[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. 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, Lett., 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 161/2 per cent. of soda.
1846. M’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. (1853), 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 that 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. Mrs. Centlivre, Gamester, I. 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, British Guiana, and many other British colonies): The hundredth part of a dollar; a copper (or nickel) coin of this value, nearly equal 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.’)
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. 274–5. 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.
1804. Mitchell, in Naval Chron., XIII. 160. Seamen pay twenty Cents.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 45. To pause at any paltry consideration of dollars and cents.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in 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.
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.’
