In a Word . . . cent

“No nonsense” are words I’ve come to associate with insurance. No prizes for guessing why. It’s those television advertisements where the gauche, gormless guy ends up a winner. Such as only happens in ads and Hollywood movies. It’s a clever pun as a name for an insurance which claims (sorry!) to do what it says on the tin.

And letter-writers have been tickled recently to offer a further pun on the same two words, and a related one. But from a different context.

News that one and two cent coins were to be withdrawn from circulation has been warmly welcomed. It sparked Frank Byrne from Terenure to pronounce: "I hope we do not become known as a nation of non-cents."

Then those puns about change. Ray Barror, from Kilcrohane in Cork, said: "For the last six years, or more, I've been happily picking up one and two cent coins from car parks, pubs restaurants and on the street. The change has done me good." Not to be left out (is he ever?), Paul Delaney, from Dalkey, settled for the simple: "Plus ça change."

Personally, I’d prefer noncents to non-cents, but that’s just me. I think it’s a great idea to get rid of those annoying little irritants, the one cent and two cent coins. Last month’s good news followed a report to the Minister for Finance from the Central Bank’s National Payments Plan.

It followed the success of a nine-week project in Wexford town in 2013 where transactions were rounded up or down to the nearest five cent. One reason for that success was the decision of business people in Wexford to adhere strictly to a guideline that there should be no increase in prices.

We can only hope this will now be followed through nationally.

There was also the ridiculous situation whereby a one cent coin cost 1.7 cent to mint and each two cent coin cost more than two cent to mint.

Cent comes from the Latin centum, meaning a hundred. In the 17th century this shifted to mean "the hundredth part of", probably under the influence of the word per cent. In 1786, cent was chosen as the name for the basic currency unit in the US. France brought us the centime in 1801, which is derived from the Old French centiesme, in turn derived from the Latin centesimum.

[ inaword@irishtimes.com ]