شش

The number six anchors several Iranian expressions. شش‌دانگ (shesh-dâng) literally means "six parts out of six," a real-estate term for full undivided ownership of a property, descended from old land-measurement units where ownership was tracked in sixths. Iranians use it metaphorically for full attention: شش‌دانگ حواسم بود (shesh-dâng havâsam bud), "my full attention was on it." The شش‌گوشه (shesh-gushe), "six-cornered" or hexagon, appears in Persian tile work and in the term شش‌گوشه برای حسین (shesh-gushe barâye Hoseyn), referring to the hexagonal shrine in Karbala. In music, the دستگاه شش‌گاه (dastgâh-e shesh-gâh) is one of the seven main modes of classical Persian music. The shape and number recur in carpets, architectural ornament, and in the homophone with شش (lung), which gives the idiom شش‌هاش حال نداره (shesh-hâsh hâl nadâre), "his lungs are weak." The phrase شش جهت (shesh jahat), "six directions," appears in classical cosmology to describe the full extent of physical space (front, back, right, left, up, down). And in everyday Iranian speech, شش ماهه شدم خبر ندارم (shesh mâhe shodam khabar nadâram), "it's been six months and I have no news," is the half-joking complaint a parent makes to an adult child who hasn't called in too long.