From ancient Greece comes this example of an indefinite hyperbolic numeral such as umpteen, zillion, and fifty-eleven: psammakosioi. Aristophanes coined this term, which was picked up by other ancient writers, and literally means “sand-hundred,” as in the vast number of grains of sand on a beach. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Psammakosioi”
Grant, you remember our conversation about indefinite hyperbolic numerals?
Yeah, umpteen, zillion, 5011.
It turns out that there was a similar term in ancient Greek.
It was samakosioi, which translates literally as sand hundred.
It was coined by Aristophanes and used by several writers in ancient Greek.
And I really like that, sand hundred.
You know, it’s just a vague number that is analogous to the number of grains of sand on the beach.
Oh, I like that too, sand hundred, because who’s going to count?
I’ll just take your word for it.
That’s how much sand is there.
Exactly.
I told you, sand hundred times to do that thing.
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