miliard

Forms

miliard n (plural miliarde)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French milliard.^[2][3][4][1] French formed it from million by replacing the ending with the suffix -ard.^[1][5] That word is from Italian milione (“a thousand thousands”), formed on mille (“thousand”) with the augmentative suffix -one.^[6] Romanian milion belongs to the same family.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Polizu's Romanian–German vocabulary of 1857, which defines it as a thousand millions.^[3][4] Costinescu (1870) spells it milliardŭ, after the French.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word is used with de before the noun counted (un miliard de ani “a billion years”), and in the plural for a very large, indefinite number, as in Sadoveanu's billions of insects; with money it can stand alone, the currency being understood.^[4] Climescu gave bilion as its synonym.^[4]

Timeline

• 1857 – the first record, in Polizu's vocabulary.^[3][4]
• 1870 – milliardŭ in Costinescu.^[7]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Milliarde.^[8]

Meanings

Numeral

1. A billion: a thousand millions; bilion.^[2][3][1]
2. (in the plural) A huge, indefinite number.^[2][4]

Related words

• milion
• bilion

Usage notes

DEX classes it as a cardinal numeral, Wiktionary as a neuter noun; the plural is miliarde.^[2][1] The ⟨i⟩ and ⟨a⟩ are pronounced in separate syllables, mi-li-ard.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 654
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 13
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. miliard
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 808
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 97
8. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 382