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Several is the gap


Took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that "several" didn't mean "about seven"


There was a contestant on a recent season of Survivor who, iirc, gave up on a challenge because the host said it would take "several hours" to finish. Later the contestant explained that "last I checked several means seven", and about an hour into the challenge he realized he wouldn't last for seven hours, so he quit.. (When the host said "several hours" I believe he meant about 4 hours)

This of course led to much ridicule and many memes in the fandom, and Survivor even titled the seventh episode of that season "Episode Several". In post-season interviews the contestant is still adamant that several means seven.


As a kid I always thought "few" was ~5 and "several" was ~7.


In most contexts that wouldn't be a terrible translation.




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