million-strong

The compound "million-strong" is a modern English formation following a Germanic pattern of combining a number with the adjective "strong" to denote the size of a group. The first element, "million," traces back to Latin mille (thousand), which, through Italian augmentation (milione), came to mean a thousand thousands. The second element, "strong," originates from a Proto-Germanic root meaning physically powerful or robust. In this specific compound, "strong" has semantically shifted from denoting physical strength to serving as a quantifying suffix, a usage that developed by analogy with terms like "hundred-strong" or "thousand-strong." Thus, the literal "strong as a million" evolved into the abstract meaning "consisting of a million units," primarily used to describe large crowds, populations, or assemblies.

Structure: million (number) + strong (having a specified number) - million: From Old French million, from Italian milione, from mille (Latin: thousand) + augmentative suffix -one. Functions as the numerical base. - strong: From Old English strang, from Proto-Germanic strangaz. Functions as a combining form to indicate a group of a specified size or number.