entry
quadragintillion
/ˌkwɑːdrəˈdʒɪntɪljən/An extremely large named number, typically 10¹²³
From Latin quadrāgintā (forty).
from Latin quadrāgintā (“forty”) + -illion.
Word Ancestry
from Latin quadrāgintā (“forty”) + -illion.
Latin had a wonderfully practical way to count forty: quadrāgintā. That old numeral stem survives in quadragintillion, where it is attached to the modern English machinery of -illion and inflated into a number so vast that ordinary counting has long since left the room. In the usual short-scale system, a quadragintillion is 1 followed by 123 zeroes—a written parade of digits that is longer and less memorable than the name itself. The first half also has linguistic cousins in words such as quadrilateral and quadruped, whose quadri- element points to the same Latin world of fours and groups of four. Online slang use treats the word less as a precise mathematical value than as comic exaggeration: saying you have “one quadragintillion” of something means you have an absurd, cartoonishly impossible amount. Remember it as Latin forty wearing an -illion costume: a respectable Roman numeral stem transformed into modern hyperbole.
The Story
Latin had a wonderfully practical way to count forty: quadrāgintā. That old numeral stem survives in quadragintillion, where it is attached to the modern English machinery of -illion and inflated into a number so vast that ordinary counting has long since left the room. In the usual short-scale system, a quadragintillion is 1 followed by 123 zeroes—a written parade of digits that is longer and less memorable than the name itself. The first half also has linguistic cousins in words such as quadrilateral and quadruped, whose quadri- element points to the same Latin world of fours and groups of four. Online slang use treats the word less as a precise mathematical value than as comic exaggeration: saying you have “one quadragintillion” of something means you have an absurd, cartoonishly impossible amount. Remember it as Latin forty wearing an -illion costume: a respectable Roman numeral stem transformed into modern hyperbole.
Modern Usage
An absurdly or comically enormous amount, often used hyperbolically online
Kin & Kindred
From 'quadrāgintā'·forty
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From '-illion'·A suffix for names of extremely large numbers
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary