In English, we have had the word "millionaire" all along to denote a rich person. This is due to the relative stability of the pound sterling and the dollar.But the old Italian lira lost a very great amount of value over the years, so that the old milionario had to eventually become miliardario (billionaire) due to inflation. This is what I was used to when I lived in Italy. But since the advent of the euro, they have once again reverted to milionario. A very, very, very rich person (like Bill Gates) can still be called a miliardario.
(in the photo, Paperon de' Paperoni, or Zio Paperone, aka Uncle Scrooge McDuck- e' un milionario e suo nipote e' Paperino, i suoi pronipoti sono Qui, Quo, e Qua- he's a millionaire and his nephew is Donald Duck, his grandnephews are Huey, Dewey and Louie)
