million (French)

Where does "million" come from?

The word million traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European roots for 'one' and 'hand,' eventually forming a word for 'thousand' that referred to a 'full hand.' While the Latin word mille meant exactly one thousand, the term was later expanded in Italian by adding an augmentative suffix to create milione, literally meaning 'a great thousand.' French inherited this larger unit of measurement from Italian in the Middle Ages before it was eventually adopted into English.

Full etymology tree

• million (French), 'million (10⁶)'
  • inherited million (Middle French), 'million, 10⁶.'
    • inherited million (Old French)
      • borrowed milione (Italian), 'million'
        • compound mille (Italian), 'thousand, one thousand'
          • inherited mille (Latin), 'thousand; 1000'
            • inherited *smīɣeslī (Proto-Italic), 'thousand'
              • inherited *smih₂ǵʰéslih₂ (Proto-Indo-European)
                • compound *smih₂ (Proto-Indo-European)
                  • suffix *sem- (Proto-Indo-European), 'together, one'
                  • suffix *-ih₂ (Proto-Indo-European), 'Feminizes athematic nominal stems.'
                    • derived *-h₂ (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates collective nouns, which refer to groups or sets.'
                • compound *ǵʰéslom (Proto-Indo-European), 'thousand'
                  • suffix *ǵʰes- (Proto-Indo-European), 'hand'
                  • suffix *-lom (Proto-Indo-European)
        • compound -one (Italian), 'suffix used to form augmentatives'
          • inherited -ōnem (Latin), 'accusative singular of -ō'

Ancestors

• million (Middle French)
• milione (Italian)

Descendants and derived words

• million (Crimean Tatar)
• millionnaire (French)
• millionnaire (French)
• milyon (Louisiana Creole)
• milian (Polish)
• milijon (Polish)
• milion (Polish)
• miljon (Polish)
• milon (Polish)

Updated May 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris