Re: RE: billions across the world in english

Jeff:

> >The mistake of calling a billion what is really a milliard is purely an
> >American one, and perhaps even British.
>
> Jeez - and I always thought a milliard was some kind of duck....  :-)


I believe your are confusing this with the "trill"-ing sound made by a
Mallard duck. The etymology of which has lead to the American term:
Trillion.

Trillion -- A term, often favored by those of us with slightly liberal
inclinations. A "trillion" is composed of one "one"; a bunch of "commas" and
a dozen "zeros", (18 zeros in Germany). (Not to be confused by that other
"bird" the Mitsubishi A6M1 Type 0 -- the "zero" deriving from the Japanese
calendar year 2600.)

If there is any web related message in all this nonsense, it would be to
reiterate the simple fact that all so-called "English" words and terms
are NOT universal in their meanings.

A Zillion best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
www.temercraft.com/
www.newsredding.com/

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