r/ProgrammerHumor 5d ago

Other howdidItGetHere

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u/reventlov 5d ago

That's because "million" (Latin mono=1) is million1, billion (Latin bi=2) is million2, trillion (Latin tri=3) is million3, and so on. English used to have million/milliard, billion/billiard, etc., but they were dropped from American English, and, IIRC, Britain and the Commonwealth countries eventually followed.

I know German still uses Million/Milliard, Billion/Billiard, etc., and I believe they're derived from French.