Editing 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 name]]s, or when precision is unnecessary or undesirable. Other descriptions of this concept include: "non-numerical vague quantifier"<ref>[http://versita.metapress.com/content/t98071387u726916/?p=1ad6a085630c432c94528c5548f5c2c4&pi=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] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120731092211/http://versita.metapress.com/content/t98071387u726916/?p=1ad6a085630c432c94528c5548f5c2c4&pi=1 |date=2012-07-31 }}</ref> and "indefinite hyperbolic numerals".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/07/13/the-surprising-history-indefinite-hyperbolic-numerals/qYTKpkP9lyWVfItLXuTHdM/story.html|title=The surprising history of indefinite hyperbolic numerals - The Boston Globe|website=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=1 April 2018}}</ref>

== Umpteen ==

'''Umpteen''', '''umteen''' or '''umpty'''<ref name="oed"/> 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.<ref name="River Imports.">{{cite web|title=River Imports|url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/118713849/?match=1&terms=umpty|work=Newspapers.com|access-date=16 October 2024}} (Available online to subscribers.)</ref> This is confirmed by a humorous short story in the North Carolina ''[[Hillsborough Recorder]]'' of June 30, 1852.<ref name="The Pocket Book.">{{cite web|title=The Pocket Book.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/64493481/?match=1&terms=umpty|work=Newspapers.com|access-date=16 October 2024}} (Available online to subscribers.)</ref>

By 1905, "umpty", in the expression "umpty-seven", had come to imply a multiple of ten.<ref name="umpty">{{cite web|title=Umpty|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/208902|work=Oxford English Dictionary|access-date=14 April 2012}} (available online to subscribers)</ref><ref>Warren Harding, quoted in ''Advertising & Selling'' '''29''':28-52:26 (1920)</ref> ''Umpty'' came from a verbalization of a dash in [[Morse code]].<ref name="umpty"/>

"Umpteen", adding the ending ''-teen'', as in "thirteen", is first attested in 1884,<ref name="Cincinnati Enquirer">{{cite web|title=Umpteen|url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/34926349/?match=1&terms=umteenth|work=Newspapers.com|access-date=17 October 2024}} (Available online to subscribers.)</ref><ref>''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'' (2000), 4th ed. [[Boston]]: [[Houghton Mifflin]].</ref><ref name="oed">{{cite web|title=Umpteen|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/208901|work=Oxford English Dictionary|access-date=14 April 2012}} (available online to subscribers)</ref><ref name="mw">[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/umpteen Umpteen], [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ Merriam-Webster]. Accessed 2014-06-29.</ref> and has become by far the most common form.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=umpteen,umteen,umpty&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1;,umpteen;,c0;.t1;,umteen;,c0;.t1;,umpty;,c0|title=Google Ngram Viewer|website=books.google.com|access-date=1 April 2018}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.naob.no/ordbok/%C3%B8rten|title=''Det Norske Akademis ordbok'': ørten|website=www.naob.no|access-date=2019-12-23}}</ref>

Similarly, though with a larger base, Portuguese has ''[[wiktionary:milhentos|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".<ref>{{Cite web |last=S.A |first=Priberam Informática |title=milhentos |url=https://dicionario.priberam.org/milhentos |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Dicionário Priberam |language=pt-br}}</ref>

=={{anchor|-illion}} Zillion==
{{Redirect|Zillion}}
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Words with the [[suffix]] ''-illion'' (e.g., '''zillion''',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zillion|title=Definition of ZILLION|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=1 April 2018}}</ref> '''gazillion''',<ref>Included in the standard dictionary included with [[Microsoft Word]] word-processing software</ref> '''bazillion''',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of BAZILLION|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bazillion|access-date=2022-02-06|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en}}</ref> '''jillion''',<ref>{{cite book| page=1103| title =The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English| volume= 2| editor1-last=Partridge |editor1-first= Eric |editor1-link= Eric Partridge |editor2-last=Dalzell |editor3-last=Victor |editor3-first=Terry | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2006 |isbn= 0-415-25938-X}}</ref> '''bajillion''',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bajillion|title=Definition of Bajillion|website=Merriam-Webster|access-date=7 March 2021}}</ref> '''squillion''',<ref>{{cite web |title=squillion |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/squillion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104170101/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/squillion |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2018 |website=Oxford Dictionaries |access-date=4 November 2018 |ref=23}}</ref> and others) are often used as informal names for unspecified large numbers by analogy to [[names of large numbers]] such as ''[[1,000,000|million]]'' (10<sup>6</sup>), ''[[1,000,000,000|billion]]'' (10<sup>9</sup>) and ''[[trillion]]'' (10<sup>12</sup>). In [[Estonian language|Estonian]], the compound word ''mustmiljon'' ("black million") is used to mean an unfathomably large number. In Hungarian, ''csilliárd'' is used{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} 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 and short scales#Long scale|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 [[Ordinal numeral|ordinals]] and [[Fraction (mathematics)|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==
A [[Carl Sagan#Sagan units|sagan or sagan unit]] is a facetious name for a very large number inspired by [[Carl Sagan]]'s association with the phrase "[[Carl Sagan#"Billions and billions"|billions and billions]]".<ref>[[William Safire]], [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E3DF143EF934A25757C0A962958260 ON LANGUAGE; Footprints on the Infobahn], ''[[New York Times]]'', April 17, 1994</ref> It is not to be confused with [[Sagan's number]], the number of stars in the [[observable universe]].
== 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. For example: couple (2),<ref>"couple (noun)", ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple definition 4]</ref> [[dozen]] (12), [[20 (number)|score]] (20); [[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]]'' (''lit.'' "a thousand nights and one night") implies a large number of nights.<ref name="cj"/> Many book titles use this convention as well; such as ''1,001 Uses for ...''.

In [[Chinese language|Chinese]], {{Zh|c=|s={{linktext|十万八千里}}|t={{linktext|十萬八千里}}|p=shí wàn bā qiān lǐ|labels=no|first=t}}, 108,000 [[li (unit)|li]], means a great distance.

In [[Danish language|Danish]], ''hundrede og sytten'' ("[[117 (number)|a hundred and seventeen]]") can mean any arbitrary number.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=17|title=ORDNET.DK Dansk sprog i ordbøger og korpus}}</ref>

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

In Hebrew and other Middle Eastern traditions, the number [[40 (number)#In religion|40]] is used to express a large but unspecific number,<ref>A.D. Alderson, Fahir İz, ''The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary'', Oxford, 1959, ''s.v.'' ''kırk'': "Forty; ''used especially to denote a large indefinite number''</ref><ref name="cj">"Biblical Criticism", ''The Classical Journal'' '''36''':71:83''ff'' (March 1827) [https://books.google.com/books?id=qXg_AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA83 full text]</ref> as in the [[Hebrew Bible]]'s "forty days and forty nights", ''[[Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves]]'', and the [[Forty Martyrs of Sebaste]].<ref name="coogan">Michael David Coogan, ''A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context'', Oxford, 2008, p. 116</ref><ref>{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia |title= Numbers and numerals |url= http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11619-numbers-and-numerals#anchor3 |first=Caspar |last=Levias |volume=9 |page=349 |access-date=2017-04-27}} "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. [[Gittin|Giṭ.]] 39b, 40a; [[Sotah (Talmud)|Soṭah]] 34a;  [[Jerusalem Talmud|Yer. Ta'an.]] iv. 8; et al.)."</ref> This usage is sometimes found in English as well (for example, "[[wikt:forty winks|forty winks]]").<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 1st edition, ''s.v.'' 'forty' A.b.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://wordhistories.net/2017/11/16/forty-winks-origin/| title=Meaning and Origin of 'Forty Winks'| last=Tréguer| first=Pascal| date=November 16, 2017| website=Word Histories}}</ref>

In  [[Hungarian language|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), <ref>[https://e-nyelv.hu/2023-04-09/csillio/ e-nyelv.hu: Hogy alakult ki a csillió jelentés?]</ref> and ''millió'' (million).<ref>[https://wikiszotar.hu/ertelmezo-szotar/Csilli%C3%B3 Csillió szó jelentése]</ref> Its enhanced version is ''csilliárd'' combining ''csillag'' and ''milliárd'' (billion).<ref>[https://e-nyelv.hu/2023-02-24/csillio-csilliard/ e-nyelv.hu: csillió, csilliárd]</ref>

In [[Irish language|Irish]], 100,000 (''céad míle'') is used, as in the phrase [[wikt:céad míle fáilte|''céad míle fáilte'']], "a hundred thousand welcomes" or [[Gabriel Rosenstock]]'s poetic phrase {{Langx|ga|mo chéad míle grá}} ("my hundred thousand loves").<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ancarn.org/uploads/1398944377Cl-r-na-Feise-B-ARLA-9-4-14.pdf |title=Feis Charn Tóchair 2014 | page = 32 |archive-date=2017-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403111523/http://www.ancarn.org/uploads/1398944377Cl-r-na-Feise-B-ARLA-9-4-14.pdf | date = 2014-06-07 | url-status=dead | publisher = Carntogher Community Association }}</ref>

In [[Japanese language|Japanese]], {{nihongo2|{{linktext|八千}}}}, [[8000 (number)|8000]], is used: {{nihongo2|八千草}} (''lit.'' 8,000 herbs) means a variety of herbs and {{nihongo2|八千代}} (''lit.'' 8,000 generations) means eternity.

In [[Latin language|Latin]], {{Langx|la|sescenti|label=none}} ([[600 (number)|600]]) was used to mean a very large number, perhaps from the size of a Roman [[Cohort (military unit)|cohort]].<ref>Lewis and Short, ''[[A Latin Dictionary]]'', ''s.v.'' ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dsescenti sescenti]''</ref> The modern word ''million'' derives from an Italian [[augmentative]] of the Latin word for thousand, {{Langx|la|mille|label=none}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/million|title=Million|website=Online Etymological Dictionary|access-date=19 August 2022}}</ref>

In [[Polish language|Polish]], ''tysiąc pięćset sto dziewięćset'' ("one thousand five hundred one hundred nine hundred") is used, to refer to an indefinitely large number.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wsjp.pl/haslo/do_druku/76765/tysiac-piecset-sto-dziewiecset|website=Institute of Polish Language, [[Polish_Academy_of_Sciences|PAN]]|title=Wielki Słownik Języka Polskiego}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: sndns743 |url=https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/sndns743 |access-date=2024-05-16}}</ref>

In [[Swedish language|Swedish]], {{Langx|sv|femtioelva|label=none}} or {{Langx|sv|sjuttioelva|label=none}} is used ({{lit}} "fifty-eleven" and "seventy-eleven", although never actually intended to refer to the numbers 61 and 81).

In [[Thai language|Thai]], ร้อยแปด (''roi paed)'' means both 108 and miscellaneous, various, plentiful.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/1389866.html|title=ร้อยแปด - Thai / English dictionary meaning - ร้อยแปด ภาษาอังกฤษ แปล ความหมาย|website=www.thai2english.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-03}}</ref>

In [[Welsh language|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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html?cant_a_mil|title=Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online}}</ref> 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 (number)|10,000]] is used to express an even larger approximate number, as in Hebrew {{lang|he|{{linktext|רבבה}}}} ''r<sup>e</sup>vâvâh'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://studybible.info/strongs/H7233|title=H7233 רבבה - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon|website=studybible.info|access-date=1 April 2018}}</ref> rendered into Greek as {{Langx|el|{{linktext|μυριάδες}}|label=none}}, and to English ''[[myriad]]''.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition, ''s.v.'' 'myriad'</ref> Similar usage is found in the [[East Asian cultural sphere|East Asian]] {{lang|zh|{{linktext|萬}}}} or {{lang|zh|{{linktext|万}}}} (''lit.'' 10,000; {{Zh|c=|s=|t=|p=wàn}}), and the [[South Asian languages|South Asian]] [[lakh]] (''lit.'' 100,000).<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' 1st ed., ''s.v.'' 'lakh'</ref>

== See also ==
{{wiktionary|Thesaurus:zillion}}
* {{annotated link|1000 percent}}
* {{annotated link|Infinity}}
* {{annotated link|It's Over 9000!}}
* {{annotated link|List of unusual units of measurement}}
* {{annotated link|List of humorous units of measurement}}
* {{annotated link|Large numbers}}
* {{annotated link|Names of large numbers}}
* {{annotated link|Unobtainium}}
* {{annotated link|Not a number}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Large numbers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indefinite And Fictitious Numbers}}
[[Category:Large numbers]]
[[Category:Placeholder names|*]]

[[de:Zahlennamen#Zillion]]