myriad

The myriad stands for a number of 10,000 ( ancient Greek μυριάς myrias "ten thousand", "uncountable amount"). The plural myriads usually stands for an innumerable amount.

In modern Greek , the myriad is still used in compound numbers. The million is called εκατομμύριο ( ekatommyrio ) in Greek, i.e. 100 times 10,000.

In the Anglo-Saxon language area , the per ten thousand character ‱ (i.e. the Unicode character U+2031) is also known as the permyriad character.

Delegated Use

The myriad is also kept in metaphors such as the upper ten thousand , which comes from the Bible: According to 2 Kings 24:14 ( 2 Kings 24:14 EU ), the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar 597 BC. The top 10,000 of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were exiled.

Number systems of other cultures

In the Chinese number system and in cultures that have adopted it ( Japanese and Korean number system ), the myriad ( Chinese 萬 / 万 , Pinyin wàn , Kant. / Jap. / Kor. Man ) is the largest elementary numeral and thus the base number for the specification larger numerical values.

One hundred wàn corresponds to the number that is called a million in German . Only this counting method is possible in these systems. Today this tradition is associated with the Arabic numerical system. The digits of large numbers are grouped in blocks of four digits each - in contrast to the blocks of three digits each in most European languages. Simultaneous translation of large numbers, e.g. B. not easy between Chinese and English.

In this cultural area, an unimaginably large number of wàn or man is used, which in this case can only be translated as “thousands upon thousands”, as in the expression “ ten thousand years ” (Japanese Banzai ).

Unit of measure prefix

In the run-up to the International System of Units , it was decided to introduce the prefix Myria for 10 ⁴ , i.e. a ten thousandfold, but then not adopted into the SI system.

Marked Myriameter a distance of 10,000 meters, which for example, when Myriameterstein was used.

Web links

Wiktionary: Myriad - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ Duden. Spelling, orthography. Bibliographisches Institut GmbH, accessed on June 29, 2018 (According to Duden, the myriad already stands in the singular for a "very large number, uncounted, innumerable large amount" , and the 10,000 is only mentioned under word origin).
↑ Stephen Webb: Clash of Symbols . A ride through the riches of glyphs. Springer, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-71350-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).

[1] Duden. Spelling, orthography. Bibliographisches Institut GmbH, accessed on June 29, 2018 (According to Duden, the myriad already stands in the singular for a "very large number, uncounted, innumerable large amount" , and the 10,000 is only mentioned under word origin).

[2] Stephen Webb: Clash of Symbols . A ride through the riches of glyphs. Springer, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-71350-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).