Also a fun lesson on how translating numbers can be just as frustrating as translating words. “Billion” in British English originally meant one million million - twelve zeroes. The word for nine zeroes, one thousand million, was “milliard.” (As seen here in blackletter, looking like someone pounded iiiii a bunch and sometimes the ink splats.) Presumably the only reason this didn’t continue as a constant source of strife within the international English community is that communication and cooperation (and war) made the problem evident long before any of us had much reason to describe numbers that high.

South Asian numbering systems make this even more of a pain in the ass. They name and comma-separate some groups with only two digits, because go fuck yourself. At least American English figures like “eleven hundred” are only colloquial.

Original post made by /u/michaelnoir on /r/100yearsago.