Monday, May 11, 2009

Umpteen choices....

It's a simple question, really, but I am a simple fellow, so I'll ask it anyway: what's your favorite made up number?

I mentioned "umpteen" on a Facebook update earlier today and have already been "countered" with bajillion and gadjillion (and their root, jillion), as well as eleventy, dubbed "the funniest number ever." Hmmmmmm.

I'm sticking with umpteen as my favorite non-number number, but here among my fellow writers, teachers, and poets I hope to learn of many more. Let me hear your number... and let's see if I get umpteen comments!

23 comments:

James said...

Can I pick "gobs"? Or is that a collective term and therefore not acceptable?

If it isn't, I will say squidillion.

Greg Pincus said...

You can pick "gobs" if you want, though I agree it's not meant to be a specific sounding number. I prefer squidillion. Sounds like it comes from Sponge Bob!

susan in portsmouth said...

Mine is actually a monetary amount - but I think it still counts...

a dollar three eighty-nine....

Rachel Green said...

Squinty - "There are squinty-four of them," she said.

Anonymous said...

I generally use gazillion.

susan in portsmouth said...

Oooh - I nearly forgot this one! My daughter, when she was tiny, referred to the largest amount of money she could think of as "a hilly-milly dollars!"

Amy said...

On the "gobs" front, I've always liked my younger son's favorite, which is "heaping wadges" (not sure that I've spelled "wadges" correctly, I'll have to ask). Sometimes it's increased to "great heaping wadges."

Kelly Polark said...

Buttloads? Or is that too inappropriate? ;)
We say fitty for fifty and hundy for hundred sometimes!

Regina Y. Evans said...

Hello!

My name is Regina and I just signed on to follow your blog. Anywho, the answer to your question... Heaps. Yes, heaps. Have an awesome day! -peace ps I like the sound of thruppance, too. Not sure if that counts!

morninglight mama said...

Last year, when my daughter was still a lovely 2-year-old, she made up a number that our family loves to use. Whenever she would hear someone ask what time it was, she would yell, "Forty-ten!" It did morph into general number usage, and not just time-specific, so that's our crew's favorite made up number. ;)

Anonymous said...

"eleventy" is pretty hilarious. I like "gazillion."

Greg Pincus said...

Oh, these are great! Thruppence should be real, and eleventy (and its variant, eleventeen) have always held a soft spot in my heart. And I love the kid-words that become part of the everyday conversation within a family (usually to the point where strangers cast odd looks because you use the numbers without even thinking about it).

By the way, from my Facebook friends come these other made up numbers - squat, squillions, and 867-5309. Nice!

Corey Schwartz said...

Oh, eleventy is a great one. I might have to use it in a picture book! My son counts 11, 12, 13, 14, 14-1, 14-2, 14-3. Pretty original.

Sarah Stevenson said...

Eleventy is a great one. The one I usually use most often is "bajillion," though.

Julie said...

Ever since Saturday Night Live (I think it was SNL - or was it Jon Stewart?) made up a news story about Bush misunderstanding the word "Brazillian" (they had him ask, "How many is a brazillion?") that word has entered our family lexicon. It not only means mulitple gazillions, but it lends a certain dumb-as-a-post patina to it all.

Anonymous said...

I think I use bajillion a lot, but I know when I am being hyperbolic I use 800. If the number is obviously more than 800, then it becomes 800 thousand, million, or billion.

jon said...

skazillion (or sometimes skajillion, depending on my mood).

eleventy's good too :-)

janeyolen said...

I am not sure if this is a real word or one my husband made up, but he told me that a "blevit" is one and a half units in a one unit container. I have always oved that.

Jane

Anonymous said...

remember scads?

Mrs. Scoobers said...

How about "unfinity," an infinitely small imaginary number>

Seedplanter said...

Here is one I have heard from my students: twelfty...
and kajillion is often used at home.
As for time: Zero dark thirty...meaning really late!

Unknown said...

This doesn't really count (I like elevently and we also use "fitty") -- but when I was a young teen visiting my great uncle in Seattle back in the early 80's, every other word out of mine and my sister's mouth was "gross," which he always followed up with "144, really?"

Cat Herself said...

Eleventy-nine, please.