Etymologically
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centenary

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 17:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /sɛnˈtiːnəɹi/, /sɛnˈtiːnɹi/[1]
  • US: /sɛnˈtɛnəɹi/, /ˈsɛntəˌnɛɹi/[1]

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

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