Re: EAK numerals

On 5/22/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> Philip Newton wrote:
> > On 5/21/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> >
> >> 1000 = xília (AG χίλια - neuter plural)
> >> 10000 = múria (μύρια)
> >
> > And I wonder whether these should take the "regular" adjective ending
> > -o, rather than continuing a plural. But I'm not sure about this
>
> Umm - on checking, I find that the combining form of 10000 is indeed
> μυριο-, but with 1000 both χιλια- and χιλιο- were used. In English we
> 'chiliahedron' and 'myriapod'; tho I notice the ancient Greek for the
> latter is μυριόπους  - how confusing!
>
> I need to think on this.
My MG dictionary wasn't as much of a help as I had hoped, then, since
it has μυριάποδο with -a- for "millipede"! (In addition to χιλιοποδάρα
and χιλιοποδαρούσα, both of which seem more colloquial to me, but
which have -o-.)

But e.g. χιλιοπλάσιος for "thousandfold", also with -o-, and the
unhelpful χιλιετηρίς "millennium", without a combining vowel.

And also μυριόπλουτος "stinking rich", μυριοπληθής "countless", and
μυριόνεκρος "extremely bloody (e.g. battle)" with -o-.

My impression is that you could do worse than use -o for both xílio and múrio.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>