Sixty-nine is sott''e 'ncoppa, under and over: upside down, topsy-turvy, the wrong way round. It is one of the very few squares on the Neapolitan board that reads its own digits rather than naming a thing.
The phrase is ordinary dialect — a room turned sott''e 'ncoppa is a room ransacked — and the double meaning was never lost on anybody.
- 69
- Sott''e 'ncoppa
- upside down
- Row 61–70 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
The shape, and here that is not a guess. Six and nine are the same figure inverted, which is exactly what the phrase says. Sicily reaches the same conclusion by a different route: its 69 is comu ti metti metti, however you arrange yourself, with the compilers noting the number is symmetrical and the allusion sexual.
Other things filed on 69
In Neapolitan life
The two boards agreeing on a reading, in different words, and both admitting what the reading is, makes 69 the best-documented square on the grid for method rather than content. It is the proof that at least some of these figures were arrived at by looking at the numerals.
69 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Yes, and both the Neapolitan and the Sicilian boards say so in their own way. It is one of the clearest shape readings in the tradition.
On the method rather than the words. Naples says under-and-over, Trapani says however you arrange yourself, and both are reading the digits.