millenta

Galician

Etymology

Attested since 1697. From millar, "a thousand", with a rarely productive suffix -enta, equivalent to English -ty, extracted by reanalysis from corenta (“forty”), cincuenta (“fifty”) etc. Compare Portuguese milhentos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [miˈʎentɐ], [miˈʎɛntɐ]

Numeral

millenta (indeclinable)

1. a thousand (loosely)

   Synonyms: mil, millar

2. a zillion; an undetermined large quantity
   • 1697, Francisco Antonio de Valle, Romance Galego:

     Eu non sei por onde empeze
     Nomear vosas grandezas,
     Vosos feitos, vosas obras,
     Porque non nacin Poeta.
     Si fora coma vn Ovidio,
     Que o mamou coa teta
     Non figera vinte copras;
     Figera mais de millenta.

     I don't know where to begin
     to name your greatnesses,
     your deeds, your works,
     because I was not born a poet.
     If I was like an Ovid,
     who sucked it in the tit,
     I wouldn't have made twenty couplets:
     I would have made more than a zillion.

References

• “millenta” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “millenta” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “millenta” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.