centaine French · revision 38681

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1170, Livre des Rois|origins=la centum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /sɑ̃.tɛn/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''centaine''' ''f'' (plural centaines)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|centeine]].^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873) Anglo-Norman also had ''centein'' and ''centene''.^(AND)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la-lat|centēna]], a military term for a group of a hundred men in the early 7th century.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(FEW|2, 584a) The Latin noun is the feminine of [[m|la|centēnus]], first a distributive, “a hundred each” (Cato), then used for “a hundred” (Virgil); as a noun it had already named the rank of a centurion in the 4th century.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) It is derived from [[m|la|centum|t=hundred]], the source of [[cent]].^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Petit Robert 2007) The ending ⟨-aine⟩ is probably due to a change of suffix, after the other collective numerals in ⟨-aine⟩.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Bloch and Wartburg treat it as either a derivative of the numeral or the Latin noun with its suffix replaced;^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Wiktionary analyses it as the numeral with the suffix [[m|fr|-aine]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ Cognate with [[pro|centena]] and [[es|centena]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found about 1170 in the ''Livre des Rois'', for a group of a hundred or about a hundred: ''od centeines e od milliers de cumbateurs'', “with hundreds and thousands of fighters”.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1155, for a company of a hundred men.^(AND)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word has meant both an exact hundred and, by extension, about a hundred.^(DHLF 1992) A temporal sense, “a period of a hundred years”, is found at the end of the 16th century in Saint François de Sales but did not last;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''la centaine'' for the age of a hundred (1762, Voltaire) may go back to it.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In arithmetic it is the unit of the third order in decimal numbering (''la colonne des centaines'').^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi) ''Par centaines'' means “in great numbers”.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ Littré also records ''centaine'' as a division of the population in the Germanic kingdoms, about a hundred families under one chief, and later the corresponding territory.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1155 – Earliest Anglo-Norman record.^(AND)

+ * c. 1170 – ''Centeines'' in the ''Livre des Rois''.^(TLFi)

+ * First half of the 13th century – The spelling ''centaine'', in the ''Sermons poitevins''.^(TLFi)

+ * Late 16th century – “A hundred years”, in Saint François de Sales.^(TLFi)

+ * 1762 – ''La centaine'', the age of a hundred, in Voltaire.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(arithmetic)'' A group of a hundred units; the hundreds, the third order of units in decimal numbering: ''centaine de mille''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # A group of a hundred people or things: ''des bougies vendues à la centaine''.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # About a hundred, a hundred or so: ''une centaine d'invités''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Par centaines'': in great numbers, by the hundred.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''La centaine'': the age of a hundred years: ''atteindre la centaine''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(history)'' In the Germanic kingdoms, a [[m|en|hundred]], a division of about a hundred families.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[dizaine]]

+ * [[douzaine]]

+ * [[quinzaine]]

+ * [[vingtaine]]

+ * [[cent]]

+ * [[centième]]

+ * [[la|centum]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A second, technical noun ''centaine'' names the strand that ties together the threads of a skein, first found in Old Norman as ''chaintaine'' (1280) and as ''centaine'' in Furetière (1690).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) It is probably the same word, first used of a skein wound a hundred times, though the TLFi doubts the FEW's reading of the first record.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The Académie (1835) notes a spelling ''sentène'', and the phrase ''perdre la centaine'' “to lose the thread, get muddled” is found in the 19th century.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}