Etymologically
Log in

miliens

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 03:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

mīliēns (not comparable)[1] It is also spelled mīliēs, mīlliēns and mīlliēs.[2][3] The grammarian Caper says numeral adverbs should be written without n.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mīlle (“thousand”) + -iēns.[2][3] De Vaan traces mīlle to Proto-Italic *smīχeslī and Proto-Indo-European *sm-ih₂-ǵʰes-l-ih₂ (“having one thousand”), comparing Sanskrit सहस्र (sahásra-, “thousand”) and Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It means a thousand times, often as an exaggeration.[2] With sestertium it stands for a thousand times a hundred thousand sesterces, a hundred million: Cicero reclaims that sum under the law in his speech against Caecilius.[2] The TLL notes the spelling ⟨mīlliēns⟩ in the Res Gestae of Augustus, Cicero, Livy, Seneca and Tacitus.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a hundred million sesterces.[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. A thousand times; countless times.[2][1]
  2. mīliēns sestertium, a hundred million sesterces.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de