Please settle an argument...

[Tropicalsunshine]

I often use the word several to mean more than two. Eg I just said we have several free weekends in July.
DH says that severel is based on seven and suggests at least 5 or more.
Please tell me how do you use several? I'm ashamed of how many times we've discussed this.

You’re right. It’s nothing to do with seven.

It's also got nothing to do with two. That's a couple.

Same as you. 3+

The etymology is from Latin meaning 'separate' and has never come from any root having anything to do with the number seven. It's always meant more than two but no more than a few (not very many).

Several is more than a few but less than multiple.

I always tell my kids at school to think of it as more than 3 and less than 10. It is about 7, but that's just a coincidence.

Haven't you checked a dictionary? 'more than two but not many'

He is wrong.

I use several to mean 3 - 5.

I would use several to mean 3+ things but probably no more than 10 things.

Hahaha he's wrong I'm the same as you

Yay!
Thanks guys. He actually said...,"I might have to admit I'm wrong"
The etymology answer was particularly persuasive.

He’s wrong. You win

Few is 3-5
Several is 5-9
Shit loads is over 10

Several is 3 to 5.

If someone said several but meant seven I would think English isn't their first language tbh.

Now you're making us laugh!

I'm sure it's relative . There aren't that many weekends in July anyway. In this case , I would take it to mean more than half.

I think this too.

You are right, your DH has made that up!

I agree with you but wouldn’t say I had several free weekends in a month because if they were all free the most would be 5 (and then you would say you were free all the weekends). Assuming you mean some aren’t, I’d say we had some or a few free weekends.

I've always thought of several as about 4.

I think of "a few" to mean about 3-5 and "several" to mean a bit more than that, so 6-10.

I would never use "several" or "a few" to describe the number of free weekends I had in a month for reasons others have given. I'd either say I had a couple of free weekends, or that most were free.

I've always considered "a few" to be 3-6, and "several" to be 7+

Yes and a couple is two.

so it’s

couole,
few
several
shit load.

so in the ops context of weekends, I’d have said a few as it’s 3 or so.