I was at a cafe during my vacation in Argentina, listening to several kids (I call them kids, but they were in their mid to late twenties,) arguing loudly in English. My excuse for eavesdropping was that they were the only one’s speaking in English and my Spanish is terrible. But I don’t really need an excuse to eavesdrop now do I?

Girl: “several and plural are synonyms. Several means anything 2 or more.”

Boy: “No! Two is a couple, three to five is a few, and six to eight is several. Several means about seven”

Girl: “That’s ridiculous. Seven and several have nothing to do with each other.”

Boy: “Of course they do. They have the same etymological root.”

This is the first pic on Google when you search “several.” I wonder why.

I though their conversation was quite funny. It was more flirtatious banter than a true argument, but you could see that it was getting a bit heated and both sides wanted to win. They started polling other people in the cafe and asking their opinion, even though many of the other patron didn’t speak English.

I never thought of it myself. I agreed a couple was two. A few I usually think of being less than several. But to the boy’s discredit, “seven” and “several” don’t have the same root. Several shares the same root as “to sever.” Several means a smaller portion severed off a larger portion. Not that it matters…

The kids could see me sneaking glances at them from across the aisle. They knew I was listening, and I knew they were going to ask me my opinion next. I decided to help the kids out to help their intellectual pursuit and speak before they could get their question out to me.

“I heard your argument. Here’s my opinion: Why do you care?”

That shut them up. I kind of like imparting Old Lady Wisdom. Bring on the Golden Years.