▪ I. cent1
(sɛnt)
[a. F. cent hundred, or ad. L. centum or It. cento. (The etymology does not justify senses 3, 4, exc. as cent may be a contraction of centime, centesimum, or other equivalent of ‘hundredth’.)]
† 1. ? A hundred. [a. F. cent.] Obs.
| a 1400 Octouian 1463 Hy[s] massengers..broght with hem many stout cent Of greet lordynges. |
2. a. per cent: for (in, to) every hundred; used in stating a proportion; esp. of the rate of interest.
[Perh. at first in the It. form per cento ‘for a hundred’; then pseudo-latinized as per centum (which could not have been used in Latin). Whether per cent. is merely an abbreviation of this, or is more or less due to the French pour cent, ‘for a hundred’, is not clear.]
| 1568 Gresham in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 182 II. 314 Th' interest of xij. per cent by the yeare. 1583 J. Newbery Let. in Purchas Pilgr. ii. (1625) 1643 The exchange..is sixtie per cento. 1635 Austin Medit. 240 Not as heere ten or fifteene per Centum. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 65 These Deales are..sold from foure pound per. Cent. to six pound per. Cent. 1667 Pepys Diary 30 Aug., By that means my 10 per cent will continue to me the longer. a 1687 Petty Pol. Arith. vi. (1691) 99 The Interest thereof was within this fifty years, at 10l. per Cent. forty years ago, at 8l. and now at 6l. 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5825/3 The Interest of one Penny per Centum per Diem. 1843 J. A. Smith Product. Farming 153 The ash of the turnip bulb contains 16½ per cent. of soda. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 403 During the 10 years ending with 1850, the entire population increased at the rate of 13 per cent. 1878 Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 54 People fancy that, if they get 25 per cent. more money wages, they must be 25 per cent. more wealthy. 1888 Resol. Ho. Comm. 6 July, That the Consolidated Three Pounds per Centum Annuities and the Reduced Three Pounds per Centum Annuities shall be redeemable, etc. |
b. three (four, five, etc.) per cents = three (etc.) per cent stocks, i.e. public securities bearing that rate of interest. Also attrib.
| 1822 Byron Juan xi. lxxvii, Where are those martyred saints the five per cents? 1828 Southey Ep. A. Cunningham, Of loans, of omnium, and of three per cents. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. xiv. (1855) 128 Her four-per-cents. were conveyed to her nephew. 1888 J. Morley Burke 291 A charge on the four and a half per cent. fund. |
c. cent per cent: a hundred for every hundred; interest equal in amount to the principal; loosely, a proportion which approaches this.
| 1576 Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 71 To gaine no more, but Cento por cento. c 1677 Marvell Growth Popery 38 Pay Cent. per Cent. more than the things are worth. 1705 S. Centlivre Gamester 1, O, impudence, she calls Cent per Cent fair dealing. 1709 E. W. Life Donna Rosina 36 The Cargo he had brought home at Cent per Cent profit. 17.. Burns Cure for all Care iii, There centum per centum, the cit with his purse. 1822 T. Mitchell Aristoph. II. 127 Hence with your registers, your cents-per-cent. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 29 Aug. 15/2 A score or so of sheep, which he had sold for nearly cent. per cent. in Scotland. |
3. A hundredth. ? Obs.
| 1685 J. Warner in Boyle Hist. Air xvii. (1692) 134 The Mercury subsided 9 Cents of an Inch. |
4. In various monetary systems the term used for the hundredth part of a standard unit. a. In United States of America (also in Canada; subsequently also in many Commonwealth countries and several other countries): The hundredth part of a dollar; a copper (or nickel) coin of this value, nearly equal (c 1890) to a half-penny of Great Britain. (Often taken as the type of the smallest current coin; whence such expressions as ‘I don't care a cent for’.) See also red a. 3 c.
Apparently the first mention of cent occurs in the letter of Robert Morris to the U.S. Congress in 1782, suggesting that the American monetary unit should be the 1/1440 of a dollar, and that a coin equal to 100 of these or 5/72 of a dollar (about 33/4d. Eng.) should be made, and called a cent. This proposal was not taken up; but it may have suggested the name ‘cent’ for the coin = 1/100 of a dollar, ordained by the Continental Congress on 8 August 1786 (see quot.). There exists, however, an American copper token, commonly called the Washington cent, bearing on one side a head in a wreath with the legend ‘Washington and Independence’, and date ‘1783’; on the other the words, ‘One Cent’, and the exergue 1/100. But it is not certain that 1783 represents the date of issue; this token was probably struck as late as 1789, the date 1783 being merely that of the conclusion of the War of Independence. Previously to the coining of the cent, or 1/100 of a dollar, and down to 1789, accounts were kept in dollars and ninetieths, a relic of the time when the Spanish piastre or piece of eight reals, called by the colonists ‘dollar’, was worth 7s. 6d. (90 pence) of the money of account of Maryland and Pennsylvania. (From notes communicated by the late Prof. J. W. Andrews of Marietta Coll., Ohio.)
| 1782 Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 275 One hundred [units] would be the lowest silver coin, and might be called a Cent. 1786 Ord. Continent. Congress. U.S. 8 Aug., Mills, Cents, Dimes, Dollars. 1803 J. Davis Trav. in U.S.A. 389 But I never wronged Master of a cent. 1804 Mitchell in Naval Chron. XIII. 160 Seamen pay twenty Cents. 1830 ‘Major J. Downing’ Let. 17 Feb. in Life & Writings (ed. 2, 1834) 68 They don't seem to rip up worth a cent since the first night they begun. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. 45 To pause at any paltry consideration of dollars and cents. 1863 Fr. Kemble Resid. Georgia 40, I will give a cent to every little boy or girl. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 335 Potatoes, 6 cents. per pound; sugar, 20 to 30 cents. 1872 E. Eggleston End of World 11, I don't believe that you'd care a cent if she did marry a Dutchman! 1902 Harben Abner Daniel 59 He'd cut her off without a cent. 1947 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1968) 12 If you marry that Alec, you don't get a cent. Ibid. i. 23 He left with my schnapper boat that he promised to pay for and never paid a damn cent. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 23/6 If Vancouver just had to pay for an orchestra it wouldn't make a cent. |
b. The hundredth part of the florin of the Netherlands.
c. A (French) centime.
| 1810 Naval Chron. XXIV. 302, 47 francs 20 cents. 1851 J. H. Newman Cath. in Eng. 111 A chair without cushion, two cents; a chair with cushion, four cents. |
▸ = euro cent n. at Euro n.2 Compounds
| 1995 Irish Times 15 Dec. (On The Margin Suppl.) 16/1 The Margins [sic] sources, deep in Brussels, believe that the ministers may opt for ‘cents’—in other words there will be 100 cents in a Euro. 2001 Times 27 June ii. 8/1 There will be eight coins ranging from one cent to two euros (around {pstlg}1.20). Each coin has the € on one side and on the reverse, the national symbol of the participating country. |
▪ II. † cent2 Obs.
Forms: 6–7 saunt, saint, cente, 7 sent, 6– cent.
[‘Called cent, because 100 was the game’ (Nares). If so, the word is, originally, the same as prec., but prob. taken independently from some Romanic lang. juego de los ciento, i.e. ‘hundred-game’, is the Spanish name of piquet. Cf. ciento.]
1. An old game at cards, said to have been of Spanish origin, and to have resembled piquet, with one hundred as the point that won the game. (See Nares, and Singer Hist. Playing Cards 267.)
| 1532 Dice Play (1850) 12 Because I alleged ignorance [of dice]..we fell to saunt, five games a crown. 1576 Househ. Bk. Ld. North in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. II. 244 Lost at Saint..15s. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 9 To play—post, cente, glebe, or such other games. 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 112 Playing at Cent, and at Triumph, though not so far forth as the Primero of Almaigne. 1600 Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood iii. 58 He hath Cardes for any kind of game, Primero, Saunt; or whatsoeuer name. 1608 Machin & Markh. Dumb Knight in Dodsley IV. 483 (N.) It is not saint, but cent, taken from hundreds. 1611 Cotgr., Mariage..a game at cards resembling (somewhat) our Saint. 1636 Davenant Wits in Dodsley (1780) VIII. 419 Whilst their glad sons are left seven for their chance At hazard, hundred, and all made at sent. 1636 W. Denny in Ann. Dubrensia (1877) 16 Cent for those Gentry, who their states have marr'd, That Game befitts them, for they must discard. |
2. A particular counter used in playing Ombre.
| 1768 Bellecour Acad. of Play 90 You are first to distribute twenty Counters and nine Fish to each Player; and remember that each Fish is worth twenty Counters, and is called a Cent. You will then agree on the value of the Fish whether it shall be five, ten, twenty or thirty pence. 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre 8 The larger round counters which used to be called Cents count as twenty points. |
3. Comb. † cent-foot, a game at cards.
| [1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 35 Suche playing at foote Saunt without Cardes.] 1640 R. Brathwait Boulster Lect. 163 Playes at Cent-foot purposely to discouer the pregnancy of her conceit. c 1650 ― Barnabees Jrnl. (1818) 53 At Cent-foot I often moved her to love me whom I loved. |