centuria

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kɛnˈtʊ.ri.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [t͡ʃenˈtuː.ri.a]^[1]

Forms

centuria f (genitive centuriae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from centum “hundred”, perhaps on the model of decuria “group of ten”.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary explains it as *centu-viria, “a group of a hundred men”, with vir “man”.^[1] The numeral is inherited from Proto-Italic *kn̥tom, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dḱm̥tóm (“hundred”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it from Cincius onwards,^[4] who says there are sixty centuries in a legion.^[2] Köbler cites the agrarian law of 111 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the army it was a company of nominally a hundred soldiers, later about sixty, commanded by a centuriō, as in Varro, Caesar and Sallust.^[2][6][7] In politics it was one of the 193 units into which Servius Tullius was said to have divided the Roman people by property, which voted in the comitia centuriata, as Cicero's candidate who lacked a few centuries for the consulship.^[6][2]

In land surveying it was a unit of usually two hundred iugera (one hundred heredia).^[2][1] In Medieval Latin it was a hundred, a subdivision of a county, especially the English hundred, and its court.^[5] English century was borrowed in the 1530s in the sense “a hundred” of anything.^[8]

Timeline

• 111 BC – The agrarian law uses it of a unit of land.^[5][2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the voting centuries.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of military companies.^[2][5]
• 1530s – English century is borrowed.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A century, a company of soldiers (nominally a hundred).^[2][1]
2. A voting unit of the Roman people.^[2][1]
3. A unit of land, usually two hundred iugera.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A hundred (division of a county); its court.^[5]

Word family

• centuriālis
• centuriātim
• centuriō

Related words

• centum
• English century

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com