let us know, 877-929-9673.

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