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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 5:33 pm
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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ceceliaarmstrong@yahoo.com wrote:
And I'm wondering what the original question _was_. I delete messages
in blocks when I've read them, so all I know is that it was something
about the two meanings of "billion".
--
Mike. |
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 8:52 pm
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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Nigel Greenwood wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Lyle wrote:
I don't really remember, but I think I do see "million million"
occasionally. Figures like that, if meant to be taken precisely,
probably only come up in specialist contexts where everybody knows
what's what. And in specialist contexts people generally seem to use
powers of ten anyhow. I doubt if I hear or read "trillion" once a
year.
It does come up increasingly frequently in economic reports in the
media. Quantities such as the US GDP are now in the trillions
(10^12).
"Billion", as someone pointed out in this thread, goes back a long way
in English. Surprisingly, it's one of the rhymes in GM Hopkins'
wonderful poem The Windhover (rhyming with the even older Norman word
"sillion" < Fr sillon = furrow).
Nigel
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And with "vermilion" which has come up for discussion here or in aue.
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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StrayShots
Guest
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 1:29 am
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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WW wrote:
| Quote: | I'm wondering why the word "billion" (and some other
related words used to call large numbers) has different
meaning in American and British English styles of usage.
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The Americans use the numerical "short scale" [from the French échelle
courte] in which "billion" is "double thousand thousands" [i.e. a
million thousands], whereas the British have used the numerical "long
scale" [from the French échelle longue] in which "billion" is "double
millions" [i.e. a million millions].
--
"With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross." |
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Nigel Greenwood
Guest
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 3:23 pm
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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StrayShots wrote:
| Quote: | million thousands], whereas the British have used the numerical "long
scale" [from the French échelle longue] in which "billion" is
"double
millions" [i.e. a million millions].
|
Whatever some contributors may feel, the fact remains that the word
"billion" is now used hundreds (n x 10^2) of times a day in the UK to
mean 10^9. Only the occasional diehard holds out for 10^12. There's
even an established abbreviation: bn, as in "£10bn for hospitals"
(10^10).
Nigel
--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical
Greek/IPA/Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk |
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Shaun aRe
Guest
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 5:28 pm
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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"WW" <real_woody@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1116093735.685117.74770@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
<Snip>
| Quote: | Is there any rule on this?
|
Yes, indeed there is a hard and fast rule on this - if you are paying me, it
is in British billions, if I am paying you, it is in American billions -
couldn't be any simpler.
HTH!
Shaun aRe
--
I have that exquisite feeling, the feeling that I was born
a thousand years ago, and yet have experienced every *minute* moment of that
thousand years,
as if through the senses of an enchanted child.
This is the source of my love of life, my enjoyment of others, the very seed
of my happiness. |
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Daniel James
Guest
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 6:22 pm
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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In article news:<1116320979.641642.237250@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Nigel Greenwood wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Lyle wrote:
I doubt if I hear or read "trillion" once a year.
It does come up increasingly frequently in economic reports in the
media. Quantities such as the US GDP are now in the trillions (10^12).
|
Oh, yes. It comes up.
Why anyone -- especially a media person -- would want to write "trillion
dollars" when "Terabucks" would convey the same information so much more
catchily and succinctly (and without fear of ambiguity) escapes me.
I tend to refer to the US trillion as a "short trillion" -- by analogy with
the old US "short ton" of 2000lb (as opposed to the Imperial "long ton" or
2240lb or the metric tonne of 1000kg (2205lb)).
[Later: I see from "StrayShots"'s comment elsethread that the French
apparently do the same.]
The Americans have some "previous" when it comes to naming and sizes of
units.
Cheers,
Daniel. |
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StrayShots
Guest
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:04 am
Post subject: Re: Billion in the USA and the UK |
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Nigel Greenwood wrote:
| Quote: |
the British have used the numerical
"long scale" [from the French échelle longue]
in which "billion" is "double millions"
[i.e. a million millions].
Whatever some contributors may feel...
|
What I wrote above is not a matter of "feel", it is a matter of fact.
While it is also a fact that:
| Quote: | the word "billion" is now used hundreds
(n x 10^2) of times a day in the UK to mean
10^9
|
.... the history of its usage [above] helps more to explain to the OP
why one may still encounter differing meanings in the two different
countries, whereas:
| Quote: | Only the occasional diehard holds out for
10^12
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.... does not.
--
"With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross." |
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