That's because base 12 (dozens) and base 60 (minutes) are commonly used across c...

cyco130 · on Dec 30, 2022

And the rules are:

- Use Latin for 1-10

- Use Latin 10n, 10n+1 and 10n+2

- Use Greek for the units + Latin for the tens for 10n+3..10n+9

The Greek-Latin mixup was probably caused by whoever invented the word hexadecimal (16). The older "sexadecimal" was maybe avoided due to the word "sex". "sedecimal" would be a bit more correct Latin but it doesn't seem to be attested.

peoplefromibiza · on Dec 30, 2022

> The Greek-Latin mixup was probably caused by whoever invented the word hexadecimal

it was simply very common to use Greek prefixes in Latin to indicate measures.

Micro, mega, nano, etto, etc. are all Greek words.

  micro -> mikrós (small)
  mega -> mégas (big)
  nano -> νάνος (small in its own kind)
  etto -> ἑκατόν (100)

hexadecimal comes from the Greek prefix έξι (pronounced exi in English it sounds exactly like sexy without the s)

there were absolutely no issues with the word sex, sexagesimal (from the Latin sexagesimus which meant the 60th) is still a thing.