cent, hundred, one per centの語源で、語源的には100と同じ。 貨幣単位ではセントを指すのに使われる。
英語の語源
cent
cent: [16] Centum is the Latin word for ‘hundred’ – indeed both come ultimately from the same Indo-European source, *kmtóm. It first appeared in English in the form cent in the phrase per cent (originally used apparently by the financier Sir Thomas Gresham in a letter of 1568: ‘the interest of xij per cent by the year’); this was probably borrowed from Italian per cento (it is not a genuine Latin phrase). The use of cent for a unit of currency dates from the 1780s, when it was adopted by the newly founded USA; its status as one hundredth of a dollar was officially ordained by the Continental Congress on 8 August 1786. => century
cent (n.)
late 14c., from Latin centum "hundred" (see hundred). Middle English meaning was "one hundred," but it shifted 17c. to "hundredth part" under influence of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as a name for a U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The word first was suggested by Robert Morris in 1782 under a different currency plan. Before the cent, Revolutionary and colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.
例文
1. By 1973 the government deficit equaled thirty per cent of GNP.
1973年まで、政府の財政赤字は国民総生産の30%に相当した。
2.Almost ninety per cent of all rapes and violent assaults went unreported.
強姦事件と暴力侵害事件のほぼ90%が通報されていない。
3."Prices are down 40 per cent since Christmas，"he lamented.
「クリスマス以来物価が4割下がった」と悲嘆した。
4.In 1986，44 per cent of those admitted to articles were women.
1986年、44%の実習生が女性であった。
5.The bank yesterday revealed a 30 per cent nosedive in profits.