centenus

Latin

Latin numbers ^(edit)

		1,000
←  90		C 100	200  →	1,000  →
		10
Cardinal: centum     Ordinal: centēsimus     Adverbial: centiēs, centiēns     Proportional: centuplus, centumplus     Multiplier: centumplex, centuplex, centiplex     Distributive: centēnus     Collective: centuria     Fractional: centēsimus

Etymology

From centum (“hundred”) +‎ -(ē)nus (suffix forming adjectives and distributive numerals).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kenˈteː.nus/, [kɛn̪ˈt̪eːnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃenˈte.nus/, [t͡ʃen̪ˈt̪ɛːnus]

Numeral

centēnus (feminine centēna, neuter centēnum); first/second-declension numeral

1. (chiefly plural) one hundred each
   • 23 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.11.8:

     Sed Cumanae plagae concidunt apro saetas et vel ferri aciem vincunt, vidimusque iam tantae tenuitatis ut anulum hominis cum epidromis transirent, uno portante multitudinem qua saltus cingeretur. Nec id maxume mirum, sed singula earum stamina centeno quinquageno filo constare, sicut paulo ante Fulvio Lupo qui in praefectura Aegypti obiit.

     • 1950 translation by H. Rackham

       But the Cumae nets will cut the bristles of a boar and even turn the edge of a steel knife; and we have seen before now netting of such fine texture that it could be passed through a man’s ring, with running tackle and all, a single person carrying an amount of net sufficient to encircle a wood! Nor is this the most remarkable thing about it, but the fact that each string of these nettings consists of 150 threads, as recently made for Fulvius Lupus who died in the office of governor of Egypt.

Usage notes

This is part of the Latin series of distributive numerals. These numerals are inflected as first/second-declension adjectives; in Classical Latin, they typically accompany plural nouns (with which they agree in case and gender) and have the following functions:

• to express the sense “[numeral] [noun]s each/apiece”, as in hominis digiti ternos articulos habent, “a man’s fingers have three joints each” (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 11.244.3).

• to express multiplication after a numeral adverb, as in Gallinaciis enim pullis bis deni dies opus sunt, pavoninis ter noveni "hens' [eggs] need twice ten days, peahens' thrice nine" (Marcus Terentius Varro, Res Rusticae 3.9.10)

• to express the sense of cardinal numerals when used with pluralia tantum (plural-only nouns) such as castra "camp": for example, "twelve camps" is expressed by duodēna castra (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.105.5). Distributive forms are regularly used in this context for the number 2 and for all numbers greater than 4. For 1, plural-only nouns are used with plural inflected forms of the cardinal ūnus (“one”), as in ūnae scālae "one flight of stairs" (rather than with forms of the distributive numeral singulus). For 3 and 4, plural-only nouns are used with the plural inflected forms of trīnus and quadrīnus, as in trīna castra "three camps" (rather than with forms of ternus and quaternus, which tend to be used in distributive function).

These adjectives do not normally occur in the singular. Because of this, many grammars and dictionaries treat them as plural-only words and refer to them using the nominative masculine plural form in -ī, rather than the nominative masculine singular form in -us (which is often unattested in Classical Latin). However, some of these adjectives are attested in the singular in Classical Latin poetry (e.g. Sed neque Centauri fuerunt, nec tempore in ullo / esse queunt duplici natura et corpore bino..., Titus Lucretius Carus, De Rerum Natura 5.879, and Sic tu bis fueris consul, bis consul et ille, / inque domo binus conspicietur honor, Publius Ovidius Naso, Epistulae ex Ponto 4.9.64; "corpore bino" here seems to have the sense of "twofold body", and "binus ... honor" the sense of "double/dual/twofold honor"). Singular forms are also attested in postclassical Latin, where these adjectives sometimes have non-distributive meanings (taking an ordinal, cardinal, or collective sense instead). These alternative senses are sometimes continued by Romance descendants (e.g. Spanish noveno (“ninth”) from Latin novēnus).

The genitive plural of singulus is usually singulōrum/singulārum, but distributive numerals greater than one commonly use short genitive plural forms ending in -um rather than the longer forms ending in -ōrum and -ārum.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (distributive, normally plural-only; short genitive plurals in -num preferred).

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	centēnus	centēna	centēnum		centēnī	centēnae	centēna
genitive	centēnī	centēnae	centēnī		centēnum centēnōrum	centēnum centēnārum	centēnum centēnōrum
dative	centēnō	centēnae	centēnō		centēnīs
accusative	centēnum	centēnam	centēnum		centēnōs	centēnās	centēna
ablative	centēnō	centēnā	centēnō		centēnīs
vocative	centēne	centēna	centēnum		centēnī	centēnae	centēna

Descendants

• Old Galician-Portuguese: centẽo
  • Galician: centeo
  • Portuguese: centeio
• Spanish: centeno

Further reading

• “centeni”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “centenus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• centenus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “centenus”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC