CENTURIATOR; CENTURIST
Cen*tu"ri*a`tor, Cen"tu*rist, n. Etym: [Cf. F. centuriateur.]
Defn: An historian who distinguishes time by centuries, esp. one of those who wrote the "Magdeburg Centuries." See under Century. [R.]
CENTURION
Cen*tu"ri*on, n. Etym: [L. centurio, fr. centuria; cf. F. centurion.
See Century.] (Rom. Hist.)
Defn: A military officer who commanded a minor division of the Roman army; a captain of a century. A centurion of the hand called the Italian band. Acts x. 1.
CENTURY Cen"tu*ry, n.; pl. Centuries. Etym: [L. centuria (in senses 1 & 3), fr. centum a hundred: cf. F. centurie. See Cent.]
1. A hundred; as, a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a hundred things. [Archaic.] And on it said a century of prayers. Shak.
2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place over two centuries ago.
Note: Century, in the reckoning of time, although often used in a general way of any series of hundred consecutive years (as, a century of temperance work), usually signifies a division of the Christian era, consisting of a period of one hundred years ending with the hundredth year from which it is named; as, the first century (a. d. 1-100 inclusive); the seventh century (a.d. 601-700); the eighteenth century (a.d. 1701-1800). With words or phrases connecting it with some other system of chronology it is used of similar division of those eras; as, the first century of Rome (A.U.C. 1-100).
3. (Rom. Antiq.) (a) A division of the Roman people formed according to their property, for the purpose of voting for civil officers. (b) One of sixty companies into which a legion of the army was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion. Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly supposed to flower but once in a century; - - hence the name. See Agave. — The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes, compiled in the 16th century by Protestant scholars at Magdeburg.
CEORL
Ceorl (keôrl or cherl), n. [AS. See Churl, n.] (O. Eng. Hist.)