Etymology

century

cen·tu·ry
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Today it means: A period of one hundred consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the twentieth century, which stretches from (strictly) 1901 through 2000, or (informally) 1900 through 1999. The first century AD was from 1 to 100. Full definition →

Middle English centurie ← Old French centurie ← Latin centuria
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcenturia
  2. Old French · derived fromcenturie
  3. Middle English · inherited fromcenturie“a count of one hundred (of anything); a division of the Roman army; century; a division of land”
  4. English todaycentury

From Middle English centurie (“a count of one hundred (of anything); a division of the Roman army; century; a division of land”), from Old French centurie, from Latin centuria, from centum (“one hundred”). The most common modern use is an ellipsis of century of years.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.