LATIN and GREEK NUMBERS

The Tomb of the Diver. Fifth-century BCE wall painting (Paestum, Italy)

Ten is the very nature of number. The Greeks and all barbarians alike count up to ten, and having reached ten, revert again to the single unit.

AETIUS (first-century CE Greek philosopher)

COUNTDOWN

The similarities among the words for the numbers one through ten were one of the first clues that led scholars of comparative and historical linguistics to posit a common ancestry for what is now called the Indo-European family of languages.

numerus, numeri = number

arithmos (άριθμός) = number

Let Me Count the Ways (in Indo-European) …

	One	Two	Three
Sanskrit	ekas	dvau	trayah
Persian	yek	do	se
Gaelic	aon	dhà	trì
Albanian	njē	dy	tre
Pashto	yaw	dwa	dre
German	ein	zwei	drei
Russian	odin	dva	tri

LATIN NUMBERS

Cardinal Numbers	Roman Numerals	English Combining Form	Example
1. unum	I	uni-	uniform
2. duo	II	duo- or du-	duet
3. tres	III	tri-	triangle
4. quattuor	IV	quadri-	quadrilateral
5. quinque	V	quinqu-	quinquennial
6. sex	VI	sexi- or sex-	sextet
7. septem	VII	sept-	September
8. octo	VIII	oct- or octa-	octet
9. novem	IX	novem- or noven-	November
10. decem	X	decem- or deca-	December
100. centum	C	centi- or cent-	centigrade
1,000. mille	M	milli- or mill-	millennium

How Long Did You Say I Have to Wait Here?

In the seventeenth century, when an outbreak of bubonic plague spread across Europe bringing death and devastation, the rulers of Venice ruled that ships arriving from plague-infested places had to wait for forty days before passengers could disembark, in order to insure that no one on the boat was infected with the disease. The ItalianQuarantina giorni (forty days) is derived from quadraginta, the Latin word for forty. What is the current meaning of the English word quarantine?

Examples of Roman Numerals

XI = 11	XIX = 19	XX = 20
XXV = 25	XXXVI = 36	LIII = 53
LXIV = 64	XCIV = 94	CLXXIX = 179
CCX = 210	CCCXLVII = 347	CDXVII = 418
DLXVII = 567	MDCCCLXXXV = 1885	MCMLXXXIV = 1984

It's Nothing

Although they certainly understood the quality of “nothingness,” neither the Greeks nor the Romans had a symbol that indicated zero, or the absence of quantity. The arithmetic representation of zero was devised by Hindu mathematicians and given an Arabic name (sifr = emptiness) by medieval Muslim scientists. The word passed into English in two forms: cipher and zero.

Latin Word	English Meaning
nihil	nothing
nullum, nullius	no, none

Latin Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal Numbers	English Meaning	Example
primum	first	primary
secundum	second	second
tertium	third	tertiary
quartum	fourth	quart
quintum	fifth	quintet
sextum	sixth	sextuple
septimum	seventh	septimal
octavum	eighth	octave
nonum	ninth	nonagenarian
decimum	tenth	decimal

We the People

In 1782, at the end of the American Revolutionary War, e pluribus unum was adopted as the official motto of the United States and inscribed on the Great Seal. You can find its image on all American paper currency.

E pluribus unum = out of many, one

Latin Numerical Adverbs and Adjectives

Numerical Adverbs and Adjectives	English Meaning	Combining Form	Example
solum, solius	single, alone	soli-	solitary
sesqui	one and a half	sesqui-	sesquicentennial
bis	twice	bi-	biennial
semi-1	half	semi-	semiannual
ambo	both	ambi-	ambidextrous

“Take my word for it. The answer is two. I'm a college graduate.”  (www.cartoonstock.com)

GREEK NUMBERS

Cardinal Numbers	English Combining Form	Example
1. hen (ἕν)	heno-	henotheist
monon (μόνον)	mono-	monogram
2. dyo (δύο)	dyo- or dy-	dyad
3. tris (τρει̑ς)	tri-	trigonometry
4. tessara or tettara (τέσσαρα, τέτταρα)	tetra-	tetrahedron
5. pente (πέντε)	pent- or penta-	pentathlon
6. hex (ἕξ)	hexa-	hexameter
7. hepta (ἑπτά)	hepta-	heptagon
8. octo (ὀκτώ)	octo- or octa-	octopus
9. ennea (ἐννέα)	ennea-	ennead
10. deca (δέκα)	deca-	decalogue
100. hecaton (ἐκατόν)	hecto-2	hectogram
1,000. chilioi (χ́ίλιοι)	chilo- or kilo-	chiliastic, kilogram

Greek Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal Numbers	English Meaning	English Combining Form	Example
proton (πρω̑τον)	first	proto-	prototype
deuteron (δεύτερον)	second	deutero-	Deuteronomy

Other Greek ordinal numbers are rarely used in English compounds.

Greek Numerical Adverbs

Numerical Adverbs	English Meaning	English Combining Form	Example
dis (δίς)	twice	di-	dilemma
hemi (ήμι-)	half	hemi-	hemisphere

The Years Fly By …

If we wish to note an anniversary, we can use the Latin numerical prefix with the combining form of the Latin noun for year.

annus, anni (year) > -ennial

e.g., centum + annus = centennial

It's Over

He asked for a finite number of ideas, but his speech went on to infinity. finio-finire-finitum = limit, fix; close

So Stop Wasting Time

The Romans called the point at which three roads met a trivium, a term that was also used to describe a public street. Perhaps because it was out in the open and therefore common, or perhaps because people would just hang out there, not talking about anything important, the topics of discussion could be described as trivial (via, viae = road).

Or Perhaps I Can't Count That High

The largest number in Greek expressed in a single word is myrias, myriados (μυριάς), which represents the number 10,000. But it also meant infinite, or countless, which is the meaning we give myriad in current English usage.

It's More Than Enough

Although the word plethora (πληθώρη) originally meant fullness, it now means an overabundance.

It's Too Much

The word googol was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of the twentieth-century mathematician Edward Kasner, who defined it for him as “1 followed by a hundred zeros.” It seems like an appropriate word for a nonsensical number. The search engine Google is a play on the word, since it claims to offer access to an uncountable amount of knowledge.

How Much Is Two and Ten?

As we have already seen, the Roman numeral XII represents the number 12, or ten plus two. The word in Latin for twelve is just that: duo plus decem, or duodecim. The word passed into French and eventually appeared as douzaine. How do you think that happened?

A fallen warrior, The Dying Gaul. Third century BCE (Museo Capitolino, Rome)

Don't Be a Show-Off!

Some people are afflicted with sesquipedalianism. They love using words that are one- and-a-half feet long, taking delight in showing off and confusing you.

Here We Go Again …

A palindrome is a word or a sequence of words that reads, letter for letter, the same backward as forward. “Was it a cat I saw?”

παλívδρoμoς = running back again

NAME _______________________________________________________

A. Arrange the following words in numerical order as indicated by their Latin or Greek roots. What is the meaning of each word? Consult your unabridged dictionary if you are unsure of the meaning or etymology or any word listed.

English Word	Ranking	Meaning
1. trimester	____________	____________
2. octagon	____________	____________
3. quintuplet	____________	____________
4. primary	____________	____________
5. duality	____________	____________
6. September	____________	____________
7. millennium	____________	____________
8. percentage	____________	____________
9. semester	____________	____________
10. noon	____________	____________
11. unicycle	____________	____________
12. hemisphere	____________	____________
13. square	____________	____________
14. decimal	____________	____________
15. century	____________	____________
16. bigamy	____________	____________
17. hemidemisemiquaver	____________	____________

B. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the literal meaning of the italicized word or part of a word. Make sure that your sentences are grammatically correct.

Example

To unify a people is to make them into one.

A deuterogamist has married for the second time.

18. Primates are ranked __________ in the order of living beings.

19. A trilogy is a literary work composed of __________ parts.

20. A quatrain is a verse of poetry that has __________lines.

21. A sextet has __________members.

22. When will the tricentennial celebration of American independence take place? __________

23. Protoplasm is regarded as the __________ form of living matter.

24. When a chorus sings in unison, it sings with __________ voice.

25. The Pentagon is a __________-angled building.

26. A monotheist believes in __________ god.

27. In exactly two decades, what year will it be? __________ Write the answer in Roman numerals. __________

28. If you are a sextuplet, how many siblings of your age do you have? __________

29. If a judge declares a contract null and void, what does this ruling mean? _____________________________________________________________

30. What is the difference in meaning between ambivalent and ambiguous? __________

31. What is the difference between a kilometer and a millimeter? ________________________________________________

32. When an atomic bomb annihilated Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, it reduced it ____________________

33. A semiannual event takes place __________ __________.

34. A bicameral legislature has __________chambers of lawmakers.

35. A duplicitous individual is deceiving and tricky. What is the root of this word, and how do you think it took on its current meaning? ________________________________________________________

36. Some people enjoy solitude, but I don't like being __________.

37. What is the meaning of cipher in mathematics? ______________________________

What is its meaning when describing a person? ______________________________

38. What is the present meaning of plethora? __________ Use it in a sentence. ________________________________________________________________________________

C. What are the French, Spanish, and Italian words for the numbers given below?

English	French	Spanish	Italian
39. one	________________	________________	________________
40. two	________________	________________	________________
41. three	________________	________________	________________
42. four	________________	________________	________________
43. five	________________	________________	________________
44. six	________________	________________	________________
45. seven	________________	________________	________________
46. eight	________________	________________	________________
47. nine	________________	________________	________________
48. ten	________________	________________	________________
49. hundred	________________	________________	________________
50. thousand	________________	________________	________________

Footnotes

1. Semi- is used only as a prefix in Latin; in English usage it can mean half, as in semiannual (twice a year), but it often has the meaning of “somewhat” or “partially,” e.g., semiconscious.

2. Used in English only as a learned borrowing.