"Michael Ash" wrote in message
...
In rec.arts.sf.science Tue Sorensen
wrote:
wrote:
That would be interesting - I'm from Denmark,
and in Danish the word
for "billion" is in fact "milliard"...
French, too.
I'm guessing this might be used because
"billion" is ambiguous. It is
generally accepted as meaning 1e9, but my
understanding is that in the
not-too-distant past in the UK, it meant 1e12.
Hence why you often see the
term "thousand million" in texts which need to
be exact, and presumably
why a completely unfamiliar but less ambiguous
word might possibly be
preferable.
I recall reading a well-known Ian Fleming book
(late 1950s or early '60s) in which Goldfinger
(while plotting to rob Fort Knox) thinks it
necessary to tell the British among his
confederates that "- - there are differing ideas
as to what constitutes a billion. I am using it in
the sense of one thousand million".
Probably about the last time this had to be
specified.
--
Mike Stone - Peterborough, England
It is so stupid of modern civilisation to have
given up believing in the
Devil, when he is its only explanation.
Ronald Knox.