[= F. trillion (N. Chuquet, c. 1484), It. trillione, from the stem of million with substitution of tri-: cf. billion.] The third power of a million; a million billions, i.e., millions of millions. (In France and local U.S., a thousand ‘billions,’ i.e., an English billion: see BILLION.)
The terms billion, trillion, quadrillion, etc., up to nonillion, are explained by N. Chuquet, in his Triparty de la Science des Nombres (lf. 2 r) printed in Bullettino di Bibliografia e di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche, XIII. 593 (Roma, 1880); also in the Arismetique of Ét, de la Roche, 1520. Both of these early writers explain billion, trillion, etc., as successive powers of a million, the trillion being the third power of a million, ‘a million of millions of millions,’ as always used in England. According to Littré, it was only in the middle of the 17th c. that the erroneous custom was established of dividing series of figures above a million into groups of three, and calling a thousand millions a billion, and a million millions a trillion, an entire perversion of the nomenclature of Chuquet and De la Roche, an error unfortunately followed by some in the United States.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xvi. § 6 [see BILLION].
1696. Jeake, Arith., 14. Others … call … the nineteenth place Trillion.
1706. W. Jones, Syn. Palmar. Matheseos, 8. Then the 3d. Point from Units stands under Trillions.
1802. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., VI. 337. He wished also to purchase the words billions, trillions, and quadrillions, in order to make his constituents comprehend the immensity of their burdens, and the profundity of his arithmetic.
1806. Hutton, Course Math. (1810), I. 5. Millions of millions, or bi-millions, contracted to billions, millions of millions of millions, or tri-millions, contracted to trillions.
1867. Denison, Astron. without Math., 226. You will find the tons in … the earth [to be] 5842 with 18 cyphers after it or 5842 trillions of tons.
Hence Trillionaire [after millionaire], one possessing property worth a trillion of pounds, dollars or other standard coin.
1861. Huddersfield Chron., 30 Nov., 8/5. And thus Sir John sees clearly that to whip the poor wretches now will be, as a first ‘benefit,’ to enable him to exact higher ground-rents for 99 years; and, as a second ‘benefit,’ to render his fortunate successor a trillionaire!
1873. M. Collins, Miranda, I. 19: The trillionaire might turn patriot and pay the National Debt without feeling it.
1886. Tinsley’s Mag., Oct., 323. A few trillionaires and struggling persons of that description.
