centurion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English centurioun, also centurio,^[2] first borrowed from Latin centuriō (“commander of a century”) and later also borrowed from Anglo-Norman centurioun or Middle French centurion,^[3][4][2][5] from centuria (“a group of a hundred”), the source of century, and the suffix -iō.^[6][4][7][8] The OED records the sense from Old English, in the Lindisfarne Gospels, and notes a single Old English form centurius;^[3] Etymonline notes that Old English glossed the Latin word as Old English hundredes ealdor, "elder of a hundred".^[6] The Latin word is also the source of centurión, centurião and centurione.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The officer commanding a century in the Roman army: in the 13th century according to Merriam-Webster and Etymonline,^[2][6] and in the Wycliffite Bible according to the OED, which dates its first quotation to before 1382.^[3] Barnhart finds it in the Wycliffite Bible about 1384, and earlier as a proper name before 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the Wycliffite Bible the word was already extended to any officer commanding about a hundred soldiers.^[3][2] From 1650 it was used figuratively of anyone whose role is likened to a centurion's, a person who gives orders to others.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as a Roman officer who commanded a hundred men, quoting Shakespeare's Coriolanus.^[9] In the late 19th century sport gave it new senses after century: a cricketer who scores a hundred runs in an innings (1886) and a cyclist who has ridden a hundred miles in one journey (1893).^[3][10]

Timeline

• 13th century – the commander of a Roman century.^[2][6]
• before 1382 – any officer commanding about a hundred soldiers.^[3]
• 1650 – figuratively, a person who commands others.^[3]
• 1886 – in cricket, a batsman who scores a century.^[3][10]
• 1893 – a cyclist who has ridden a hundred miles in one ride.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An officer commanding a century, a unit of about a hundred soldiers in the army of ancient Rome.^[11][2][3]
2. Any officer in command of a hundred soldiers.^[2][3]
3. (colloquial) A person who has scored a century, especially in cricket.^[10][3]

Related words

• century
• cent
• centennial

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c 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 d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins