Talk:Chiliagon

2006–2008 Comments
I've added more info on Descartes, but I'm not sure it's sufficient to remove the stub tag. Fish-Face 22:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the following:


 * 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)

I have removed the stub tag, because I don't think anything else needs to be said about it. -- Dominus 07:54, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

As for a citation, how's this?

http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm#H7 -- LordOfSmite 18:20, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Proposed merge with polygon
This article is too short to stand in its own right. I propose that its content be merged into Polygon. Any opinions for or against? -- Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 15:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay by me, 1e6-gon too. Tom Ruen (talk) 21:51, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. Shentino (talk) 04:19, 11 September 2009 (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)


 * Note that the 1e6-gon has been kept at AfD, for similar reasons. -- 202.124.72.200 (talk) 10:21, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Source/Reference for name
This should probably cite a source verifying that "Chiliagon" is the correct name. It seems like it should be "Kilogon". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.121.6.113 (talk) 06:09, 14 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Kilo- is a French prefix, but derived from Greek Chillia for 1000. I agree it should be explained and sourced. Tom Ruen (talk) 07:01, 14 September 2013 (UTC)


 * 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)
 * 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)