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Myriad (Template:Lang-grc, myrias, pluralized as μυριάδες, myriades) is a classical Greek word for the number read as "ten thousand" in English. Similar to the use of 萬 or 万 in East Asian languages, it can also be used generically to denote any "numberless", "countless", or "infinite" large quantity.

History

Main article: Greek numerals

The Aegean numerals of the Minoan and Mycenæan civilizations included a single unit to denote tens of thousands. It was written ☼.

In Classical Greek numerals, myriad was written as a capital mu: Μ. To distinguish this number from other writing, it was sometimes given an overbar: M. Multiples were written above this sign, so that for example M δ ϕ π β {\displaystyle {\stackrel {\delta \phi \pi \beta }{\mathrm {M} }}} would equal 4,582×10,000 or 45,820,000. The etymology of the word myrias itself is uncertain: it has been variously connected to PIE *meu- ("damp") in reference to the waves of the sea and to Greek myrmex (μύρμηξ, "ant") in reference to their swarms.

The largest number named in Ancient Greek was the myriad myriad (written MM) or hundred million. In his Sand Reckoner, Archimedes of Syracuse used this quantity as the basis for a numeration system of large powers of ten, which he used to count grains of sand.

Usage

Greek

Modern Greek still uses the word "myriad" to mean 10,000 but also used it to form the word for million. The word for million is ekatommyrio (εκατομμύριο, lit. "hundred myriad") and one thousand million is disekatommyrio (δισεκατομμύριο, lit. "twice-hundred myriad").

English

Because English typically divides numbers into groups of thousands, "myriad" is most commonly used to mean "some large but unspecified number". It may be either an adjective or a noun: both "there are myriad people outside" and "there is a myriad of people outside" are correct. (There are small differences: the former could imply that it is a diverse group of people; the latter does not but could possibly indicate a group of exactly ten thousand.) The Merriam-Webster Dictionary notes that confusion over the use of myriad as a noun "seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective ... however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun 'myriad' has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural 'myriads') and Thoreau ('a myriad of'), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English."

"Myriad" is also infrequently used in English as the specific number 10,000. Owing to the possible confusion with the generic meaning of "large quantity", however, this is generally restricted to translation of other languages like ancient Greek, Chinese, and Hindi where numbers may be grouped into sets of 10,000 (myriads). Such use permits the translator to remain closer to the original text and avoid repeated and unwieldy mentions of "tens of thousands": for example, "the original number of the crews supplied by the several nations I find to have been twenty-four myriads" and "What is the distance between one bridge and another? Twelve myriads of parasangs".

In British English, "myriad" is also a term used to refer to a Template:Convert/2 area, particularly on the Ordinance Survey's National Grid.

In other languages

Europe

Most European languages include variations of "myriad" with similar meanings to the English word.

Additionally, the prefix myria- indicating multiplication times ten thousand (×10) was part of the original metric system adopted by France in 1795. Although it was not retained after the 11th CGPM conference in 1960, "myriameter" is sometimes still encountered as a translation of the Scandinavian mile (Swedish & Norwegian: mil) of about 10 kilometers (6 mi). The myriagramme was a French approximation of the avoirdupois quartier of 25 pounds (11 kg) and the "myriaton" appears in Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

Asia

In the Sinosphere, which includes regional varieties of Chinese and East Asian languages that have used the Chinese writing system, words equivalent to Greek myriad "10,000" derive from the Chinese word wan (simplified Chinese: 万; traditional Chinese: 萬; pinyin: wàn; Wade–Giles: wan; lit. 'ten thousand'). Pronunciations of this Chinese character 萬 vary across linguistic areas. For instance, Cantonese maan6, Hakka wan5, Min Nan bān, Japanese man, Korean man (written as 만 in hangul), and Vietnamese vạn all mean "ten thousand; myriad".

The Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages also have words for a square myriad (100,000,000): yì (億) (or wànwàn in ancient texts), oku (億), and eok (억/億), respectively. A cubic myriad (10,000 or 10) is a zhào (兆), chō (兆), and jo (조/兆); a myriad to the fourth power (10,000 or 10) is a jīng (京), kei (京), and gyeong (경/京), a myriad to the fifth power (10,000 or 10) is a gai (垓), a myriad to the sixth power (10,000 or 10) is a shi (秭) in Korean, 자, a myriad to the seventh power (10,000 or 10) is a jō (穣)in Korean, 양, a myriad to the eighth power (10,000 or 10) is a kō (溝) in Korean, 구, a myriad to the ninth power (10,000 or 10) is a kan (澗) in Korean, 간, a myriad to the tenth power (10,000 or 10) is a sē (正)in Korean, 정, respectively. Conversely, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean do not have single words for a thousand to the second, third, fifth power, etc., unlike English and many other European languages.

Other languages

See also

References

  1. Samuel Verdan (20 Mar 2007). "Systèmes numéraux en Grèce ancienne: description et mise en perspective historique". Retrieved 2 Mar 2011. Template:Fr icon
  2. Schwartzman, Steven. The Words of Mathematics: An Etymological Dictionary of Mathematical Terms Used in English, p. 142. The Mathematical Assoc. of America, 1994.
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Online. "Myriad". 2013. Accessed 1 November 2013.
  4. Herodotus. The History of Herodotus, VII.184. Translation by G.C. Macaulay, 1890. Accessed 1 Nov 2013.
  5. Janowitz, Naomi. The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text, p. 118. SUNY Press (New York), 1989. Accessed 1 November 2013.
  6. L'Histoire Du Mètre: "La Loi Du 18 Germinal An 3". 2005. Accessed 1 November 2013. Template:Fr icon
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