Centenier

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A French official of the Middle Ages who administered a district and commanded a military unit of approximately one hundred soldiers
2. An official from medieval France responsible for overseeing a specific area while simultaneously leading a military group of around one hundred troops
3. A historical figure in France tasked with the governance of a locality and the command of a troop of roughly one hundred soldiers

Etymology: The Latin "centēnārius" meant "containing a hundred," and it is the ancestor of a title that once belonged to the leader of a hundred soldiers. The Roman root "centum" (a hundred) sits behind a number of English words, from "century" to "cent," but "centenier" shows the number applied to people rather than coins or years. Medieval French took the Latin adjective and turned it into a noun for the man in charge of a hundred men. The word passed into Middle English as "centener" and related forms such as "centiner" and "centyner," so English speakers borrowed the office along with the term. In France, the centenier became a figure of local governance as well as military command, responsible for keeping order in a district and leading a small body of troops. The title's arithmetic was loose in practice, since such a unit held roughly a hundred men rather than exactly that number.