Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Long and short scales" in English language version.
BILLION (les deux l se prononcent sans mouillure) n. m. XVe siècle, byllion, « un million de millions »; XVIe siècle, « mille millions ». Altération arbitraire de l'initiale de million, d'après la particule latine bi-, « deux fois ».[BILLION (the two Ls are pronounced without palatalisation) masculine noun. Spelled byllion in the 15th century when it meant a million millions; in the 16th century it meant a thousand millions. It is an arbitrary alteration of the start of million by inserting the Latin prefix bi-, meaning twice. Now rarely used. It means a thousand millions. It is an outdated synonym of Milliard. According to a decree of 1961, the word Billion received a new value, to wit a million millions (1012), which has not come into common usage.][permanent dead link]
Rare. Mille millions. Syn. vieilli de Milliard. Selon un décret de 1961, le mot Billion a reçu une nouvelle valeur, à savoir un million de millions (1012), qui n'est pas entrée dans l'usage.
Ce n'est qu'au milieu du XVIIe siècle qu'il fut réglé que les tranches, au lieu d'être de six en six chiffres, seraient de trois en trois chiffres; ce qui revint à diviser par 1000 l'ancien billion, l'ancien trillion, etc. [It was only in the middle of the 17th century that it was settled that the slices, instead of being from six to six digits, would be from three to three digits; which resulted in dividing by 1000 the old billion, the old trillion, and so on.]
