centum
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Related to centum: per centum
cen·tum
(kĕn′təm)adj.
Designating those Indo-European languages, including the Italic, Hellenic, Celtic, and Germanic branches, that merged the palatal velar stops with the plain velars k, g, gh and maintained a distinction between them and the labiovelars kw, gw, gwh.
[Latin, hundred (a word whose initial sound in classical Latin illustrates the preservation of the Indo-European palatal velar as a velar k); see dekm̥ in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
centum
(ˈsɛntəm)adj
(Linguistics) denoting or belonging to the Indo-European languages in which original velar stops (k) were not palatalized, namely languages of the Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Anatolian, and Tocharian branches. Compare satem
[Latin: hundred, chosen because the c represents the Indo-European k]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
cen•tum
(ˈkɛn təm, -tʊm)adj.
of or designating the group of Indo-European languages, comprising the Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Hellenic, Anatolian, and Tocharian branches, in which Proto-Indo-European palatal phonemes developed into velar sounds, as (k) or (KH). Compare satem.
[1900–05; < Latin: hundred, exemplifying in c- the outcome of Indo-European palato-velar stops characteristic of the group]
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