Indefinite and fictitious numbers are words, phrases and quantities used to describe an indefinite size, used for comic effect, for exaggeration, as placeholder names, or when precision is unnecessary or undesirable. Other descriptions of this concept include: "non-numerical vague quantifier"[1] and "indefinite hyperbolic numerals".[2]
Umpteen, umteen or umpty[3] is an unspecified but large number, used in a humorous fashion or to imply that it is not worth the effort to pin down the actual figure. Despite the -teen ending, which would seem to indicate that it lies between 12 and 20, umpteen can be much larger.
The oldest reference to "umpty" — in a June 17, 1848 issue of the Louisville Morning Courier — indicates that at that time it was slang for empty.[4] This is confirmed by a humorous short story in the North Carolina Hillsborough Recorder of June 30, 1852.[5]
By 1905, "umpty", in the expression "umpty-seven", had come to imply a multiple of ten.[6][7]Umpty came from a verbalization of a dash in Morse code.[6]
"Umpteen", adding the ending -teen, as in "thirteen", is first attested in 1884,[8][9][3][10] and has become by far the most common form.[11]
In Norwegian, ørten is used in a similar way, playing on the numbers from tretten (13) to nitten (19), but often signifying a much larger number.[12]
Similarly, though with a larger base, Portuguese has milhentos, which is derived from the words mil(har) (1000) and the suffix -entos, present in words like trezentos (300) or quinhentos (500), roughly meaning "hundred".[13]
Words with the suffix-illion (e.g., zillion,[14]gazillion,[15]bazillion,[16]jillion,[17]bajillion,[18]squillion,[19] and others) are often used as informal names for unspecified large numbers by analogy to names of large numbers such as million (106), billion (109) and trillion (1012). In Estonian, the compound word mustmiljon ("black million") is used to mean an unfathomably large number. In Hungarian, csilliárd is used[citation needed] in the same "indefinitely large number" sense as "zillion" in English, and is thought to be a humorous portmanteau of the words csillag ("star", referring to the vast number of stars) and milliárd ("billion", cf. long scale).
These words are intended to denote a number that is large enough to be unfathomable and are typically used as hyperbole or for comic effect. They have no precise value or order. They form ordinals and fractions with the usual suffix -th, e.g. "I asked her for the jillionth time", or are used with the suffix "-aire" to describe a wealthy person.
In context, a specific numeric value may be used to mean an unspecific quantity. Following are examples.
Some words that have a precise numerical definition can be used indefinitely. For example: couple (2),[21]dozen (12), score (20); myriad (10,000).
When a quantity word is prefixed with an indefinite article then it is sometimes intended or interpreted to be indefinite. For example, "one million" is clearly definite, but "a million" could be used to mean either a definite (she has a million followers now) or an indefinite value (she signed what felt like a million papers).
The title The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (lit. "a thousand nights and one night") impiles a large number of nights.[22] Many book titles use this convention as well; such as 1,001 Uses for ....
In Chinese, 十萬八千里; 十万八千里; shí wàn bā qiān lǐ, 108,000 li, means a great distance.
In Irish, 100,000 (céad míle) is used, as in the phrase céad míle fáilte, "a hundred thousand welcomes" or Gabriel Rosenstock's poetic phrase Irish: mo chéad míle grá ("my hundred thousand loves").[29]
In Japanese, 八千, 8000, is used: 八千草 (lit. 8,000 herbs) means a variety of herbs and 八千代 (lit. 8,000 generations) means eternity.
In Latin, sescenti (600) was used to mean a very large number, perhaps from the size of a Roman cohort.[30] The modern word million derives from an Italian augmentative of the Latin word for thousand, mille.[31]
In Polish, tysiąc pięćset sto dziewięćset ("one thousand five hundred one hundred nine hundred") is used, to refer to an indefinitely large number.[32]
In Scottish Gaelic, 100,000 (ceud mìle) is used to mean a great number, as in the phrase ceud mìle fàilte, "a hundred thousand welcomes."[33]
In Swedish, femtioelva or sjuttioelva is used (lit. "fifty-eleven" and "seventy-eleven", although never actually intended to refer to the numbers 61 and 81).
In Thai, ร้อยแปด (roi paed) means both 108 and miscellaneous, various, plentiful.[34]
In Welsh, cant a mil, literally "a hundred and thousand", is used to mean a large number in a similar way to English "a hundred and one".[35] It is used in phrases such as cant a mil o bethau i'w wneud "a hundred and one things to do" i.e. "many, many things to do".
The number 10,000 is used to express an even larger approximate number, as in Hebrew רבבהrevâvâh,[36] rendered into Greek as μυριάδες, and to English myriad.[37] Similar usage is found in the East Asian萬 or 万 (lit. 10,000; pinyin:wàn), and the South Asianlakh (lit. 100,000).[38]
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↑ Partridge, Eric; Dalzell; Victor, Terry, eds. (2006). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Vol.2. Taylor & Francis. p.1103. ISBN0-415-25938-X.
↑ A.D. Alderson, Fahir İz, The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary, Oxford, 1959, s.v.kırk: "Forty; used especially to denote a large indefinite number
↑ Michael David Coogan, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context, Oxford, 2008, p. 116
↑ Levias, Caspar (1905). "Numbers and numerals". In Singer, Isidore; etal. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol.9. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p.349. Retrieved 2017-04-27. "Forty: Stands in the Bible for a generation (e.g., the forty years of wandering in the desert), hence for any period of time the exact duration of which is unknown (comp. Gen. vii. 4, 12, 17; viii. 6; Ex. xxiv. 18, xxxiv. 28; Deut. ix. 9, 11, 18; x. 10; I Sam. xvii. 16; I Kings xix. 8; Jonah iii. 4). In later literature forty is commonly used as a round number (comp. Giṭ. 39b, 40a; Soṭah 34a; Yer. Ta'an. iv. 8; et al.)."
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