brazillion

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Possibly originating from an old joke mocking former US president George W. Bush:[1]

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing on Iraq. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, seven Brazilian soldiers were killed in an ambush." "Oh, no! That's terrible!" the President exclaims. His staff sit stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands. Finally, the President looks up and asks, "Um... how many is a brazillion, exactly?"

Noun[edit]

brazillion (plural brazillions)

  1. (slang, hyperbolic) An unspecified large number (of).
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zillion
    • 2005 October 15, Uncle Davey, “A riddle that was set me...”, in alt.fan.uncle-davey[1] (Usenet):
      The chances against this ever happening being so vanishly small I don't know how many universes would need to exist for how many brazillions of years for it ever to happen at all.
    • 2008 August 7, Rev. 11D Meow!, “visual c++”, in talk.bizarre[2] (Usenet):
      there's about ten brazillion C++ tutorial things on the Interwebz.
    • 2013 January 22, Eiron, “battery boost”, in rec.motorcycles[3] (Usenet):
      The chance of igniting hydrogen while jumpstarting a vehicle is about one in a brazillion. The chance of accidentally touching some exposed metal with the red clip is about one in a hundred; the consequences can be severe if the ground wire is already connected.
    • 2013, Stephen Voltz, Fritz Grobe, How to Build a Hovercraft: Air Cannons, Magnet Motors, and 25 Other Amazing DIY Science Projects, San Francisco, C.A.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 68:
      A lot of the experiments in Level II and Level III of this book involve power tools. Quite a few involve projectiles. One involves fire and a brazillion flying sparks.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nuts Joke Book, London: Carlton Books, 2006, →ISBN, page 20