noun
rare IndianA group or collection of a hundred things (especially poems, songs, etc.) or (rarely) people; a hundred.
Origin
Mid 19th century; earliest use found in William Taylor (1765–1836), reviewer and translator. From classical Latin centum hundred from the same Indo-European base as hund.
noun
Attributive Designating a group of chiefly western Indo-European languages having (voiceless) velar plosives (as in Latin centum) where cognate words in the eastern group have sibilants; relating to or characteristic of this group. Contrasted with satem .
It is disputed whether this division reflects a dialectal split in early Indo-European.
Pronunciation
centum
/ˈkɛntʊm/ /ˈkɛntəm/Origin
Late 19th century; earliest use found in Classical Review. From classical Latin centum hundred, after German Centum-, (now usually) Kentum- (chiefly in Centumsprache, (now usually) Kentumsprache centum language), with reference to those Indo-European languages in which it is assumed that the Indo-European palatalized voiceless velar plosives (as in Latin centum) did not become sibilants.