Archaic Roman numerals for big numbers
And other trivia as seen in Unicode tables
| Pictogram | Old Style | New Style | Numerical Value | Verbal Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | IↃ | D | 500 | half mill |
| ↀ | CIↃ | CD = M | 1,000 | full mill |
| ↁ | IↃↃ | DD | 5,000 | half big mill |
| ↂ | CCIↃↃ | CCDD | 10,000 | full big mill |
| ↇ | IↃↃↃ | DDD | 50,000 | half huge mill |
| ↈ | CCCIↃↃↃ | CCCDDD | 100,000 | full huge mill |
| D | IↃ | D | 500,000 | half mill bar |
| ↀ | CIↃ | CD = M | 1,000,000 | full mill bar |
| ↁ | IↃↃ | DD | 5,000,000 | half big mill bar |
| ↂ | CCIↃↃ | CCDD | 10,000,000 | full big mill bar |
| ↇ | IↃↃↃ | DDD | 50,000,000 | half huge mill bar |
| ↈ | CCCIↃↃↃ | CCCDDD | 100,000,000 | full huge mill bar |
| D | IↃ | D | 500,000,000 | half mill double bar |
| ↀ | CIↃ | CD = M | 1,000,000,000 | full mill double bar |
This is the system that eventually developed into the short scale of numeration common in the United States for numbers over one million, where “one billion” on the short scale is equivalent to “one milliard” or “one thousand million” on the long scale, and “one trillion” on the short scale is equivalent to “one billion” on the long scale.
The “‑illion” words in the short scale are another cant of portanteaus prefixed with a Latin cardinal number indicating the number of bars to be placed over the mill symbol ↀ for one thousand to indicate what power of one thousand the original “mill” of one thousand should be multiplied by, resulting in a total power of one thousand which is one greater than that indicated by the Latin prefix. The long scale of numeration uses a power of one thousand twice what is indicated by the Latin prefix on the “‑illion” in that system of rhyming slang for large numbers.
A cant is not necessarily criminal but technically and historically a “chant” or specialized language (mostly prosaic but occasionally poetic or rhythmic and very often rhyming) used for counting and dealing with large transactions in wholesale markets of every specialty of goods or stock bought or sold in large quantities for large sums of money. Thus any language or terminology for large numbers is called a cant, and it seems unavoidable.