Indefinite and fictitious numbers
Many languages have words expressing indefinite and fictitious numbers—inexact terms of indefinite size, used for comic effect, for exaggeration, as placeholder names, or when precision is unnecessary or undesirable. One technical term for such words is "non-numerical vague quantifier". Such words designed to indicate large quantities can be called "indefinite hyperbolic numerals".
English has many words whose definition includes an indefinite quantity, such as "lots", "many", "several", "a lot", and "some". These placeholders can and often do have a generally equivalent numerical counterpart, e.g., "a couple" meaning two (2) or "a few" meaning approximately 3 to 8. Other placeholders can quantify items by describing how many fit into an approximately-specified volume; e.g., "a handful" represents more peas than grapes.
In various Middle Eastern traditions, the number 40 is used to express a large but unspecific number, as in the Hebrew Bible's "forty days and forty nights", the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, the story Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, etc. This usage is sometimes found in English as well.
In Latin, sescenti (literally 600) was used to mean a very large number, perhaps from the size of a Roman cohort.
In Arabic, 1001 is used similarly, as in the The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (lit. "a thousand nights and one night"). Many modern English book titles use this convention as well: 1,001 Uses for ....
In Japanese, 八千, literally 8000, is used: 八千草 (lit. 8000 herbs) means a variety of herbs and 八千代 ( lit. 8000 generations) means eternity.
The number 10,000 is used to express an even larger approximate number, as in Hebrew רבבה rebâbâh, rendered into Greek as μυριάδες, and to English myriad. Similar usage is found in the East Asian 萬 or 万 (lit. 10,000), and the South Asian lakh (lit. 100,000).
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