/ˈhʌn.drəd/·numeral·Old English hund attested c. 8th century CE (Beowulf); hundred with -red suffix c. 10th century CE. PIE *ḱm̥tóm reconstructed to c. 4500–2500 BCE.·Established
Origin
From PIE *ḱm̥tóm ('ten tens'), 'hundred' is the word that named the centum/satem isogloss dividing Indo-European. Englishcarriestwo copies: Germanic 'hundred' (hund + raþjō, 'reckoning') and Latin 'century/cent' — same root, different route.
Definition
The cardinal number equal to tentimes ten, descended from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm meaning 'ten tens' — the word that named the centum/satem isogloss dividing the Indo-European family.
The Full Story
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCEwell-attested
The English word 'hundred' descends from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm, the inherited numeral for 100. This reconstruction is itself analysable as a compound: *déḱm̥t (ten) combined with a collective or multiplicative suffix *-tóm, yielding the literal sense 'a great ten' or 'ten tens.' The palatal *ḱ is the epicentre of the most famous isogloss in Indo-European linguistics: the centum/satem split. In centum languages — Latin, Greek, Celtic, and Germanic — this sound hardened to a plain velar /k/. In satem languages — Sanskrit, Avestan, Slavic, and Baltic — it shifted to a sibilant /s/ or /ś/. The split is named after the Latin and Avestan words for 'hundred' themselves: centum versus
Did you know?
The '-red' in 'hundred' has nothing to do with the colour. It comes from Proto-Germanic *raþjō, meaning 'reckoning' or 'account' — the same root as 'read' and 'kindred'. A hundred was literally 'a reckoning of hundreds.' The same word survives in the old Anglo-Saxon administrative unit called a 'hundred' — a district assessed at roughly a hundred households for taxation and military purposes.
roots: *ḱm̥tóm (Proto-Indo-European: "hundred; literally 'a great ten' or 'ten tens' — the word that named the centum/satem classification"), *déḱm̥t (Proto-Indo-European: "ten; the base numeral from which hundred is derived"), *raþjō (Proto-Germanic: "reckoning, number, count — the source of the '-red' in 'hundred' (NOT the colour)").
centum(Latin (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm — centum branch, *ḱ → k))hekaton (ἑκατόν)(Ancient Greek (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm))śatám (शतम्)(Sanskrit (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm — satem branch, *ḱ → ś))šimtas(Lithuanian (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm — satem branch))sto (сто)(Russian (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm — satem branch))hund(Old English (true cognate from PIE *ḱm̥tóm via Proto-Germanic *hundą))