millesimus

Forms

mīllēsimus (feminine mīllēsima, neuter mīllēsimum); first/second-declension numeral^[1] Also spelled mīllēnsimus, mīlēnsimus and mīlēsimus.^[2] The spelling with ⟨-ēs-⟩ is about twice as common as ⟨-ēns-⟩.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mīlle (“thousand”) + -ēsimus (“-th”),^[1][2] the ordinal formed like the other ordinals in ⟨-ēsimus⟩.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from the historian Tubero, “up to the thousandth year”.^[2] Cicero (81–43 BC) writes that he hardly understands a thousandth part of a book.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides “thousandth”, Ovid used it for the last of a thousand ships,^[5][6] and the feminine millēsima (understood pars) became a noun for a thousandth part.^[2][6] In Seneca ūsūra millēsima was interest of one thousandth a month.^[2][5] The neuter millēsimum served as an adverb, “for the thousandth time”, in Cicero.^[7][6]

In medieval Latin it was used above all in dates reckoned from the founding of Rome or from the Incarnation (annō Dominī millēsimō…).^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses pars millēsima for a thousandth part.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls a ship the thousandth, the last of a thousand.^[5][6][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of interest at a thousandth a month.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses the feminine plural for thousandths vowed to Mercury.^[6][4]
• 1st third of the 8th century AD – Bede dates the sack of Rome by the Goths to the 1,164th year from the city's founding.^[8][4]
• 1058 – A charter dates itself in the thousand and fifty-eighth year from the Incarnation.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Thousandth; the last of a thousand.^[2][5]
2. pars millēsima: a thousandth part; also millēsima alone as a noun.^[2][6]
3. ūsūra millēsima: interest of one thousandth a month.^[2][5]
4. (neuter as adverb) For the thousandth time.^[7][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) In dates: annō millēsimō “in the thousandth year”, with further ordinals for the rest of the year number.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d 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