Zillion
From Freepedia
- This article is about the number. For the anime series, see Zillion (anime).
Following the pattern of naming large multiples of 10 (as in million, billion, trillion, etc.), zillion, jillion, gajillion, gazillion, bajillion, bazillion, squillion, skillion, kabillion, kajillion, bagillion, skajillion, etc. are indefinite and fictitious large numbers, or units of imprecise measurement, used in exaggeration. The size is dependant upon the context to which it is used, but can typically be considered large enough to be unfathomable by the average human mind.
Typically, these words are used in a humorous context, or used by for instance school children in loose, unconfined conversation. The faux number is most commonly used when wishing to present an unguessably large number in a large, whether realistic or not, way. It is often used to impress someone with the concept of an ambiguous numerical enormousness.
An adjective derived from zillion is zillionth. The other adjectives are similarly derived.
Since these are undefined numbers used in a colloquial context, they are not considered to have mathematical validity. (Some names coined to represent indefinite large numbers happen to have mathematical validity, because they are not new coinages at all but are in fact well-defined but non-standard names for large numbers. For example: Although "gagillion" is often used as the name of an indefinite large number, it is in fact the name of the number <math>{10}^{{3 * {{10}^{3,000,000,000}}} + 3}</math>on the extended short scale.)
Each of these numbers is by no means considerably larger or smaller than any of the other ambiguous numbers but can be conceived of as such, due to personal preference. Various authors and other persons have set their own definitions as to amount and order of fictional and ambiguous numbers, often related to their experiences with juvenile schoolchildren and their offered explanations.
In times past, product promoters used a similar expression, "A thousand-and-one uses", though, obviously, not implying that there is no 1,002nd use.
Example use
- From the television series Futurama, episode 1X06, "A Fishful of Dollars," where Fry is bidding for the last known can of anchovies in existence:
- Fry: "One jillion dollars!" [the crowd gasps]
- Auctioneer: "Sir, that's not a number." [the crowd gasps again]
- Musician Stevie Wonder uses the term "zillion" in the title of his popular song "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away".
- In the movie Monkey Business (1952), Cary Grant turned back as a kid because of an elixir of youth is asked a price for his formula and replies "A zillion dollars! A million trillion!"
- Children's entertainer and TV presenter Timmy Mallet frequently used the word "squillion" to describe large numbers of things on his Saturday morning show Wacaday.
- A popular joke focuses on a leader being told that a multi-national military force had suffered three Brazilian casualties. The leader is described as very distraught over such a huge loss of life, implying that he thinks "brazillion" is a large number. — Presidential Briefing rec.humor.funny
