centuryn.
/ˈsɛntʃ(ᵿ)ri/, U.S. /ˈsɛn(t)ʃ(ə)ri/ I. Roman History.† 1. A measure of land area used in the division of agricultural land (esp. as part of the foundation of a colony), consisting most often of 100 heredia or 200 iugera (see juger n.). Cf. centuriation n. 2. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement of area > [noun] > a system or process of measuring land > ancient Roman units
actusa1398
centurya1398
jugera1398
scruplea1690
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. cxxix. 1380 Oure grete..mesured al þe wyde world; and deled þe prouynce..in regiouns, in place, in teritories; and teritories in feldes, in centories oþer centuries [L. centurias].
2.
a. The smallest tactical unit of the Roman legion, commanded by a centurion. Cf. maniple n. 2a.This unit had a nominal size of 100 men, but in the historical period its size generally varied between 60 and 80 men.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > unit of army > [noun] > body of 100 > Roman
centurya1450
a1450 ( tr. Vegetius De Re Militari (Douce) f. 47 (MED) In eueryche centurye þere moot ben of þese cartes and waynes..fyue and fyfty.
1533 J. Bellenden tr. Livy Hist. Rome (1822) i. 24 The first centurie of thir horsmen war namit Ramnenses.
1572 J. Sadler tr. Vegetius Foure Bks. Martiall Policye ii. viii. f. 17 There were also centurions or vnder captaines, which had the charge of a single centurie or iuste hundred.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. viii. 3 If I do send, dispatch Those Centuries to our ayd. View more context for this quotation
1671 M. D'Assigny in tr. P. Gautruche Poet. Hist. iii. xi. 136 At the Rear of every Century, did march a Commander..of the same power as our Lieutenants of Companies.
1740 tr. Le Fèvre de Morsan Manners & Customs Romans iii. iii. 242 Two Centuries, each of an hundred men, when the legion was six thousand strong.
1797 G. Baker tr. Livy Hist. Rome I. i. 77 He enrolled twelve Centuries of horsemen, from among the principal persons of the state.
1838 T. Arnold Hist. Rome I. xiii. 222 To seize and execute every centurion whose century had fled.
1850 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire II. xv. 199 The whole body of the legionaries, century by century.
1968 C. E. Brand Rom. Mil. Law iv. 48 These were young men,..distributed among the entire sixty centuries of the legion to fill out their strength.
2010 S. Junger War iii. iv. 241 The Roman army of the classical period used a formation of 130 men—called a maniple, or a double century—in combat.
b. In extended use: any body of (approximately) 100 soldiers.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > unit of army > [noun] > body of 100
century1550
1550 T. Nicolls tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War v. ix. f. cxliii The nomber of the Lacedemonyans may be coniectured by thys, that seuen bendes of theirs dyd fyght besides the Scyrites, who were fiue houndred. In euery of whyche bendes, were .v. Centuries [Fr. centuries].
1623 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. VII. O.T. xix. 237 As many centuries of Syrians, as Israel had single souldiers.
1757 W. Fawcett tr. M. de Saxe Reveries viii. 150 After the firing is begun, the centuries are to march up, and charge.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. lv. 547 They were deprived of sight, but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king.
1839 T. De Quincey Casuistry in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 461/2 Forty centuries of armed men..firing from windows, must have made prodigious havoc.
1908 J. Curtin Mongols iii. 56 A third uncle..went against thee [sc. Wang Khan] with an army, and thou didst flee with one century of men to the Haraun defile.
2010 L. McConchie Questing Road (2012) 290 We have sent out a century of soldiers under Kerrith's command.
3. Each of the 193 wealth-based political divisions by which the Roman people voted in the comitia centuriata (see centuriate adj.).According to Roman tradition, the centuries were instituted by the legendary king Servius Tullius in the 6th century b.c. They originally served a military purpose, and so were probably once identical with the units defined at sense 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > distinction of class > level or grade > of Roman people
class1533
century1586
classis1601
1586 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. lvi. 605 The publike assemblie had in Mars his field, which was distributed by tribes, wardes, companies, and centuries [Fr. centuries], to deliberate of the common estate, to create magistrates, and to decree new lawes.
1604 C. Edmondes Observ. Cæsars Comm. II. vi. i. 3 The people being deuided first into their Tribes, and then into their classes and centuries.
1614 T. Godwin Romanæ Historiæ Anthologia v. 115 Two peculiar officers called Censores à censendo..cessed and valued every mans estate, registring their names, and placing them in a fit century.
1720 J. Ozell et al. tr. R. A. de Vertot Hist. Revol. Rom. Republic I. i. 25 The Second Class consisted but of twenty Centuries, of those that were worth at least threescore and fifteen Minæ.
1793 W. Russell Hist. Anc. Europe I. viii. 473 If centuries of the first class disagreed, those of the second, the third, and of other inferior classes, were called in to vote.
1845 N. Amer. Rev. July 174 The Roman people voted by centuries; and the patricians were divided into centuries containing a hundred citizens each.
1851 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire III. xxxii. 497 Assembled in their centuries the Roman citizens appointed to all the higher magistracies of the republic.
1968 C. E. Brand Rom. Mil. Law ii. 8 Under the Servian constitution the Roman People..was divided into categories and classes, each with a number of centuries commensurate with its importance to the state.
2012 N. Rosenstein Rome & Mediterranean i. 9 The distribution of centuries was heavily weighted to the wealthiest class of citizens.
II. A period of one hundred years, and related senses.
4. In plural. With the. Usually with capital initial. More fully Centuries of Magdeburg or Magdeburg Centuries. A name for: the Historia Ecclesiae Christi, a thirteen-volume Protestant history of the Church from its beginnings to 1300, compiled at Magdeburg in the 16th century, each volume of which deals with a period of one hundred years. Also in singular (usually with preceding ordinal numeral): a particular volume of this history (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > other clergy > [noun] > Protestant who compiled church history > church history of
centuries1566
1566 T. Stapleton Returne Vntruthes Jewelles Replie iv. f. 135v Let him scoure out his note bookes, let him examine the Centuries of the Magdeburgenses, let him looke to the common approued tomes of the Councell.
1574 J. Whitgift Def. Aunswere to Admon. Tract viii. 471 Ambrose..himself was a Metropolitane.., as the authors of the Centuries testifie in their fourth Centurie.
1606 True Relation Proc. at Arraignm. Late Traitors sig. Vu3v The iudgement of the Centuries in this circumstance concerning Childericke.
1722 Mem. Lit. (ed. 2) I. 164 In the Year 1566, and 1573, six Dialogues were printed at Antwerp against the Centuries, and Foxe's Martyrology.
1762 New & Gen. Biogr. Dict. VII. 163 All the world knows what share he [sc. Matthew Judex] had in the two first Centuries of Magdeburg, and that it was a very heavy task.
1850 W. F. Hook Eccles. Biogr. VI. 252 Flacius..began that ecclesiastical history which is called the Centuries of Magdeburg.
1877 P. Schaff Hist. Creeds Christendom I. vi. 269 The first Protestant Church history, under the title of ‘The Magdeburg Centuries’.
1938 H. M. Smith Pre-Reformation Eng. 337 It was the age of..the Centuries of Magdeburg.
1964 M. R. O'Connell T. Stapleton & Counter Reformation v. 101 Of all the Fathers, protested the preface to the Fifth Century of Magdeburg, only St. Augustine had kept his doctrine of the total corruption of human nature unsullied.
2000 I. D. Backus Reformation Readings of Apocalypse i. 10 A conception of church history that was later to be adapted and developed by the Centuries of Magdeburg.
5.
a. Each of the successive periods of one hundred years reckoned forwards or backwards in time from a conventional starting point, esp. the date traditionally accepted for the birth of Christ. Frequently with preceding ordinal numeral.Since the traditional year of the birth of Christ is a.d. 1, the first century is traditionally regarded as a.d. 1–100, the twentieth century as 1901–2000, the first century b.c. as 100–1 b.c., etc. However, more recently a ‘century’ in this sense has been popularly taken as spanning the years in which the last two digits of each year range from 00 to 99 while any preceding digits remain the same; in this reckoning, the twentieth century is regarded as the years 1900–99 inclusive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > a century > as a specific century
century1585
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier with special duty > [noun] > guard > sentry
waitc1325
watchc1380
sentinel1579
century1585
rounder1596
sentry1632
vedette1690
1585 T. Bilson True Difference Christian Subiection iv. 809 A french-man, that perchance..florished in the fift Centurie.
1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 7 This sextine centurie.
1636 P. Heylyn Hist. Sabbath ii. iii. 82 Pope Meltiades, who lived in the beginning of this present Centurie.
1650 S. Clarke Marrow Eccl. Hist. Ep. to Rdr. Here they shall see in what Centuries, ages, and places the famousest lights of the Church..have flourished.
1771 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. liv. 233 The rebellion in the last century.
a1780 J. Harris Philol. Inq. (1781) iii. iv. 297 Soon after the end of the sixth century Latin ceased to be spoken at Rome.
1852 Ld. Tennyson Ode Wellington vi. 11 Thro' the centuries let a people's voice..Attest their great commander's claim.
1864 C. Knight Passages Working Life I. § i. 18 The learned had settled, after a vast deal of popular controversy, that the century had its beginning on the 1st of January, 1801, and not on the 1st of January, 1800.
1872 J. Morley Voltaire i. 4 Voltairism may stand for the name of the Renaissance of the eighteenth century.
1936 Discovery Nov. 337/1 The capital of a great Indianised empire extending over the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Java and Sumatra from the 8th to the 12th century a.d.
1955 R. Wilson Girls from Planet 5 xxii. 178 ‘In my papers the twenty-first century begins with the year two thousand.’ ‘Twenty-o-one,’ somebody insisted.
2013 New Yorker 18 Mar. 30/3 The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a revolution in punishment.
b. gen. A period of one hundred years. Also more vaguely (esp. in plural): a period of about one hundred years; a very long time.In early use sometimes more fully century of years.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > a century
secle?1533
siecle?1533
age1587
centenary1591
century1591
hundreda1656
cent.1687
centennium1828
1591 T. Sparke Answere I. De Albines iv. 69 There was neuer yet any one century of yeares, but it hath had new contentions.
1608 Bp. J. Hall Epist. I. vi. 153 I am deceiued, if the ficklenes of the Russian state, haue not yielded more memorable matter of history then any other in our age, or perhaps many centuries of our predecessors.
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ i. ii. 38 The time of Psammethicus, which fell out..about a Century after the beginning of the Olympiads.
1727 A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies I. Pref. p. xix Their Languages..being so numerous, that one intire Century would be too short a Time to learn them all.
1849 A. Alison Hist. Europe from French Revol. (new ed.) I. i. 115 Not years, but centuries must elapse during the apprenticeship to liberty.
1891 J. L. Kipling Beast & Man in India i. 8 Buddhism has been dead and done with in India proper for centuries.
1927 Melody Maker Sept. 845/3 Brahms..employed syncopation and cross-rhythms about a century before modern ‘syncopated orchestras’ were dreamed of.
1944 C. Barrett Platypus 11 Almost a century after the first specimen of Ornithorhynchus reached England.
2005 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Oct. 51/1 Political and cultural struggle over the origin of life and of the human species..has been a characteristically American phenomenon for a century.
6. A hundredth birthday or anniversary; the hundredth year of someone or something's existence.
ΘΠ
the world > time > particular time > an anniversary > [noun] > specific anniversaries
jubileec1386
quinquagenary1588
centenary1661
millennium1664
secular1706
coming of age1788
centennial1791
tricentenary1846
tercentenary1855
quinquennial1857
ter-millenary1864
sexcentenary1865
semi-centenary1870
bicentenary1872
septcentenary1873
quincentenary1877
sesquicentennial1880
quadricentennial1882
bicentennial1883
quatercentenary1883
tricentennial1883
tercentennial1884
quincentennial1885
octocentenary1888
quadrennial1890
quingentenary1892
octingentenary1893
ruby anniversary1893
semi-jubilee1893
septingentenary1893
millennial1896
millenary1897
quadringenary1905
quingenary1911
bimillenary1961
sesquicentenary1961
quasquicentennial1962
nongenary1966
octocentennial1994
the world > time > particular time > an anniversary > [noun] > birthday > specific birthday
twenty-first1873
a1631 J. Donne 50 Serm. (1649) xxvi. 228 This minute makes up your Century, your hundred yeares.
1789 Sketch Life & Char. Dr. Monsey 79 The accomplishment of his century was at hand; and he declared in the querulous voice of decrepitude, that he had outlived his pleasures and his friends.
1879 Chemist & Druggist 15 Aug. 319/1 Though it has not reached its century, the firm has attained a very respectable maturity.
2019 Chronicle (Toowoomba, Queensland) (Nexis) 26 Apr. 32 When it comes to turning 100 you'd be selling yourself short to stick to a single celebration, so Erla Irving enjoyed several weeks of special events to celebrate her century.
III. Senses relating to the number 100 in other contexts.† 8. A subdivision of a county or shire; = hundred n. and adj. 5a. Obsolete.† 9. In a number expressed in decimal notation: the digit representing the number of hundreds. Obsolete. rare.
7. A group or collection of a hundred things; a hundred. Cf. centum n.1 Now somewhat archaic.Formerly often used in the titles of collections of poems, songs, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > hundred and over > [noun] > hundred
hundc893
hundredc950
centc1436
century1582
centenary1625
ton1962
1582 T. Watson (title) The Ἑκατομπαθία or passionate centurie of loue.
1595 B. Barnes (title) A diuine centurie of spirituall sonnets.
1598 J. Dickenson Greene in Conceipt 4 A Centurie of sowl-tyring passions.
1605 Bp. J. Hall Medit. & Vowes I. sig. A5 (heading) The first Booke, contayning a full Centurie of Meditations and Vowes, both Diuine and Morall.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) iv. ii. 393 When With wild wood-leaues and weeds, I ha' strew'd his graue And on it said a Century of prayers. View more context for this quotation
1672 T. Manley Νομοθετης: Cowell's Interpreter Pref. sig. A4v Some Centuries of words therein totally omitted.
1705 tr. T. Boccalini (title) Advices from Parnassus, in two centuries.
1795 W. Mason Ess. Eng. Church Music ii. 136 The frittering of one syllable into almost half a century of semiquavers.
1854 W. J. Hooker (title) A century of ferns.
1855 R. Browning One Word More ii, in Men & Women II. 229 Rafael made a century of sonnets.
1883 A. C. Swinburne (title) A century of roundels.
1901 G. King et al. (title) A second century of new and rare Indian plants.
1968 Times of India 7 Nov. 14/4 Colin Cowdrey's recent completion of a century of Tests included three Tests after South Africa ceased to be a member [of the International Cricket Conference].
1999 Southern Lit. Jrnl. 31 98 Why are so many epigrams by so many other poets woven into the fabric of this volume, presented as part of a century of poems by Fred Chappell?
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > administrative divisions in Britain > hundred
hundredc1000
cantreda1387
cantref1606
century1612
1612 J. Speed Theatre of Empire of Great Brit. i. ii. 3/2 Elfred..ordained Centuries, which they terme Hundreds.
1646 W. Hughes tr. A. Horne Mirrour Justices i. 5 To every Century they appointed a Centeyner, and according to the number of the Centuries spake every Shire.
1735 M. Shelton tr. W. Wotton Short View Hickes's Anc. Northern-lang. 36 The Hundred-Courts, (so called from Hundreds or Centuries, into which all Counties were divided), or the Trithing-Courts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > hundred and over > [noun] > hundred > group of a hundred
centainea1450
centumvirate1661
century1773
centum1835
1773 S. Horsley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 64 299 Collect the corrections for the units, decades, and centuries of fathom in the approximate height.
10. slang. A hundred dollars (or pounds). Cf. century note n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money > a hundred pounds
hundred1542
century1859
ton1946
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money > a hundred dollars
century1859
yard1926
1859 G. W. Matsell Vocabulum 18 Century, one hundred dollars.
1860 Bell's Life in London 29 Jan. 4/1 An even century was betted on The Wizard, Umpire, and Lupullus against the field.
1888 F. W. J. Henning Recoll. Prize Ring 155 Having made up his mind that he was going to pocket the century.
1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel v. 79 ‘You must have made big money.’.. ‘I saved pretty near a century.’
1998 Guardian 18 Sept. (Sport section) 16/1 So how much do you want, Rodds?..I've gone for a century on next season.
11.
a. Cricket. A hundred or more runs, esp. scored by one player in a single innings. Also with modifying word indicating a score of half, twice, thrice, etc., this amount, as half, double, triple, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [noun] > running > century
century1864
ton1958
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > umpiring and scoring > [noun] > score > specific
century1864
boundary1896
Dorothy Dix1979
1864 Bell's Life in London 11 June 8/4 Another century was piled up before the second wicket fell.
1871 F. Gale Echoes Cricket Fields viii. 43 There are slang writers who will tell me that the Lions' or the Nonpareils' [batting] average will be over a quarter of a century.
1884 St. James's Gaz. 29 May 5/2 Mr. W. G. Grace and Barnes each scored upwards of a century in the same innings.
1917 Times of India 7 Dec. 5/2 Laverton put on a bit of a spurt and reached his half century.
1976 N. S. Ramaswami Indian Cricket iv. 30 A double century by C.K. Nayudu placed them in a commanding position.
2014 Times 4 June 61/3 Alex Hales..finally replicated his barnstorming one-day form in four-day cricket yesterday by scorching to his first championship century since August 2012.
b. Billiards and Snooker. A score of 100 or more points. Frequently in century break.
ΚΠ
1884 Times of India 9 July 3/4 Frost..was accredited with 750 very shortly after Roberts had attained his century.
1900 Irish Times 19 Dec. 3/5 The only century break being 129 by Reece.
1979 Guardian 24 Nov. 24/6 A magnificent break of 102, only the second century break of the championships.
1998 J. White & R. Kingsland Behind White Ball (1999) v. 46 I made a 133—Meo made a 118—then Meo made a 90-odd—and I made a 70-odd. I finished off with another century.
12. Cycling. A ride or race of a hundred or more miles (or kilometres). Also with modifying word, as half, double, etc.Recorded earliest in century run (see Compounds 1b).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > racing or race > racing with vehicles > bicycle race > [noun] > types of
century1883
pursuit1897
madison1927
omnium1947
pursuiter1951
cyclo-cross1953
keirin1957
kermesse1963
bicycle motocross1973
cyclosportive1999
alley cat2003
sportive2005
1883 Outing Oct. Index to Vols. I. & II. p. i/2 Century Runs.
1883 Outing Dec. 233/2 Distance, 107 miles. Claflin had another fall, and..decided to be content with his century.
1915 Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) 18 Jan. 8/5 One double century, 200 miles in 24 hours.
1996 Cycle Touring & Campaigning Apr. 22 (advt.) Each event will feature an imperial (100 miles) and metric (100km) Century and Quarter Century (25 mile) saunter for families and ‘easy riders’.
2003 G. Kolata Ultimate Fitness vii. 157 Bill died..while training for a 200-mile ride, a double century.
Compounds
C1. attributive and objective.
a. Cricket. In sense 11a, as century maker, century scorer, century stand, etc.
ΚΠ
1872 Bell's Life in London 29 June 3/4 No less than seven ‘century’ scorers in previous matches.
1902 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 629/1 Watch the reception in the pavilion of the century-maker.
1938 Manch. Guardian 22 July 4/1 (heading) Another century score to Fagg.
1994 I. Botham My Autobiogr. xiv. 267 During the innings I shared a century stand with David Gower.
2001 Times 31 Aug. (Sports section) s7/5 Pakistan had five century-makers in their total of 546 for three declared.
b. Cycling. In sense 12, as century ride, century rider, century run, etc.
ΚΠ
18831Century Runs [see sense 12].
1922 Motorcycle & Bicycle Illustr. 24 Aug. 35/2 The big century ride in 1889 when 132 Terre Haute riders started and 129 of them finished in less than 10 hours.
1989 Los Angeles Times 29 June ix. 1/1 Millard has ridden six century races this year.
2008 S. Duling Road Biking: Northern New Eng. ii. 15 Everyone—even the most serious century riders—should plan to stop in Pawlet.
C2. With the first element in the singular.† century-circled adj. poetic Obsolete (esp. of a tree) very old.† century writer n. Obsolete = Centuriator n.; cf. sense 4.
ΚΠ
1846 J. G. Whittier in U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Apr. 257 The century-circled oak.
1849 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel & Gaz. 5 Jan. The clatter of their mills Awoke an echo..From the century circled hills.
1896 Los Angeles Times 11 Feb. 11/2 I..saw Pinto sitting astride in the topmost fork of the century-circled oak.
century clock n. figurative (now rare) a notional clock recording the passage of centuries (and years), rather than hours and minutes.
ΚΠ
1862 R. W. Emerson in Atlantic Monthly Jan. 135/1 If we did not find the reflection of ourselves in the eyes of the young people, we could not know that the century-clock had struck seventy instead of twenty.
1905 N. Amer. Rev. Dec. 864 The spiritual imagination of English literature fled away..at the dying of the seventeenth century... It was away, as though the seventeen strokes of the century clock had rung a recognized and inevitable hour of farewell.
1997 G. J. Williams Our Moonlight Revels vi. 132 A reaffirmation of traditions as the century clock turned twelve and amid the growing sense that an era was ending.
century-long adj. lasting for (approximately) a hundred years.In quot. 1924 as adv.: for a hundred years.
ΚΠ
1867 Spectator 16 May 549/2 The triumphant passage of the Sphynx on her way to her century-long resting-place among her sisters.
1924 R. Graves Mock Beggar Hall 62 They themselves May century-long be doomed to walk these rooms.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. i. 4 A century-long controversy.
2010 Daily Tel. 27 Sept. 14/6 The Cox's century-long reign as Britain's favourite home-grown apple could soon come to an end as consumers switch to the sweeter taste of the rival Gala.
century note n. U.S. slang a one-hundred-dollar bill.
ΚΠ
1903 National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 12 Dec. 6/2 Murray handed him a century note and told him never to let him see his face again.
1948 J. Maresca My Flag is Down xix. 127 Once the century note is passed the husband orders me to turn back to the first address.
2011 N.Y. Mag. 21 Feb. 142/3 Should you pay a century note for these weird, unfinished goods?
century-old adj. designating something which is (approximately) a hundred years old.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > age > [adjective] > specific age
seven?1440
yearing1451
year-old1556
yeared1583
seventy1590
two-year1596
quinquagenarian1603
septuagenary1605
twelvea1616
thirty1618
three-yearling1621
one-eared1645
quadragenarious1656
trimenstruous1656
septennian1662
sexagenarian1663
sexagenary1663
octogenarya1696
seven-year-old1713
quinquagenary1715
yearling1729
septuagesimal1781
septuagenarian1793
octogenarian1818
fortyish1821
seventeen-year-old1821
three-year-old1825
week-old1826
centenarian1828
day-old1831
70-year-old1832
quadragenarian1834
century-old1836
nonagenarian1877
teenaged1913
thirtyish1925
1836 Ladies' Compan. May 52/1 The century-old tree.
1958 B. Abel-Smith in N. Mackenzie Conviction 63 The eerie, century-old building.
2009 New Yorker 16 Mar. 30/3 The century-old, world-changing aesthetic of Isadora Duncan.
century plant n. an agave (some of which mature very slowly and take a number of years to come into flower); esp. Agave americana.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Amaryllidaceae > [noun] > types of
maguey1555
melt1605
pancratium1664
aloe1665
pita1698
mescal1709
maypole1750
agave1760
poison bulb1776
kukumakranka1793
furcraea1821
zephyranthes1821
century plant1827
mescal button1887
tequila plant1979
1827 U.S. Rev. & Lit. Gaz. Sept. 445 An interesting account is given of the Agavé, or American Aloe, the curious plant which is generally supposed not to flower until it has lived to the age of one hundred years, when the effort costs it its life; thence commonly called the Century-plant.
1884 Harper's Mag. Jan. 193/2 The great gray-blue swords of the century-plant.
1946 Liberty 25 May 73/3 Maguey (the century plant) is cultivated in vast farms along this section of highway.
2003 P. Martin Mammoth Bk. Cocktails ii. 22 Tequila is created from the blue Mezcal, a member of the Agave family otherwise known in America as the century plant.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > other clergy > [noun] > Protestant who compiled church history
Centuriator1575
Magdeburgian1582
century writer1584
Centurist1585
1584 J. Rainolds & J. Hart Summe of Conf. vii. 401 The lyes, staines, and fraudes of the Centurie-writers.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies iii. iv. 79 The Centurie-writers make out of Dionysius Alexandrinus his Epistle..that the Custome of the Church of Alexandria..was, ut mensæ assisterent.
1705 H. Newcome Transubstant. Discuss'd i. 119 The positive Evidence of Godfridus, the Century-Writers, and St. Bernard himself.
1883 Dublin Rev. Oct. 373 Among the first and chief of the century writers, or Centuriators of Magdeburg, was Flaccus Illyricus.
century year n. a year having a date that is divisible by 100; a year marking the end (or beginning) of a century (see note at sense 5a).
ΚΠ
1704 R. Sault tr. W. Beveridge in tr. A. Strauch Breviarium Chronologicum (ed. 2) i. vi. 42 After the 1600 year of Christ, every hundredth year..should be so managed that only one of four of these hundredth or Century years [L. annis centesimis] should be a Leap year.
1865 P. Smith Hist. World III. 250 Those century-years only, the number of which is divisible by 400, are leap years.
1961 New Scientist 30 Mar. 829/2 The corrections which the Gregorian calendar introduces in century years.
2008 J. Bryant & C. Sangwin How Round is your Circle? ix. 183 The year 2000 was a leap year, despite being a century year.
C3. With the first element in the plural, forming adjectives relating to age and duration, as centuries-aged, centuries-long, centuries-old, etc., adjs. Cf. century-long adj., century-old adj. at Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1843 City of London Mag. Apr. 22 The deep still hush..Is broken when falls from its crumbling walls Some centuries-aged stone.
1860 W. Whitman Leaves of Grass (new ed.) 194 The rapt promises and lumine of seers..—these centuries-lasting songs.
1886 Frank Leslie's Pop. Monthly Oct. 434/2 The strong arms of the centuries-old ivy caught and held him.
1897 Open Court Aug. 493 That Israel had the ability to carry on this centuries-long struggle deliberately and with final success, is due entirely to Moses and his work.
1908 Daily Chron. 15 June 1/3 The centuries-old division which has separated man and woman.
1991 P. James et al. Cent. of Darkness (1992) p. xvii The conventional picture of a centuries-long Dark Age descending over a vast area at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
2014 Guardian (Nexis) 12 Nov. God knows how Nolan is going to pull the centuries-spanning, disparate, many-stranded stories together to work as a television series.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2022).
<
n.a1398