millennium

Forms

mīllennium n (genitive mīllenniī or mīllennī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mīllennis (“of a thousand years”) + -ium.^[1] Wiktionary analyses the adjective mīllennis as a compound of mīlle (“thousand”) and annīs (“by years”), an ablative plural.^[1] Etymonline describes the noun as Modern Latin, formed on the model of biennium and triennium.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DMLBS quotes it from a medieval British author who says that a century was allotted to crows and a millennium to stags.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English took the word over in the 1630s for the thousand-year reign of Christ foretold in the Book of Revelation, and used it for any period of a thousand years from 1711.^[2]

Timeline

• 1630s – English borrows it for the thousand-year reign of Christ.^[2]
• by 1711 – English uses it for any period of a thousand years.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A period of a thousand years, a millennium.^[1][3]

Usage notes

Augustine expressed a thousand years with mīliārium annōrum.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn