> "Therefore already early the idea occurred to me that the
> indistinctly appearing Germanic organizaton by Hundertschaften
> [groups of hundred] might have to do with the deployment of cavalry
> units. I was strengthened in this belief by 'centeni ex singulis
> pagis sunt, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur' (Germ. chap. 6),
> although Tacitus does not speak here of the men of the cavalry
> themselves, but of the men of the infantry assigned to them. But
> behind that must be a fact that every pagus should supply a squadron
> of 100 cavalry with the settled number of accompanying infantry,
> which was then called a Hundertschaft. After all there is so much
> else pointing to a high age of the Germanic Hundertschaften and war
> is after all the father of all things. It seems to me in particular
> the names of the Eastern Netherlands region names Twi:-hanti und
> *Þri:-hanti (Twente und Drente) deserve to be recognized as
> important. They would be closely related to the Swedish
> Ti-(h)unda-land (ten hundred land), but with a development from PIE
> *km.tom "hundred" which presupposes the non-Germanic intermediate
> stage *kant-, equal to the Celtic *kantom, but with the late
> Germanic shift from anlaut k- to h-."
>
> Other possible cognates:
> Germanic *xanso:- "community of people" (in whichever sense)
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/24979
> BTW Finnish kansa "people" is cognate to the Estonian suffix -ga of
> the recent comitative ("with") case, cf. ON hos prep. "at, chez".
> Perhaps also NWBlock Dutch kant, German Kante "edge" (Celtic *kant-
> Engl. Kent), if the derivation is not from the number hundred, but
> from the cavalry protecting the flanks of the infantry (cf. Dutch
> vierkant "rectangle")? NWBlock *kant-ja:- > NWGerm. *xanso:-?
I should mention that the quote from Tacutus' Germania comes from the
following context: 'Definitur et numerus; centeni ex singulis pagis
sunt, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur, et quod primo numerus fuit, iam
nomen et honor est. Acies per cuneos componitur.' tr. "Their number is
fixed; a hundred from each canton; and from this they take their name
among their countrymen, so that what was originally a mere number has
now become a title of distinction. Their line of battle is drawn up in
a wedge-like formation."
According to Ernout-Meillet, the Roman centuria seemed to have been at
first a cavalry division. Quote: 'centuria f.(cf. decuria): Varr.,
L.L.5,88, centuria, qui sub uno cen-turione sunt, quorum centenarius
iustus numerus. Désigne d'abord un groupe de cent cavaliers d'après
T.L.1,13,8, eodem tempore [a Romulo] et centuriae tres equitum
conscriptae sunt, Ramnenses ab Romulo, ab T. Tatio Titienses
appellati, Lucerum nominis et originis causa incerta est; puis une
division de citoyens qu'on attribue à Servius Tullius, cf. T.L.4,4,2,
census in ciuitate et discriptio centuriarum classiumque non erat, a
Ser. Tullio facta est. Cette division est peut-être d'origine étrusque
d'après Festus 358,21, rituales nominantur Etruscorum libri: in quibus
perscriptum est... quomodo tribus, curiae, centuriae distri-buantur.
Cf. centuria praeroga:ti:ua, etc. La centurie comprend théoriquement
cent hommes, et peut-être ce chiffre était-il fixe à l'origine; mais
il a varié tant à l'armée qu'à la ville, et centuria n'a plus eu avec
centum qu'un rapport étymologique, e.g. Caes.B.C.3,91,3, eum electi
milites circiter CXX uoluntarii eiusdem centuriae prosecuti sunt, La
centurie qui désignait d'abord, semble-t-il, une division de cavalerie
a désigné ensuite une division de fantassins, tandis que turma était
réservé à la cavalerie (Végèce, Mil.2,14; v. Thés. III 831, 48); cf.
l'évolution de sens de classis'
and
'La formation de centuria et de decuria (v. ce mot) est peu claire.
Une forme ancienne est indiquée par v. sl. sUtoricejo, "cent fois",
lit. s^imteriópas "centuple", v. isl. hundari, v.h.a. huntari
"centaine".'
It doesn't sound all IE to me.
Torsten