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Jeg er kommet til at tænke over hvorfor romertallene hedder som de gør. C kunne være cento som er italiensk (og derfor muligvis også latinsk) for 100. M kunne ligeledes
stå for mille. Er det rigtigt; og hvad så med X, L og D?


Thomas Bendsen

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"Thomas Bendsen" <tbendsen@stofanet.dk> skrev i en meddelelse
news:1104_1007999269@news.stofanet.dk...
>
> Jeg er kommet til at tænke over hvorfor romertallene hedder som de gør. C
kunne være cento som er italiensk (og derfor muligvis også latinsk) for 100.
M kunne ligeledes
> stå for mille. Er det rigtigt; og hvad så med X, L og D?

Goddag Thomas Bendsen.

Jeg undrede mig også over dette for nogle måneder siden.
Her er svaret jeg fandt omend det næppe er autoritativt:

"The history of Roman numerals is not well documented and written accounts
are contradictory. It is likely that counting began on the fingers and that
is why we count in tens. A single stroke I represents one finger, five or a
handful could possibly be represented by V and the X may have been used
because if you stretch out two handfuls of fingers and place them close the
two little fingers cross in an X. Alternatively, an X is like two Vs, one
upside down. Although the Latin for 100 is centum and for 1000 is mille,
scholars generally do not think that C is 100 and M is 1000 because they are
the initial letters of centum and mille. The use of D could be a
representation of a C with a vertical line through it representing half. My
own views is that M arose out of the use of () symbols to multiply by 1000.
This theory is supported by the use of ( I ) for 1000 and I ) for 500. These
could easily become corrupted or abbreviated into M or D which they
resemble."

Hilsen Anders