| 释义 |
billion|ˈbɪljən|
[a. F. billion, purposely formed in 16th c. to denote the second power of a million (by substituting bi- prefix2 for the initial letters), trillion and quadrillion being similarly formed to denote its 3rd and 4th powers. The name appears not to have been adopted in Eng. before the end of the 17th c.: see quot. from Locke. Subsequently the application of the word was changed by French arithmeticians, figures being divided in numeration into groups of threes, instead of sixes, so that F. billion, trillion, denoted not the second and third powers of a million, but a thousand millions and a thousand thousand millions. In the 19th century, the U.S. adopted the French convention, but Britain retained the original and etymological use (to which France reverted in 1948).
Since 1951 the U.S. value, a thousand millions, has been increasingly used in Britain, especially in technical writing and, more recently, in journalism; but the older sense ‘a million millions’ is still common.]
1. orig. and still commonly in Great Britain: A million millions. (= U.S. trillion.)
1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xvi. §6 [c blue]But to show how much distinct names conduce to our well reckoning, let us see all these following figures in one continued line:—[/c]
NonillionsOctillions..TrillionsBillionsMillionsUnits
857324,162486..235421,261734,368149,623137
. The ordinary way of naming this number in English, will be the often repeating of millions of millions of millions, etc.a1711Ken Prepar. Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 67 A Star..will run, Of Miles a Billion round the Sun. 1778Maseres in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 897 A billion, or the square of a million. 1870Proctor Other Worlds ix. 200 The aggregate weight of the various meteoric systems..must be estimated by billions of tons.
2. In U.S., and increasingly in Britain: A thousand millions.
1834, etc.: see D.A.E. 1864in Webster s.v. Numeration. 1983 Dict. Computing (O.U.P.) 156 Giga-,..a prefix indicating a multiple of one billion, 109. |
