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It's million, derived from M, Roman numeral for one thousand, one thousand one thousands is one million.

I think it's more directly derived from the French 'Mille Mille ', or 'Thousand Thousand ', used in finance.

I can't find any source for this, but it seems more likely MM is an abbreviation of "mille mille."

MM in Roman numerals would just be 2000. 1 million would be written as M with a bar over it. [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Large_numbers

It irritates me, because it is at odds with other abbreviations, such as MB and k (for thousand). Surely a single M for million makes more sense? If it were roman numerals, MM stands for 2000.

I bothers the hell out of me every time I see it. It has exploded in use over the last year. That tells me people are using it sort of like a fashion trend, maybe to look intellectual? Same with "that said", "having said that", and "that being said". I enjoy looking at hn posts to see how fast I can spot some variation of "that said".

I'm puzzled by this. What's the acceptable alternative to "that said"? "Given the above"?

Million. It's an accounting abbreviation (sometimes).

Edit: It may come from Roman numerals. M = 1000.