Foreword

We communicate with others primarily with two basic human faculties: natural language and mathematics.

Language is predicated on our shared human experiences. We share an understanding of basic words like "mother," "father," "child," "day," "night," "warm," "dry," and "hungry." The word "parent" implies far more than just the idea of "an immediate ancestor." "Parent" elicits memories of our own parents, and if we have children, our experiences as a parent, and our conversations with and about other parents. Most language is very subjective and relative. We understand the relative meanings of the word "hot" in "hot tea," "hot lava," and "hot plasma" even though the actual temperatures are quite different.

Mathematics began with counting. Counting by making marks, moving pebbles, or uttering mnemonics may be one of the earliest human activities. Counting gives rise to the abstract concept of quantity. Children learn that five blocks, five goldfish, five birds, and five days are all connected by the abstract quantity of five. As an abstraction, a number can have perfect precision.

The subjective and relative nature of language and the abstract precision of numbers can create problems when we use language to describe numbers. We may use the word "teenager" to describe a young adult, but our intended meaning may not exactly fit the precise age range of 13 years ≤ x < 20 years.

Since our society tends to be far more literate than numerate, we often have difficulty expressing ideas which include abstract mathematical concepts. Many words have somewhat ambiguous meanings, but words associated with numbers usually have very precise meanings. Few people misuse the word "singular" which means "one of a kind," but its synonym "unique" is misused more often than not. Part of this problem stems from the gradual disassociation of number words from their original meaning. While popular misuse has denatured the meaning of "unique," it exagerates the meaning of "decimate." The word "decimate" literally means "to kill one out of ten," but it is often misused to mean "exterminate or obliterate." Most people realize that the Nineteen-Hundreds included the years 1900 through 1999, but few realize that the Twentieth Century included the years 1901 through 2000.

Another problem encountered is the distinction between a number of persons or objects (an integer number) and a continuous quantity (a real number.) In the English language, we distinguish among count nouns, mass nouns, and collective nouns. Count nouns refer to countable persons and objects such as "child," "boat," "house," and "piece." Count nouns have both a singular and a plural form, e.g. "one child" or "two children." Mass nouns refer to continuous quantities or immeasurable attributes such as "money," "time," "electricity," and "justice." Mass nouns usually do not have a plural form. Collective nouns refer to groups of persons or objects such as "family," "herd," "staff," and "class." Collective nouns have both a singular and a plural form, e.g. "one family" or "many families."

The term "number" is usually used with count and collective nouns, while the terms "amount" or "quantity" are usually used with mass nouns. Use the terms "few/fewer/fewest" or "many/more/most" with count or collective nouns, but use the terms "little/less/least" or "much/more/most" with mass nouns. To make things more confusing, units of measurement are usually considered to be count nouns even though they usually measure the quantity of mass nouns. Thus, "I now spend less money each month because I pay fewer dollars for rent."

We hope you find the Dictionary of Number Words useful. Please send your comments or questions to us at IGPL@comcast.net.

Stephen Clif Brown, Editor
Dictionary of Number Words