There may be many who often get confused between how many lakhs or crores make 10 million. However, rarely would anyone get confused between 1 Arab and 1 billion, because they are equivalent. In the American calculation system, thousand, million and billion values are used, however, in India, the values used are thousand, lakh, crore and arab. However, did you know that in Britain the meaning of one billion was not the same as it is now?
Today, one billion (1,000,000,000) means one thousand million. But, previously, there used to be a difference between what one billion meant in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Currently, one thousand million, equivalent to one billion (on the short scale), is the most common metric in the world in various other English-speaking countries. Meanwhile, in many European countries, one billion stands for one million million (on the long scale). In Britain too, this was the accepted meaning of one billion until the 1950s.
As per the Oxford English Dictionary, the word billion was coined in the 16th century from the word million and the prefix of two was added. It meant the second power of a million. This long-scale definition was then also used for trillion, quadrillion and so forth.
The American English opted for the short-scale definition of one billion from the French, which stated that one billion means one thousand million. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, since the 50s the short scale became widely accepted in technical writing and journalism.
Under the influence of the American calculation system, the short scale for one billion began to be used widely. In 1974, UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson confirmed that the UK government would use billion in its short-scale meaning. Further, when Robin Maxwell-Hyslop asked whether official usage would adhere to the traditional meaning of a million million, the then-PM stated that the word billion would be now used to mean 1,000 million and it would lead to confusion if the British Ministers would use it in any other sense. He also added that it might still get interpreted as 1 million million, however, he assured that if it is used, there would be no ambiguity to its meaning
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