Words - skip - Brewer’s

Numerals

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All our numerals and ordinals up to a million (with one exception) are Anglo-Saxon. The one exception is the word Second, which is French. The Anglo-Saxon word was other, as First, Other, Third, etc. Million is the Latin millio (-onis).

⁂ There are some other odd exceptions in the language: Spring, summer, and winter are native words, but autumn is Latin. The days of the week are native words, but the names of the months are Latin. We have dæg, monath, gear; but minute is Latin, and hour is Latin through the French.

Numerals (Greek). (See Episemon.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.