Question #03916

1 Answer
Jim H · Kevin B.
Apr 28, 2015

That is an excellent question. In some ways it is backwards.

The word for 100 in Latin is "centum"

So any time we measure things "out of 100" or "per 100" we are measuring "per centum".

You can see the same Latin root word in our "century", and in dollars and "cents" (#1/100#th of a dollar) and in others, now that you know to watch for it.

So the question could be asked, "When we measure out of 100, why do we call it percentage?"

And the answer is, because for many years Latin was the language for learning in Europe.

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