Myriad
Template:Short description Template:Other uses
In the context of numeric naming systems for powers of ten, myriad is the quantity ten thousand (10,000). Idiomatically, in English, myriad is an adjective used to mean that a group of things has indefinitely large quantity.<ref>Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2003, s.v. 'myriad'</ref>
Myriad derives from the ancient Greek for ten thousand (Template:Langx) and is used with this meaning in literal translations from Greek, Latin or Sinospheric languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese), and in reference to ancient Greek numerals.
The term myriad is also used in the form "a myriad" for a 100 km × 100 km square (10,000 km²) the grid size of the British Ordnance Survey National Grid and the US Military Grid Reference System. It contains 100 hectads.Template:Citation needed
History
[edit]The Aegean numerals of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations included a symbol composed of a circle with four dashes 𐄫 to denote tens of thousands.<ref name=Verdan>Template:Cite web</ref>
In classical Greek numerals, myriad was written as a capital mu: Μ. To distinguish this numeral from letters, it was sometimes given an overbar: Template:Overline. Multiples were written above this sign. For example Template:Greek numeral is 4,582×10,000 or 45,820,000.
The etymology of myriad is uncertain. It has been variously connected to PIE *meu- ("damp") in reference to the waves of the sea and to Greek myrmex (Template:Lang, "ant") in reference to their swarms.<ref>Schwartzman, Steven. The Words of Mathematics: An Etymological Dictionary of Mathematical Terms Used in English, p. 142. The Mathematical Assoc. of America, 1994.</ref>
In his Sand Reckoner, Archimedes used "myriad myriad" (Template:Overline, one hundred million) as the basis for a numeration system of large powers of ten, which he used to count grains of sand.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In English
[edit]Myriad may be used either as an adjective (there are myriad people outside) or as a noun (there is a myriad of people outside),<ref name=myriamwebster>Merriam-Webster Online. "Myriad". 2013. Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref> but there are small differences. The former might imply that it is a diverse group of people whereas the latter usually does not.
Despite its usually meaning (a large, unspecified quantity), myriad is sometimes used in English to mean ten thousand although usually restricted to translation from other languages like ancient Greek and Chinese where quantities are grouped by 10,000. Such use permits the translator to remain closer to the original text and avoid unwieldy mentions of "tens of thousands". For example, "the original number of the crews supplied by the several nations I find to have been twenty-four myriads"<ref>Herodotus. The History of Herodotus, VII.184. Translation by G.C. Macaulay, 1890. Accessed 1 Nov 2013.</ref> and "What is the distance between one bridge and another? Twelve myriads of parasangs".<ref>Janowitz, Naomi. The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text, p. 118. SUNY Press (New York), 1989. Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref>
In European languages
[edit]Most European languages include a variation of myriad with a similar meaning to the English word.
Additionally, the prefix myria- indicating multiplication times ten thousand (×104), was part of the original metric system adopted by France in 1795.<ref>L'Histoire Du Mètre: "La Loi Du 18 Germinal An 3". 2005. Accessed 1 November 2013. Template:In lang</ref> Although it was not retained after the 11th CGPM conference in 1960, myriameter is sometimes still encountered as a translation of the Scandinavian mile (Swedish & Norwegian: mil) of Template:Convert, or in some classifications of wavelengths as the adjective myriametric. The myriagramme (10 kg) was a French approximation of the avoirdupois quartier of Template:Convert and the myriaton appears in Isaac Asimov's Foundation novel trilogy.
In modern Greek, the word "myriad" is rarely used to denote 10,000, but a million is ekatommyrio (Template:Lang, lit. 'hundred myriad') and a thousand million is disekatommyrio (Template:Lang, lit. 'twice hundred myriad').
In East Asian languages
[edit]Template:See also In East Asia, the traditional numeral systems of China, Korea, and Japan are all decimal-based but grouped into ten thousands rather than thousands. The character for myriad is Template:Lang in traditional script and Template:Lang in simplified form in both mainland China and Japanese; its pronunciation varies between languages (Mandarin: wàn, Hakka: wan5, Minnan: bān, Cantonese: maan6, Japanese and Korean: man, Vietnamese: vạn, Thai: หมื่น muen and Khmer: ម៉ឺន meun).Template:Cn
Because of this grouping into fours, higher orders of numbers are provided by the powers of 10,000 rather than 1,000: In China, 10,0002 was Template:Lang in ancient texts but is now called Template:Lang and sometimes written as 1,0000,0000; 10,0003 is 1,0000,0000,0000 or Template:Lang; 10,0004 is 1,0000,0000,0000,0000 or Template:Lang; and so on. Conversely, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean generally do not have native words for powers of one thousand: what is called "one million" in English is "100Template:Lang" (100 myriad) in the Sinosphere, and "one billion" in English is "Template:Lang" (ten myllion) or "Template:Lang" (ten myriad myriad) in the Sinosphere. Unusually, Vietnam employs its former translation of Template:Lang, một triệu, to mean 1,000,000 rather than the Chinese figure. Similarly, the Chinese government has adapted the word Template:Lang to mean the scientific prefix mega-, but transliterations are used instead for giga-, tera-, and other larger prefixes. This has caused confusion in areas closely related to China such as Hong Kong and Macau, where Template:Lang is still largely used to mean 10,0003.Template:Cn
Template:Lang and Template:Lang are also frequently employed colloquially in expressions, clichés, and chengyu (idioms) in the senses of "vast", "numerous", "numberless", and "infinite". A skeleton key is a Template:Lang ("myriad-use key"),<ref>Nciku.com. "万能钥匙". Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref> the emperor was the "lord of myriad chariots" (Template:Lang),<ref>Wai Keung Chan, Timothy. Considering the End: Mortality in Early Medieval Chinese Poetic Representation, 23. Brill, 2012. Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref> the Great Wall is called Template:Lang ("Myriad-mile Long Wall"), Zhu Xi's statement Template:Lang ("the moon reflects in myriad rivers") had the sense of supporting greater empiricism in Chinese philosophy,<ref>Chen Derong. Metaphorical Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy, p. 29. Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2011. Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref> and Ha Qiongwen's popular 1959 propaganda poster Template:Lang, meaning "Long live Chairman Mao", literally reads as "[May] Chairman Mao [live to be] 10,000 years old".<ref>Yeh Wen-hsin & al. Visualizing China, 1845–1965: Moving and Still Images in Historical Narratives, pp. 416 ff. Brill, 2012. Accessed 1 November 2013.</ref> Its literary use may thus mean something huge and plentiful.<ref name=":Zhu">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp
In old Turkic
[edit]A similar term is the Old Turkic word tümän,<ref> The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language – toman Template:Webarchive</ref> whose variant forms remain in use for "ten thousand" among modern Mongolian, Turkish.<ref>Vietze, Wörterbuch Mongolisch – Deutsch, VEB 1988</ref><ref>The Silk Road And The Korean Language</ref> According to Sir Gerard Clauson (1891–1974), it was likely borrowed from Tokharian tmān, which may have been borrowed in turn from Old Chinese tman 萬 > wan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Hebrew
[edit]In Hebrew the word רבבה (pronounced "revava") means 10,000, and is the highest number represented in Hebrew. Its sources go back to biblical times.<ref>Genesis 24 60</ref> Its usage became very rare after the 19th century. The term 60 ריבוא ("60 ribo"), which literally stands for 600,000 is used several times in the bible to denote "a very large undefinitive number".Template:Cn