Talk:Numeral prefix

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Just thought I'd say that 11 is "undecim" (numeral) "undec", "unde" (prefix)

Where comes this "zopi" from?

08 Dec. 2006: The link to phrontistery.info seems to be bogus as the site appears to be one of those parked advertising sites. Anyone now what a real link would be?

I would support merging the Greek and Latin prefix pages into this one. 66.171.157.133 18:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Chemical nomenclature

Organic chemistry follows these prefixes pretty closely, except for the first four, which are:

1 meth- 2 eth- 3 prop- 4 but-

Does anyone know why they differ? See: Nomenclature

Maerk 01:42, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, I found a few answers on the Online Etymology Dictionary:

Meth- comes from Greek methu, meaning wine; eth- is linked to ether; prop- comes from pro and pion, Greek words meaning "forward" and "fat", respectively (propane is related to fatty acids); and but- comes from Latin butyrum, meaning butter. So they don't have anything to do with numbers after all!

Should this be included in the article? I think it's anomalous enough to get a mention. Until now I thought that meth, eth, prop and but were Greek numbers, because I knew the others (i.e. pent, hex, hept, etc) to be derived from numbers. Perhaps others will have drawn the same (erroneous) conclusion.

Maerk 01:52, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

citing

The article currently sites some sources. If anyone feels more sources are needed, please list the remaining unsubstantiated claims here. Else, let's remove the tag. OK? — Xiutwel ♫☺♥♪ (talk) 21:00, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Old English

If "Twi" is considered the Old English Prefix for 2, "Thri" sould be included for 3 (as in "Thrice" - it is a word you can check a dictionary) but I don't know how to add it. 217.33.134.118 (talk) 11:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Prefixes from this column?

"The prefixes in this column are also unbound morphemes." Uh, what column is this referring to? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.240.25.63 (talk) 00:29, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

The "English" column. It's footnote number 2. 91.107.133.40 (talk) 13:39, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Mega-

I nominated megagon for deletion and the result was to keep. Any discussion on the inclusion of mega- for a million in the table for the article even if not literal?? Georgia guy (talk) 14:42, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I'd leave it out. It's part of a whole 'nother system. Maybe a link to metric prefixes?

And here I thought "megagone" meant "I'm so outa here!" — kwami (talk) 14:58, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

once, twice, thrice?

what comes after on- and twi- in the once, twice descriptions? anyone know? 173.180.202.22 (talk) 14:26, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK it stops at thrice. — kwami (talk) 16:18, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

Before thrice or after? 173.180.202.22 (talk) 02:53, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Neither after nor before, excepting that it then continues to "thrice". No further words in the series have ever been attested, outside arbitrary coinages that have not attained popularity. Double sharp (talk) 06:36, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Something funny

If ten is "decem-" then why is December the 12^th month? Why isn't it the 10^th month? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.170.75.177 (talk) 01:49, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

From December: "December gets its name from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name." Double sharp (talk) 04:19, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

metric numeral systems

Aren't the decimal metric system (ten to the x power) and binary metric system (two to the ten times x power) actual number systems? If so, why aren't they here?

Robert Dell (talk) 18:21, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

This table is for all numbers 1-10,000. These are the only numbers with numerical prefixes. Georgia guy (talk) 18:51, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

In principle you could derive Greek prefixes for a few higher powers of ten, i.e. 10⁵ decakismyria-, 10⁶ hecatontakismyria-, 10⁷ chiliakismyria-, and 10⁸ myriakismyria-, as these numbers appear spelled out in Archimedes' work. But I haven't seen anyone actually using these (though Modern Greek seems to have preserved the idea of expressing 10⁶ as 10² × 10⁴). Apollonius made alternative names, but these are lost. However, the article mentions Sanskrit prefixes, which should allow us to go further than we would ever need to. Double sharp (talk) 03:22, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Missing term?

Is there no prefix for zero? -- 86.121.6.228 (talk) 09:39, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Yes there is, but it's not common for obvious reasons. One example is "nullisomic" (having zero copies of a chromosome instead of the normal two). Double sharp (talk) 06:35, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

hecto-

Is the prefix hecto- correct in this listing? It is currently listed for hex (ἕξ) in column "Ordinal Distributive". Though from my knowledge it stems from ἑκατόν (100), backed by Hectolitre. --Masl (talk) 15:29, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

It's only used for 100 as an SI metric prefix, many of which are abbreviations, such as deci- for decim- (1/10) and milli- for millesim- (1/1000). Mild Bill Hiccup (talk) 08:25, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Otherwise the Greek prefix for 100 is... Georgia guy (talk) 13:09, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Prieur wrote in his explanation of the new metric system, at its legal introduction in 1795: hecto is an abbreviation of hécato or hécaton, meaning hundred, a hundred times. Actually hectos means, in Greek, sixth; so the entire word hecaton would have been preferred if it had not been too long for compound words. Furthermore, hecato and hecaton do not sound well in French, a serious drawback for a prefix that should become familiar. Hellenists will be aware that hecto is an abbreviation of hecaton ; but others will not care. [1] Ceinturion (talk) 14:43, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

Mixed Greek/Latin prefix series?

If mono- is a Greek prefix and bi- is a Latin prefix, then why do we have mono/bi word pairs like monolingual/bilingual, monogamous/bigamous, monopod/bipod, etc.? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.21.29.157 (talk) 22:40, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

It's because they are neologisms. They were not created to communicate with the dead from Ancient Greek or Rome. Ceinturion (talk) 15:00, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

No latin prefixes for 22,24,25?

I know i added some now but can someone explain why back then there were no latin prefixes for 22,24,25,31,120,2000,3000,5000,10000,80000, and 100000? Could someone explain why they didn't add any latin prefixes before? 24.150.136.68 (talk) 11:03, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Oligo-

Much as we list Greek-based "poly-" and Latin-based "multi-" for "many", I think we should list Greek-based "oligo-" for "few". If there is a corresponding Latin-based prefix, we'd list that too. If you know the Latin-based prefix for "few" would you add both of these? 64.132.59.226 (talk) 17:12, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

I know only one word with that prefix, Oligocene, which was a geologic period 30 million years ago. "Poly" and "multi" are prefixes for an unspecified number, but how is oligo- used as a numerical prefix?? Georgia guy (talk) 17:17, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Yes, excellent question: oligomer, oligonucleotide, oligopeptide, oligosaccharide, and oligoester are common biochemical terms. When the specific size is known, the "oligo-" is replaced with "mono-", "di-", "tri-", "tetra-" etc. When the specific size can be quite large, "oligo-" is replaced with "poly-". 64.132.59.226 (talk) 18:08, 4 April 2018 (UTC)