cento

Forms

cento m or f^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cento (1272) and çento;^[2] çiento is recorded in 1275 and çeto in the 14th century.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin centum (“hundred”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cento in the oldest texts.^[3][1][4] cem is a shortened form of the same word, from its use before a noun.^[5][2] In the medieval language the short and the full form were used without distinction, and Michaëlis noted that the full form was still used as an adjective until the end of the 15th century.^[5][6] Today the full form is used only before lower numbers.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician cento, Spanish ciento, Catalan cent, French cent and Italian cento.^[7][8][1] The Spanish shortened form is cien.^[9]

The Latin word comes directly from Proto-Indo-European, through Proto-Italic *kəntom, from *ḱm̥tóm.^[1][10] De Vaan writes it *dḱmtom and lists among its cognates cét, शत (śatá), ἑκατόν (hekatón), šim̃tas and 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳 (hund).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1272, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha puts it in the 13th century.^[3][2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it on its own, as in non podian achar ontr'outras mais de cento “they could not find more than a hundred among the others”, and a cantiga of King Denis says moran ben cento naquela rua “a good hundred live in that street”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) still equates cento with cem and gives um cento de moedas de ouro “a hundred gold coins”, aos centos “by the hundred”, and the card game centos.^[11] He also lists proverbs such as Quem faz um cesto, fará cento “who makes one basket will make a hundred”.^[11] Morais (1813) describes counting noventa e nove, cem, cento e um, and the poetic cento e cento “in great numbers”, which Vieira and Aulete illustrate from Camões.^[12][13][14]

In the modern language cento is the form of the numeral before lower numbers, the form in por cento “per cent”, and a noun “a set of a hundred”, used in counting fruit, eggs and the like.^[3][15][14]

Timeline

• 1272 – first record.^[3]
• 1275 – the spelling çiento.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the Flos Sanctorum fragment of Santiago de Compostela (copied 1380–1425) has cento.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa translates it with the indeclinable Latin numeral centum.^[17]
• 1712 – Bluteau records the card game centos and proverbs with cento.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais describes the use of cento in counting from 101 onwards.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. One hundred, used instead of cem before a lower number: cento e quarenta.^[15][14][1]
2. After a number, in percentages: trinta por cento “thirty per cent”.^[15][14]
3. (archaic) A hundred, the same as cem.^[3]

Noun

1. A set of a hundred units, a centena: comprou um cento de laranjas.^[3][18][1]
2. (in the plural) A card game for two players, each with twelve cards; piquet.^[3][14]

Related words

• cem
• centena
• centenário
• centésimo
• centúria
• Latin centum
• Galician cento
• Spanish ciento

Usage notes

Cem por cento means “a hundred per cent, completely”, and por cento gives its name to the sign %.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. centelha
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cento
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. cento
5. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cem
6. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. cento
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. centum
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 67
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cento
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 372
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 168
14. ^ a b c d e f Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. cento
15. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. cento
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cento
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cento
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cento