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Opinion devoid of evidence.


Standard fare for reason.com


The person who wrote this thought they'd be clever by using the SI prefix "centi", not realizing that it means one one-hundredth (as in "centimeter"). They should have used the prefix "hecto", which means one hundred.


It can be used either way, e.g. the word "century" means 100 years.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centi-

Update: looked into this more and the "centi" part of the SI system comes from the Latin word "centum" which means 100, not 1/100. Definitely seems either usage is acceptable.

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/centimeter


Yes, Latin centum means 100; hence century, and the prefix centi was invented during the French Revolution, meaning 1/100 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centi-). For hecto-, they took inspiration from the free ἑκατόν (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecto-)

(They did the same for 1000 and 1/1000, deriving milli from Latin millum and kilo from Greek χίλιοι, but used Latin for both deca- and deci-, and used Greek for both giga- and micro. So far for consistency)

I don’t see how it follows that either usage is acceptable.


That’s like saying risky and riskless can be used interchangeably because the both come from the word risk.

Edit: I don’t know why I even reached for an analogy, it’s exactly like saying hundred and hundredth are interchangeable.


No it's like saying biannual can mean twice a year or once every two years.

Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. Language evolves.


Maybe, but in Europe, you'll finish off your 33 or 50 centilitre beer in a sitting and possibly a few more.


I always admired how simple, yet clever the SI prefix scheme is: use Roman numerals for sub-units (centi-, mili-), and Greek numerals for multiplies (deka-, hecto-, kilo-). Although I guess a century ago average well educated person was much more familiar with Latin and Greek languages.


Huh, I had no idea about this distinction - quite clever.


If only. Deci- is from Latin, too, and both mega- and micro- derive from Greek.


And in the same breath, century is not 1/100th of a year.


But century is not an SI unit :)


Well, neither is centimillionaire either


I get the impression centimillionaire was a term invented so that journalists could make up headlines and stories that might seem relevant or interesting.


Yes, century, not centiury.


>The person who wrote this thought they'd be clever by using the SI prefix "centi", not realizing that it means one one-hundredth (as in "centimeter").

The "centimillionaire" to describe wealth of $100+ million has been used for many years before this thread's article. Here's an old newspaper article about Enron from 2003: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/business/company-man-to-t...

>In one year, Mr. Lay has been transformed from a centimillionaire with huge stock holdings to a multimillionaire whose wealth is mostly tied up in hard-to-sell assets.

And some extra trivia... your "correction" and the followup replies is replaying Groundhog Day... e.g. 9 years ago : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8319279


On the upside, HN was smaller back then, so debate about the word was briefer.


Phew, you helped me realize I have won at life and am also a centi-millionaire.


Sadly, there are many who cannot say the same because of their low net worth.


Maybe they are a milli-millionnaire?


“Centi” is just Latin for hundred, as in centigrade or centipede, or centurion and century.

It’s a convention of the SI system that Latin prefixes are the fractional units, but that’s not a feature of the Latin words themselves.


Also confusingly juxtaposed with milli* like it's 1/100th of 1/1000th.


I was about to counter with “centinarian” (is that a newborn?), but that’s actually spelled “centenarian”.


I would say the rest of the content follows the quality trend the headline established.


I would have gone with decibillionaire


interesting. I always thought a centenarian was someone 100 years or older. now I know it's someone one-one-hundreth of a year old or older.


Not every word in the english language uses SI prefixes.


is millionaire also incorrect?


Haikus consist of

17,000 millions

by definition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_(Japanese_prosody)


'Million' is the augmentative of 'mille'. It is a modern adoption, not a classic term.


then explain centipedes


1/100th of a pede


Pedes must be crazy, a million legs like that


It is because you are confusing an etymology (in 'centenary', 'centennial', 'centigrade'...) with a prefixing (in 'centimeter', 'centigram', 'centiliter'...).


The "hiatus" was bullshit in 2013 and it's still bullshit. See https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-g...

So much for the integrity of the Daily Mail and the denier who posted this.


"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard Feynman.


That headline could just as easily been "Facebook Agrees with Whitehouse Suggestion, Removes false Covid Posts".


safe and effective just two weeks!


Speculation and opinion devoid of actual evidence.


Sounds consistent with the Dunning-Kruger effect.


Seems like a well-reasoned argument. I wish, however, that there were more references to peer-reviewed literature for his assertions.


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