As an illustration of the legitimate result which is produced by the
attempt to express high numbers in this manner the term applied by educated
native Greenlanders[120] for a thousand may be cited. This numeral, which
is, of course, not in common use, is
_inuit kulit tatdlima nik kuleriartut navdlugit_ = 10 men 5 times 10
times come to an end.
It is worth noting that the word "great," which appears in the scale of the
San Blas Indians, is not infrequently made use of in the formation of
higher numeral words. The African Mabas[121] call 10 _atuk_, great 1; the
Hottentots[122] and the Hidatsa Indians call 100 great 10, their words
being _gei disi_ and _pitikitstia_ respectively.
The Nicaraguans[123] express 100 by _guhamba_, great 10, and 400 by
_dinoamba_, great 20; and our own familiar word "million," which so many
modern languages have borrowed from the Italian, is nothing more nor less
than a derivative of the Latin _mille_, and really means "great thousand."
The Dakota[124] language shows the same origin for its expression of
1,000,000, which is _kick ta opong wa tunkah_, great 1000. The origin of
such terms can hardly be ascribed to poverty of language. It is found,
rather, in the mental association of the larger with the smaller unit, and
the consequent repetition of the name of the smaller. Any unit, whether it
be a single thing, a dozen, a score, a hundred, a thousand, or any other
unit, is, whenever used, a single and complete group; and where the
relation between them is sufficiently close, as in our "gross" and "great
gross," this form of nomenclature is natural enough to render it a matter
of some surprise that it has not been employed more frequently.
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