Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CENT, n. [Fr. cent; Sp. ciento; Port. cento; It. cento; from L. centum, formed on the Celtic, W. cant, Arm. cant, Corn. kanz. The Welch cant, signifies a circle, hoop, wheel or rim, a wattled fence round a yard or corn-floor, hence a complete circle, a hundred. It is probable that the Teutonic and Gothic hund, in hundred, is the same word. Ar. هَنْدٌ handon, a hundred, and the same root gives India, Hindu. See Hundred.]

1. A hundred. In commerce, per cent. denotes a certain rate by the hundred; as, ten per cent is ten in the hundred, whether profit or loss. This rate is called percentage.
2. In the United States of America, a copper coin whose value is the hundredth part of a dollar.