cento

Forms

cento (invariable)^[1] The old forms include Old Italian ciento in Florence and Siena, centu in the Marche and Pisa, and plural centi in some northern and central texts; the northern dialects have forms like Lombard zent.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin centum (“hundred”), an indeclinable numeral.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word survives across the Romance languages except Romanian, which took Romanian sută from Slavic: Dalmatian ciant, French cent, Occitan cen, Catalan cent, Spanish ciento, Portuguese cento and Sardinian chentu.^[4][2][6][7] It also passed into Albanian kínti.^[2]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *kəntom and Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm.^[1][8] It is one of the best attested words of the Indo-European family, with cognates such as Ancient Greek ἑκατόν (hekatón), Sanskrit शत (śatá), Avestan satəm, Lithuanian šimtas, Old Irish cét and Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳 (hund), the source of German Hundert.^[4][8][9] Nocentini explains it as an old noun derived from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”), a multiple of ten, and de Vaan as an ordinal formation, “the tenth ten”, from an older Proto-Indo-European *dḱm̥tóm.^[4][8]

In Tuscan, the numbers from 101 to 199 have shortened forms in ⟨cen-⟩ such as cencinquanta from the 14th century.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a charter from Osimo in the Marche, dated 1151, which counts bizantii centu de auro, a hundred gold bezants.^[2][4] A Florentine book of accounts has ciento in 1211, and the Proverbia super natura feminarum of the early 13th century has cento.^[3] The use for an indefinite large number is already in the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century, and LEI notes that it was already Latin.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the numeral served for a large indefinite number, as in Dante's “he gave him perhaps a hundred blows and he didn't feel ten” (gliene diè cento, e non sentì le diece).^[10][3] Boccaccio's Decameron set out to tell cento novelle, a hundred tales.^[11][10]

In 19th-century inns the lavatory was marked with the number 100, so that il cento became a euphemism for it (1846, Carena); French had numéro cent in the same sense from 1808, and Littré took it for a pun on sent, “smells”.^[3][12] DELI derives al cento per cento, “completely”, from American English.^[3] The derivatives include centinaio, about a hundred (1231–1232, Siena), centesimo, the hundredth part and a coin (1800), and the metric words centimetro and centigrado, which came from French after the Revolution.^[3]

Timeline

• 1151 – Centu in a charter from Osimo.^[2][4]
• End of the 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano uses it for an indefinite large number.^[3]
• 1211 – Ciento in a Florentine book of accounts.^[3]
• 1231–1232 – Centinaio is recorded at Siena.^[3]
• About 1313 – Dante uses cento (cento anni).^[2]
• 1799 – Centimetro is recorded, from French centimètre.^[3]
• 1846 – Il cento as a euphemism for the lavatory.^[3]

Meanings

Numeral

1. One hundred, ten times ten (100, Roman C): Il viaggio dura cento minuti.^[5][13][14]
2. As part of higher numbers: centouno, duecento, tremilacento.^[5][15]
3. With the noun understood: speed, a banknote, a race: andare ai cento all'ora, i cento metri, the 100-metre race.^[5][13]
4. A great number, many: Te l'ho chiesto cento volte.^[5][13][16]
5. About a hundred, with un: un cento persone.^[13][16][15]
6. After a noun, hundredth: pagina cento.^[5][14]

Noun

1. The number one hundred, and the sign for it.^[5][14][16]
2. per cento (%), per cent: uno sconto del dieci per cento.^[13][14][16]
3. The top mark in some examinations, such as the Italian school-leaving exam.^[14][17]

Word family

• centellinare
• centellino
• centenario
• centenne
• centesimale
• centesimo
• centigrado
• centigrammo
• centilitro
• centimetro
• centinaio
• centuplo
• centopiedi
• centomila

Related words

• Latin centum
• French cent

Usage notes

Cento is elided before anni: cent'anni.^[18][16] Cento di questi giorni! is a birthday wish, and al cento per cento means completely.^[5][18][16] Una ne fa e cento ne pensa is said of someone full of ideas or pranks.^[13][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 897
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 855
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
18. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli