Chapter 20: Numerals in Greek and Latin
§129. English Number Names Beyond One Million
Wherever English is spoken, the figure 1,000,000 (106) has the English name of million (< MF milion < OIt. milione, an augmentative derived from L mille (1,000). Etymologically, then, a million is a “big thousand.”
Number words beyond a million are formed from Latin numeral prefixes plus the spurious base -(i)llion (by analogy from million). The nomenclature is confusing, for two reasons:
1. The numerical values differ in American and British usage.
2. The words themselves combine two sets of standard Latin prefixes. (If the usual Latin sequence had been followed, quintillion and sextillion would be quinquillion and sexillion.)
Except for the British milliard, which was adopted from French in 1823, most of these words date from the late 17th century.
| AMERICAN USAGE | BRITISH USAGE | |||
| Number of groups of three 0’s after 1,000 | Powers of a million | |||
| 109 | billion | 2 | milliard | — |
| 1012 | trillion | 3 | billion | 2 |
| 1014 | quadrillion | 4 | ||
| 1018 | quintillion | 5 | trillion (1690) | 3 |
| 1021 | sextillion | 6 | ||
| 1024 | septillion | 7 | quadrillion (1674) | 4 |
