Etymologically
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ἑκατόν

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /he.ka.tón/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /e.kaˈton/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /e.kaˈton/[1]

Forms

ἑκᾰτόν (hekatón) (ordinal ἑκᾰτοστός, adverbial ἑκᾰτοντᾰ́κις)[1] Arcadian ἑκοτόν.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hekətón, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm (“hundred”).[1][2] Cognate with Sanskrit शत (śatám), Avestan satəm, Latin centum, Old Irish cét, Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳 (hund) and Lithuanian šim̃tas.[2][1]

The initial ἑ- is explained in two ways.[2][3] Beekes, after Kortlandt, takes the word to be properly *dḱm̥tóm, related to *déḱm̥ (“ten”) (see δέκα (déka)), with a preglottalised /d/ that gave ε-;[2] the rough breathing was then taken from ἕν (hén, “one”).[2] Babiniotis and Etymonline see in its first syllable the numeral “one” itself, as if “one hundred”.[3][4] The Arcadian ⟨ο⟩ is a dialect treatment.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on: the Iliad uses it alone (2.448 and often) and with other numerals, as “a hundred and twenty” (2.510).[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The numeral is indeclinable.[8] It was the first member of many compounds, such as ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē), at first a sacrifice of a hundred oxen,[3][4] and Homeric ἑκατόμπεδος (hekatómpedos, “a hundred feet long”); a stem ἑκατοντα- was made after the tens in -κοντα-.[2] Its derivatives include the ordinal ἑκατοστός (hekatostós) and ἑκατοστή (hekatostḗ), a tax of one per cent.[2][5]

It continues in Modern Greek as εκατό (ekató) (and εκατόν in numbers from 101 to 199); its phrase “per cent” is a learned translation of French pour cent and English per cent.[9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it alone and in compound numbers.[6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Theogony and the Works and Days.[7][10]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus has the collective ἑκατοντάς (hekatontás, “a hundred”).[5]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has ἑκατοστή, the one-per-cent tax.[5][10]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as εκατό.[9]
  • 1590s – English borrows hecatomb, from its compound ἑκατόμβη.[4]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. One hundred.[8][6]

Word family

  • ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē)
  • ἑκατοστός (hekatostós)
  • ἑκατοστή (hekatostḗ)
  • ἑκατοντάς (hekatontás)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge