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Be careful not to mis-pronounce this word. The ch is not pronounced as in "church", but with a sound that is not found in standard
English, which is like the ch in the Scottish
loch, or the Greek letter
chi.
The ancient Greeks may have pronounced the letter chi in this way, but English speakers do not: we pronounce it as k. The
OED confirms this. --
Auximines 13:21, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
This change has been undone. The article was not particularly short, had a citation for the facts that make the chiliagon notable, and other wikipedias have parallel articles. Thus it seems unsuitable for merging.
Cmprince (
talk)
16:41, 20 July 2011 (UTC)reply
It's not just a french prefix, it's an international prefix, the standard prefix the world over for anything. Furthermore, neither it being constructed from valid prefixes nor it being used by Descartes proves that it is a valid construction in modern English (at best it shows it to be valid in Renaissance era French). If this title is kept we would optimally need a statement from either a geometer or a lexicographer explaining why "Chiliagon" is a more valid term than, for example, "Tetralateral" or "Quintagon" (which are also constructed from valid prefixes) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
64.121.6.113 (
talk)
02:53, 21 August 2016 (UTC)reply
Except that "kilo-" is used for units. "-gon" is not a unit. Therefore, etymologically, the right thing to do to construct a word for a thousand-sided polygon would be to look at the exact Greek number word. (After all, you cannot possibly use SI prefixes to name a 40-gon, or a 65537-gon, so why should the 1000-gon be an exception?) So we look it up and find that the Greek word for "thousand" in the appropriate neuter gender is χίλια, which is transliterated to chilia, and we obtain "chiliagon". Just like how we name a 30-gon by looking up Greek for "thirty" (τρίακοντα, thus "triacontagon"), not looking for a nonexistent SI prefix for thirty (how would that makes sense?). There are long-standing exceptions ("nonagon") but even those are somewhat on their way out ("enneagon" is becoming more popular), and in any case these are for small numbers. I cannot see why a little-used big number of sides would be an exception.
As for the relevance of Descartes' text to modern English, simply searching "chiliagon" on Google Books gives you access to thousands of results, many of English books who have translated Descartes' text and commented on it, and crucially left the word "chiliagon" intact (and even without italics). I think that sufficiently proves that "chiliagon" is an English word. You will not find anywhere near that number for "*kilogon".
Double sharp (
talk)
03:17, 21 August 2016 (UTC)reply
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
mathematics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to
philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles
Be careful not to mis-pronounce this word. The ch is not pronounced as in "church", but with a sound that is not found in standard
English, which is like the ch in the Scottish
loch, or the Greek letter
chi.
The ancient Greeks may have pronounced the letter chi in this way, but English speakers do not: we pronounce it as k. The
OED confirms this. --
Auximines 13:21, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
This change has been undone. The article was not particularly short, had a citation for the facts that make the chiliagon notable, and other wikipedias have parallel articles. Thus it seems unsuitable for merging.
Cmprince (
talk)
16:41, 20 July 2011 (UTC)reply
It's not just a french prefix, it's an international prefix, the standard prefix the world over for anything. Furthermore, neither it being constructed from valid prefixes nor it being used by Descartes proves that it is a valid construction in modern English (at best it shows it to be valid in Renaissance era French). If this title is kept we would optimally need a statement from either a geometer or a lexicographer explaining why "Chiliagon" is a more valid term than, for example, "Tetralateral" or "Quintagon" (which are also constructed from valid prefixes) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
64.121.6.113 (
talk)
02:53, 21 August 2016 (UTC)reply
Except that "kilo-" is used for units. "-gon" is not a unit. Therefore, etymologically, the right thing to do to construct a word for a thousand-sided polygon would be to look at the exact Greek number word. (After all, you cannot possibly use SI prefixes to name a 40-gon, or a 65537-gon, so why should the 1000-gon be an exception?) So we look it up and find that the Greek word for "thousand" in the appropriate neuter gender is χίλια, which is transliterated to chilia, and we obtain "chiliagon". Just like how we name a 30-gon by looking up Greek for "thirty" (τρίακοντα, thus "triacontagon"), not looking for a nonexistent SI prefix for thirty (how would that makes sense?). There are long-standing exceptions ("nonagon") but even those are somewhat on their way out ("enneagon" is becoming more popular), and in any case these are for small numbers. I cannot see why a little-used big number of sides would be an exception.
As for the relevance of Descartes' text to modern English, simply searching "chiliagon" on Google Books gives you access to thousands of results, many of English books who have translated Descartes' text and commented on it, and crucially left the word "chiliagon" intact (and even without italics). I think that sufficiently proves that "chiliagon" is an English word. You will not find anywhere near that number for "*kilogon".
Double sharp (
talk)
03:17, 21 August 2016 (UTC)reply