About: 4-1-1

4-1-1 is a telephone number for local directory assistance in Canada and the United States. Until the early 1980s, 4-1-1 and the related 1-1-3 number were free to call in most states. In the United States, only phone company personnel have ever called the service 'directory assistance'; it is universally known as 'information.' As a result, 4-1-1 is commonly used in Canada and the United States as a slang word for "information". In the 1982 song "Jump to It" by American singer Aretha Franklin, for example, the lyric is "We have a lot of fun, don't we, girl, dishin' outThe dirt on everybody and givin' each other the 411".