a. and sb. [f. L. centēnāri-us containing a hundred, of a hundred years old (f. centēnī a hundred each, f. centum a hundred) + -AN.]
A. adj. 1. Of the age of a hundred years.
1849. Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, xii. (1875), 90. The shroud of its centenarian fabricator.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 276. The almost centenarian Bishop of Chichester.
1871. Echo, 15 Aug. Tales of centenarian longevity.
2. Of or belonging to a centenary celebration.
1864. Realm, 13 April, 7. One of Burns’ centenarian bards.
B. sb. A person a hundred years old.
1846. in Worcester.
1856. Sat. Rev., II. 210/1. Two-thirds of these centenarians being women.
1877. D. M. Wallace, Russia, viii. 123. All males alive at the time of the ‘revision,’ from the new-born babe to the centenarian, are duly inscribed.
Hence Centenarianism, the condition or fact of being a centenarian.
1868. Q. Rev., Jan. 186. If we accept an eighth part of these, it will result that centenarianism is neither impossible nor improbable.
1872. Around Oxford, 104. Several cases of centenarianism have been known at Woodstock.
1881. Pop. Science Monthly, XX. 100. Facts concerning centenarianism are … abundant.
