centum

Alternative forms

• Centum

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centum (“hundred”). Its use in linguistics is due to it being a canonical example of a word retaining an original velar stop, as opposed to Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨‎ (satəm).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛntəm/ (Indo-European linguistics)
• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛntəm/ (exam score)

Adjective

centum (not comparable)

1. (Indo-European linguistics) referring to an Indo-European language that did not produce sibilants from a series of Proto-Indo-European palatovelar stops.

Noun

centum (plural centums)

1. (India) A perfect score on a board exam.

Anagrams

• cutmen

Adjective

centum (invariable)

1. used only in the term lingua centum

Alternative forms

• Symbol: C

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kentom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm. Formal cognates include Sanskrit शत (śata), Old Church Slavonic съто (sŭto) and Old English hund.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈken.tum/, [ˈkɛn.tũ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃen.tum/

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Numeral

centum (indeclinable)

1. (cardinal) a hundred; 100
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgicon 4.381

     Simul ipsa precatur Oceanumque patrem rerum Nymphasque sorores centum quae silvas, centum quae flumina servant.

     Together she entreats father Ocean, and the sister-nymphs who guard a hundred forests and a hundred streams.

References

• centum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• centum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• centum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• centum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to reach one's hundredth year, to live to be a hundred: centum annos complere
    
  • about a hundred of our men fell: nostri circiter centum ceciderunt