Middle English Dictionary Entry
centurie n.
Entry Info
| Forms | centurie n. |
| Etymology | L centuria |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) A division of the Roman army: a century; (b) a Roman land measure [see quot.]; (c) a centurion.
Associated quotations
a
- a1450(1408) *Vegetius(1) (Dc 291)47a : In eueryche centurye þere moot ben of þese cartes and waynes..fyue and fyfty.
b
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)332a/a : 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, and þilke in Jugera..Centuria is a feld of two hundred Jugeres, and hadde þat name of an hundred Jugeres and was so y cleped in olde tyme, and was afterward y doubled.
c
- (a1460) Bokenham Sts. (Adv Abbotsford B3)11.834 (v.1:p.128) : Somme .. seiden eche of hem to othir that centurye seid of Criste in the ende of the passion .., 'Verreyly this was a rightful man.'