hundred [OE] Old English had two words for this number. One was hund, which came from an ancient root shared by Latin centum—as in cent (L18 for the money), centigrade [E19th], *century, and many other cent- words—and Greek hekaton (the source of hectare [E19th]). The other was hundred, which was formed from the same element plus another meaning ‘number, count’. Hundred was also then used to refer to a division of a county or shire that had its own court. This unit may originally have been equivalent to a hundred hides of land—a hide is an ancient measure typically equal to between 60 and 100 acres, which varied from area to area because it was a measure of the area of land which would feed a family and its dependants.