DXXX

[desperance]

- and I do love the way Roman numerals build. Even the round ones. Though 'round' is metaphorical, of course: this particular number is far more down the spiky end of the spectrum, all those Xs.

It's reminding me this morning of how some languages can add meaning by adding basic blocks. Like Orwell's "double-plus ungood", but for real - Esperanto does that, at least, in exactly the same way. One base-word, as it might be "warm", and then a list of qualifiers to cover the whole spectrum from scalding-hot to frozen-cold. Double-plus unwarm. I like that.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

quote: ...I do love the way Roman numerals build

For large numbers (five thousand and above), a bar is placed above a base numeral to indicate multiplication by 1000:

* V for five thousand
* X for ten thousand
* L for fifty thousand
* C for one hundred thousand
* D for five hundred thousand
* M for one million

Slim - www.slimpalmer.com

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Now, see, I didn't know that. Thanks, Slim...

[jeremy-m.livejournal.com]

> Esperanto does that, at least, in exactly the same way

and even more in the same way in its slang mechanism for emphasis by repetition, 'plena' for full and 'plenplena' for really very full indeed, which I mention mainly to get in the much more amusing fact that Esperanto slang is defined by the global central committee for slang creation.

That somehow catches the precise essence of where slang shouldn't come from.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...and yet is so entirely Esperantic. Of course they have a global central committee for slang creation. I'm delighted; thank you.

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Did you know that V (=5) is not only half of X (10) in a numeric sense but it is also the top half of the letter X? And also L (50) might be construed as the bottom half of C (100) particularly if you are chiseling the letters in stone and only using straight lines. There are also some scripts where D might be seen as the left half of M (uncial, for example).

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I did know about the V/X conjunction (on account of boys' tricks with matches, largely). L/C hadn't struck me, but obviously should have done; D/M I will forgive myself for missing. But thanks for pointing it out.