Billionaire?

[Floella]

Is the word Billionaire an american or british word. I know they both mean different amounts of money, in america you are billionaire if you have a thousand million dollars but in the UK you need a million, million quid to be a billionaire.
Hope someone can solve this puzzle for me.
Thanks Flo

[Loosehead]

I imagine that the term Billionaire as is analagous with Millionaire was needed only when referring to the US Billion so I suppose the US first had a need for such a term so one may assume it's an American derivation of a English word. The British Equivalent of a US Billion is in fact a "Milliard" but I've never heard of a Milliardaire!

[Floella]

Thanks Loosehead. I read about a milliard while searching for an answer to this. Sounds more like a type of bird than amount of money.
I looked on wikipedia and they didn't know either so I guess I have to just assume its american as i suspected.

[Loosehead]

Well the word Billion is English but there's not up to now ever been a Billionaire, or what the US would probably call a Trillionaire, so it's only the 'aire' that was added by the US and only then out of necessity so it's am US extension of an English word, an as the language of the US is English then I suppose we are splitting hairs.

[Carol Anne]

So when we hear figures in this country (UK) referred to in billions, this means a thousand
million. In the US it is a million million. How on earth do govenments and banks on either side manage not to to get terribly confused when dealing with each other. As only one can be correct why don't we all use it alone?

[Loosehead]

No Carol the US is 1000 million when you hear "Billion" anywhere it invariably means the US Billion ie 1000,000,000. The UK Billion is 1000,000,000,000 and really just a historic curiosity these days but is a handy tool for pedantry! When then mention Billion in economics on the news it's the US Billion they mean.

[Postdog]

US Billion, UK Billion - I'd be happy with either!