centenary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin centēnārius (“of or containing a hundred”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from centēnī (“a hundred each”), from centum (“hundred”),^[2][4][6][7] which is related to hundred.^[3][8] The OED notes that post-classical Latin also used the word for lasting a hundred years (in Jerome), for a county division called a hundred, and as a noun for a group of a hundred, a centurion and a period of a hundred years, senses that the English word followed.^[2] Barnhart notes that it is a reborrowing: the Latin word had already given Middle English centener and centenarie, a Roman centurion, before 1325.^[4] Compare French centenaire.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the number 100: about 1451, in John Capgrave's life of St Gilbert, a sense obsolete by 1909.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1607, in the sense "a period of 100 years",^[4] and Etymonline the noun to about 1600 and the adjective to the 1640s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant an officer over about a hundred soldiers (about 1453) and a period of a hundred years, a century (from 1591),^[2] the sense Barnhart and Etymonline give first.^[4][3] The sense "hundredth anniversary" is recorded in the OED from 1661,^[2] in Etymonline from 1788,^[3] and it is the only main sense left.^[7][2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "the number of a hundred".^[9] A unit of weight of a hundred pounds is recorded from 1598, now only historical.^[2][10] The adjective "occurring every hundred years, marking a hundredth anniversary" is from 1620.^[2] Etymonline notes that it is the usual British word where American English has centennial.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1451 – relating to the number 100 (obsolete by 1909).^[2]
• c. 1453 – an officer over a hundred soldiers (obsolete by 1653).^[2]
• 1591 – a period of a hundred years (obsolete by 1918).^[2]
• 1598 – a weight of a hundred pounds.^[2]
• 1607 – first date in Barnhart, a period of a hundred years.^[4]
• 1620 – adjective, occurring every hundred years.^[2]
• 1661 – a hundredth anniversary.^[2]
• 1888 – verb, to celebrate a centenary (obsolete by 1919).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hundredth anniversary of an event, or its celebration: The town marked the centenary of its railway station.^[7][8][2]
2. (obsolete, 1591–1918) A period of a hundred years; a century.^[2][8][6]
3. (historical) A unit of weight of a hundred pounds.^[2][8]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to a hundredth anniversary; occurring once every hundred years.^[7][8][2]
2. Of or relating to a period of a hundred years.^[7][8]

Word family

• tercentenary
• semicentenary
• sesquicentenary
• bicentenary
• quincentenary
• sexcentenary
• octocentenary

Related words

• centenarian
• centennial
• century
• cent
• hundred

Usage notes

Centenary is the usual British word for what American English more often calls a centennial.^[3][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House