Indefinite and fictitious numbers

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Indefinite and fictitious numbers are words, phrases and quantities used to describe an indefinite size, used for comic effect, for exaggeration, as placeholder names, or when precision is unnecessary or undesirable. Other descriptions of this concept include: "non-numerical vague quantifier"[1] and "indefinite hyperbolic numerals".[2]

Umpteen

Umpteen, umteen or umpty[3] is an unspecified but large number, used in a humorous fashion or to imply that it is not worth the effort to pin down the actual figure. Despite the -teen ending, which would seem to indicate that it lies between 12 and 20, umpteen can be much larger.

The oldest reference to "umpty" — in a June 17, 1848 issue of the Louisville Morning Courier — indicates that at that time it was slang for empty.[4] This is confirmed by a humorous short story in the North Carolina Hillsborough Recorder of June 30, 1852.[5]

By 1905, "umpty", in the expression "umpty-seven", had come to imply a multiple of ten.[6][7] Umpty came from a verbalization of a dash in Morse code.[6]

"Umpteen", adding the ending -teen, as in "thirteen", is first attested in 1884,[8][9][3][10] and has become by far the most common form.[11]

In Norwegian, ørten is used in a similar way, playing on the numbers from tretten (13) to nitten (19), but often signifying a much larger number.[12]

Similarly, though with a larger base, Portuguese has milhentos, which is derived from the words mil(har) (1000) and the suffix -entos, present in words like trezentos (300) or quinhentos (500), roughly meaning "hundred".[13]

Spanish uses Script error: No such module "Lang".[14] in Spain and Script error: No such module "Lang".[15] in El Salvador and Mexico referring to a high number in a colloquial way. Script error: No such module "Lang". means "hundreds".

Zillion

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Hatnote list' not found. Words with the suffix -illion (e.g., zillion,[16] gazillion,[17] bazillion,[18] jillion,[19] bajillion,[20] squillion,[21] and others) are often used as informal names for unspecified large numbers by analogy to names of large numbers such as million (106), billion (109) and trillion (1012). In Estonian, the compound word mustmiljon ("black million") is used to mean an unfathomably large number. In Hungarian, csilliárd is used[citation needed] in the same "indefinitely large number" sense as "zillion" in English, and is thought to be a humorous portmanteau of the words csillag ("star", referring to the vast number of stars) and milliárd ("billion", cf. long scale).

These words are intended to denote a number that is large enough to be unfathomable and are typically used as hyperbole or for comic effect. They have no precise value or order. They form ordinals and fractions with the usual suffix -th, e.g. "I asked her for the jillionth time", or are used with the suffix "-aire" to describe a wealthy person.

Sagan

Script error: No such module "Distinguish". A sagan or sagan unit is a facetious name for a very large number inspired by Carl Sagan's association with the phrase "billions and billions".[22]

Specific values used as indefinite

In context, a specific numeric value may be used to mean an unspecific quantity. Following are examples.

Some words that have a precise numerical definition can be used indefinitely. These include couple (2),[23] dozen (12), score (20), and myriad (10,000).

When a quantity word is prefixed with an indefinite article then it is sometimes intended or interpreted to be indefinite. For example, "one million" is clearly definite, but "a million" could be used to mean either a definite (she has a million followers now) or an indefinite value (she signed what felt like a million papers).

The title The Book of One Thousand and One Nights implies a large number of nights.[24] Many book titles use this convention as well, such as 1,001 Uses for ....

In Basque, Script error: No such module "Lang"., "5", also means "a lot".[25] Similarly, Script error: No such module "Lang"., "11", also means "a lot".[26]

In Chinese, Template:Zh, 108,000 li, means a great distance.

In Danish, hundrede og sytten ("a hundred and seventeen") can mean any arbitrary number.[27]

In French, 36 and 36,000 are occasionally used as a synonym for "very many".

In Hebrew and other Middle Eastern traditions, the number 40 is used to express a large but unspecific number,[28][24] as in the Hebrew Bible's "forty days and forty nights", Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.[29][30] This usage is sometimes found in English as well (for example, "forty winks").[31][32]

In Hungarian there are several expressions meaning "very many". A traditional expression is mint égen a csillag ("as many as the stars" in the sky). Sometimes specific numbers (e.g., 36,000 or 60,000) are used like in Danish or in French. Kismillió ("little million") is somewhat old, but a few decades ago it was still in use. From the end of the 20th century csillió began to spread. Csillió is a new word: it may be the result of combining the words csillag (star),[33] and millió (million).[34] Its enhanced version is csilliárd combining csillag and milliárd (billion).[35]

In Irish, 100,000 (céad míle) is used, as in the phrase céad míle fáilte, "a hundred thousand welcomes" or Gabriel Rosenstock's poetic phrase Template:Langx ("my hundred thousand loves").[36]

In Japanese, Script error: No such module "Lang"., 8000, is used: Script error: No such module "Lang". (lit. 8,000 herbs) means a variety of herbs and Script error: No such module "Lang". (lit. 8,000 generations) means eternity.

In Latin, Template:Langx (600) was used to mean a very large number, perhaps from the size of a Roman cohort.[37] The modern word million derives from an Italian augmentative of the Latin word for thousand, Template:Langx.[38]

In Polish, tysiąc pięćset sto dziewięćset ("one thousand five hundred one hundred nine hundred") is used, to refer to an indefinitely large number.[39]

In Scottish Gaelic, 100,000 (ceud mìle) is used to mean a great number, as in the phrase ceud mìle fàilte, "a hundred thousand welcomes."[40]

In Swedish, Template:Langx or Template:Langx is used (Template:Lit "fifty-eleven" and "seventy-eleven", although never actually intended to refer to the numbers 61 and 81).

In Thai, ร้อยแปด (roi paed) means both 108 and miscellaneous, various, plentiful.[41]

In Welsh, cant a mil, literally "a hundred and thousand", is used to mean a large number in a similar way to English "a hundred and one".[42] It is used in phrases such as cant a mil o bethau i'w wneud "a hundred and one things to do" i.e. "many, many things to do".

The number 10,000 is used to express an even larger approximate number, as in Hebrew Script error: No such module "Lang". revâvâh,[43] rendered into Greek as Template:Langx, and to English myriad.[44] Similar usage is found in the East Asian Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". (lit. 10,000; Template:Zh), and the South Asian lakh (lit. 100,000).[45]

See also

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Look up Thesaurus:zillion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

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  1. ^ "Bags of Talent, a Touch of Panic, and a Bit of Luck: The Case of Non-Numerical Vague Quantifiers" from Linguista Pragensia, Nov. 2, 2010 Script error: No such module "webarchive".
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The surprising history of indefinite hyperbolic numerals - The Boston Globe". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  3. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Umpteen". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 14 April 2012. (available online to subscribers)
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."River Imports". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 16 October 2024. (Available online to subscribers.)
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Pocket Book". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 16 October 2024. (Available online to subscribers.)
  6. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Umpty". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 14 April 2012. (available online to subscribers)
  7. ^ Warren Harding, quoted in Advertising & Selling 29:28-52:26 (1920)
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Umpteen". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 17 October 2024. (Available online to subscribers.)
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  10. ^ Umpteen, Merriam-Webster. Accessed 2014-06-29.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Google Ngram Viewer". books.google.com. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Det Norske Akademis ordbok: ørten". www.naob.no. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.S.A, Priberam Informática. "milhentos". Dicionário Priberam (in português do Brasil). Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Real Academia Española. "tropecientas, tropecientos". Diccionario de la lengua española (in español) (23.8 online ed.). RAE-ASALE. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Real Academia Española. "chorrocientas, chorrocientos". Diccionario de la lengua española (in español) (23.8 online ed.). RAE-ASALE. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of ZILLION". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  17. ^ Included in the standard dictionary included with Microsoft Word word-processing software
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of BAZILLION". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Partridge, Eric; Dalzell; Victor, Terry, eds. (2006). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Vol. 2. Taylor & Francis. p. 1103. ISBN 0-415-25938-X.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of Bajillion". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."squillion". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on November 4, 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  22. ^ William Safire, ON LANGUAGE; Footprints on the Infobahn, New York Times, April 17, 1994
  23. ^ "couple (noun)", Merriam-Webster Dictionary, definition 4
  24. ^ a b "Biblical Criticism", The Classical Journal 36:71:83ff (March 1827) full text
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."bost". Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia (in español). Retrieved 25 September 2025. Mucho(s). "Bost cinco, [...] en la propiedad de la lengua, fuera del sentido recto significa mucho y muchos, como bost bider egin degu, hartas veces, muchas veces lo hemos hecho" Lar.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."hamaika". Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia (in español). Retrieved 25 September 2025. (Con valor indeterminado). Muchos. (Usado siempre con decl. indet.: en esta acepción el vb. concuerda tanto en pl. como, quizá algo más frecuentemente, en sing.).
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."ORDNET.DK Dansk sprog i ordbøger og korpus".
  28. ^ A.D. Alderson, Fahir İz, The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary, Oxford, 1959, s.v. kırk: "Forty; used especially to denote a large indefinite number
  29. ^ Michael David Coogan, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context, Oxford, 2008, p. 116
  30. ^ Public Domain Script error: No such module "template wrapper". "Forty: Stands in the Bible for a generation (e.g., the forty years of wandering in the desert), hence for any period of time the exact duration of which is unknown (comp. Gen. vii. 4, 12, 17; viii. 6; Ex. xxiv. 18, xxxiv. 28; Deut. ix. 9, 11, 18; x. 10; I Sam. xvii. 16; I Kings xix. 8; Jonah iii. 4). In later literature forty is commonly used as a round number (comp. Giṭ. 39b, 40a; Soṭah 34a; Yer. Ta'an. iv. 8; et al.)."
  31. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, s.v. 'forty' A.b.
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Tréguer, Pascal (November 16, 2017). "Meaning and Origin of 'Forty Winks'". Word Histories.
  33. ^ e-nyelv.hu: Hogy alakult ki a csillió jelentés?
  34. ^ Csillió szó jelentése
  35. ^ e-nyelv.hu: csillió, csilliárd
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Feis Charn Tóchair 2014" (PDF). Carntogher Community Association. 2014-06-07. p. 32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-04-03.
  37. ^ Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary, s.v. sescenti
  38. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Million". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  39. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wielki Słownik Języka Polskiego". Institute of Polish Language, PAN.
  40. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: sndns743". Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  41. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."ร้อยแปด - Thai / English dictionary meaning - ร้อยแปด ภาษาอังกฤษ แปล ความหมาย". www.thai2english.com. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  42. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online".
  43. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."H7233 רבבה - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon". studybible.info. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  44. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, s.v. 'myriad'
  45. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 1st ed., s.v. 'lakh'

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