• angrystego@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    That’s how it’s used with metric prefixes, but in other contexts you have to take into account the original meaning of the latin word. Centum means a hundred.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      In the roman context, a single centurion would be 1/100 of an army grouping.

      But since we aren’t living in roman times, one cent is 1/100 of a dollar.

      Language is inconsistent in it’s usage of cent, so at best the term centibillionaire is confusing. Hectobillionaire has only one possible meaning, so if we’re inventing new words, probably should go with the option that’s more precise.

      • angrystego@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Centi is used in different ways, see centipeda, which means hundred-footed, not one hundredth of feet.

        I do admit I’m not a native speaker.