[Ads-l] Antedating of "Billion"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

In my previous message I cited an 1808 book review which contained the
word “billion” with the modern U.S. sense. I just noticed that the
passage containing “billion” is a lengthy quotation from the book
under review which was published in 1806:

https://books.google.com/books?id=EHpPAQAAMAAJ&q=%22much+clearer%22#v=snippet&

Year: 1806
Title: An Elementary Course of the Sciences and Philosophy: Contained
in a Series of Lectures Delivered by the Author to His Own Pupils . .
.
Author: J. B. Florian-Jolly

Unfortunately, all the copies of this 1806 book in Google Books are in
“No Preview” mode.
The book seems to be quite rare. WorldCat only lists five universities
which have the book.

William And Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Central State University, Wilberforce, OH
University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 3AA, UK
Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DR, UK

https://www.worldcat.org/title/614948054

Garson

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 10:43 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Fred Shapiro wrote:
> > billion (OED, 2., 1834)
> >
> > 1814 Peter Barlow _A New Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary_ s.v. _billion_
> >
> > The French mathematicians understanding billion to mean thousands of millions.
>
> Excellent citation Fred. Intriguing topic.
>
> In 1808 a writer in “The British Critic” discussed the ambiguity of
> the term “billion” and recommended defining “billion” as a thousand
> million. Apparently, his proposal was not adopted in the U.K. at that
> time. In the U.K. a billion was a million million in the past. The
> definition has been shifting during the past seventy years (I think).
> For example, currently, a billion is a thousand million “in official
> UK statistics”. (See further below)
>
> Date: July 1808
> Periodical: The British Critic
> Article: Florian-Jolly's Course of Sciences
> Start Page 36, Quote Page 40
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=EHpPAQAAMAAJ&q=%22much+clearer%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Moreover, the division of numbers into parcels of three figures, each
> classed under different names, will render the reading them much
> clearer: it is easier to say four billions than four thousand
> millions.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Website: UK Parliament - House of Commons Library
> Article: What is a billion? And other units
> Date: Published Friday, 23 January, 2009
>
> https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04440/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> What is a billion?
> What constitutes a billion is a source of occasional confusion.  In
> official UK statistics the term is now used to denote 1 thousand
> million – 1,000,000,000.  Historically, however, in the UK the term
> billion meant 1 million million – 1,000,000,000,000 – but in the
> United States the term was used to refer to 1 thousand million. The US
> value had, however, become increasingly used in Britain and the Prime
> Minister, Harold Wilson confirmed in a written reply in 1974 that the
> meaning of “billion” would be thousand-million, in conformity with
> international usage.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson

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