6.2: §124. A Table of Greek and Latin Number Words

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 79734

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

§124. A Table of Greek and Latin Number Words

	LATIN			GREEK
	Cardinal 1, 2, 3	Ordinal 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd	Other¹	Cardinal	Ordinal	Other
1/2	demi-²		semi-	hemi-
1	un(i)-	prim-	singul-	hen-	prot(o)-	mon(o)-
1-1/2			sesqui-
2	duo	secund-	bi-, bin-	dy-	deuter(o)-	di-
3	tri-	terti-	ter-, tern-	tri-	trit(o)-	tri-
4	quadr(i)- quadr(u)-	quart-	quarter(n)-	tetr(a)-
5	quinqu(e)-	quint-	quin-	pent(a)-
6	sex-	sext-	sen-	hex(a)-
7	septem-	septim-	septen-	hept(a)-
8	octo-	octav-	octon-	oct(o)-, octa-
9	novem-	non-	noven-	enne(a)-
10	decem- DECI-³	decim-	den-	dec(a)-
100	cent(i)-	centesim-	centen-	hecaton: HECT(O)-³
1000	mill(i)-	millesim-	millen-	chili(o): KILO-³

NOTES:

¹ The “other” Latin numeral forms include adverbs (“twice,” ”thrice,” etc.) and distributives (“one each,” “two each,” etc.). Note these additional sequences:

primarius, secundarius, tertiarius, quartilis, . . . decimalis
singularis, binarius, ternarius, quaternarius, quinarius, . . . centenarius, millenarius
simplex, duplex, triplex, quadruplex, quintuplex (“twofold,” “threefold,” etc., < plicare)
² The Latin word for “half” was dimidium, which became demi- through French. The regular combining prefix in Latin was semi- (not an independent word). In musical notation, a 64th note is a hemidemisemiquaver—the shorter the note, the longer the word.

³ The forms DECI-, HECT(O)- and KILO- are metric prefixes, adopted from French. In the metric system (SI = Système International), units of measure are divided by Latin prefixes, and multiplied by Greek. See §128.