"THE PROMETHEAN LOGOPHILE": The creative|imaginative|inventive lover of words."THE PROMETHEAN LOGOPHILE": The creative|imaginative|inventive lover of words.

ZENZIZENZIZENZIC

4/23/2024

zenzizenzizenzic: mathematical exponent where any number is raised to the 8th power

I've seen nonsense words and made-up words that seem more realistic than this. But it's legit. Hit up the Goog' if you don't believe.

To explain it a different way: just as any number raised to the 2nd power is squared or to the 3rd power is cubed, raise a number to the 8th power, and it's zenzizenzizenzic.

I know what you're thinking. You need to know if other exponents have names, too. As a matter of fact, they do, though none of them are quite as fun. Here's a cheat sheet. You're welcome.

x² = squared
x³ = cubed
x⁴ = zenzizenzike
x⁵ = surfolide
x⁶ = zenzicube
x⁷ = second surfolide
x⁸ = zenzizenzizenzic
x⁹ = cubed cube

There are more, but they're just iterations on these root words. There is one longer than zenzizenzizenzic, though: it's for raising something to the 16th power:

x¹⁶ = zenzizenzizenzizenzike

I'd love to know the etymology of these crazy terms. Why are they named what they are? Where did these zany z-names come from? Who's responsible, and which recreational drugs were they using?

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