Centennially

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Happening every hundred years
2. Taking place once every century throughout a long period
3. Event or action that recurs at one hundred year intervals

Etymology: "Centennially" is a plain formation: the adjective "centennial" plus the adverbial suffix "-ly". The adjective comes from Latin "centennis", meaning "of a hundred years" or "lasting a hundred years", built on "centum" (hundred) with the suffix "-ennis", which relates to "annus" (year). Latin "centennium" meant a period of a hundred years, and the adjective passed into English through Latin "-ālis" forms that reached Middle English as "-al" and were later rebuilt as "centennial" in the modern English form. The suffix "-ly" comes from Old English "-līċe", which is the same ending that gave English most adverbs ending in "-ly". Attaching it to "centennial" gives an adverb meaning that something happens once every hundred years over a long span of time. Because the two parts are both ordinary English building blocks, the word needed no special coinage; it is simply the adjective turned into an adverb.

Synonyms: every hundred years