Where does “percent” come from?
percent (Dutch) comes from Italian percento, from New Latin per centum — by the hundred; for every hundred; by one hundred.
Ancestry of “percent”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | percento | percent |
| 2 | New Latin | per centum | by the hundred; for every hundred; by one hundred |