Chapter 20: Numerals in Greek and Latin
§124. A Table of Greek and Latin Number Words
| LATIN | GREEK | |||||
| Cardinal 1, 2, 3 |
Ordinal 1st, 2nd, 3rd |
Other1 | Cardinal | Ordinal | Other | |
| 1/2 | demi-2 | semi- | hemi- | |||
| 1 | un(i)- | prim- | singul- | hen- | prot(o)- | mon(o)- |
| 1-1/2 | sesqui- | |||||
| 2 | duo | secund- | bi-, bin- | dy- | deuter(o)- | di- |
| 3 | tri- | terti- | ter-, tern- | tri- | trit(o)- | tri- |
| 4 | quadr(i)- quadr(u)- |
quart- | quarter(n)- | tetr(a)- | ||
| 5 | quinqu(e)- | quint- | quin- | pent(a)- | ||
| 6 | sex- | sext- | sen- | hex(a)- | ||
| 7 | septem- | septim- | septen- | hept(a)- | ||
| 8 | octo- | octav- | octon- | oct(o)-, octa- |
||
| 9 | novem- | non- | noven- | enne(a)- | ||
| 10 | decem- DECI-3 |
decim- | den- | dec(a)- | ||
| 100 | cent(i)- | centesim- | centen- | hecaton: HECT(O)-3 | ||
| 1000 | mill(i)- | millesim- | millen- | chili(o): KILO-3 | ||
NOTES:
1 The “other” Latin numeral forms include adverbs (“twice,” ”thrice,” etc.) and distributives (“one each,” “two each,” etc.). Note these additional sequences:
primarius, secundarius, tertiarius, quartilis, . . . decimalis
singularis, binarius, ternarius, quaternarius, quinarius, . . . centenarius, millenarius
simplex, duplex, triplex, quadruplex, quintuplex (“twofold,” “threefold,” etc., < plicare)
2 The Latin word for “half” was dimidium, which became demi- through French. The regular combining prefix in Latin was semi- (not an independent word). In musical notation, a 64th note is a hemidemisemiquaver—the shorter the note, the longer the word.
3 The forms DECI-, HECT(O)- and KILO- are metric prefixes, adopted from French. In the metric system (SI = Système International), units of measure are divided by Latin prefixes, and multiplied by Greek. See §128.
