flips & gasmeters

[Boatti, Stephen]

"Cent" derives from Latin "centum", = 100. Many other currencies use
cognates of cent for 1/100th of the main currency. French = centime. Italian
= centesimo., etc.


Steve

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM [mailto:Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]
Sent:   Friday, March 09, 2001 12:38 PM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:        Re: flips & gasmeters

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> writes:

>>>>>
Another piece of monetary/linguistic trivia:
     The US penny reads "ONE CENT"
     The US nickel reads "FIVE CENTS"
     The US quarter reads "QUARTER DOLLAR"
What denomination is specified on the US dime?  "ONE DIME"
<<<<<

I recall reading (but I don't recall where) that Thomas Jefferson proposed
the word "dime", which AmHerDict 3/edn says is Middle English from Old
French "disme" '1/10'. And, well, where did "cent" come from as a name for
1/100 of (Your Currency's Name Here)?

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com