The cake is not a lie. |
We've spent the last 100 posts giving you our two cents. If you were wondering, the word cent came from the Latin word centum, meaning "one hundred", and was used in Middle English. Today we've got a few hundred words. That's words related to hundred and not hundreds of them!
It's seen better days... |
Centennial is another word that has its origins in centum. Centenary came from centarius in Latin, meaning "relating to one-hundred". The word century initially meant 100 of anything, not specifically years.
The prefix centi- is from French, though the French took it from centum as well for their new metric system which, despite a typically English opposition to anything French, made its way into usage in the UK along with the prefix.
The countries in red don't like the metric system very much. |
The word hundred was originally just hund in Old English, though there was an Old Norse word hundrath which meant 120 and not 100.
Feel free to voice your opinions on our labour of linguistic love in the comments below, or share with us on our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest.
Congratulations! I have enjoyed reading your posts, especially those on languages profiles. Please keep up the good work and your readers will keep sharing it as well as they only can ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe're delighted to hear that Olga!
ReplyDeleteOh! Didn't OLD English people get their hundreds and their dogs mixed up then!?
ReplyDeleteEspecially if they had hundreds of dogs!
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