The term “cent” appears in literature with a fascinating range of meanings and functions. In some texts it quantifies proportions or percentages, measuring everything from the silver content in an ore (e.g. [1]) and the albumen in blood (e.g. [2]) to market yields and interest rates in economic analyses (see [3], [4], [5]). At the same time, “cent” denotes currency in popular narratives—for instance, referring to every “red cent” of money ([6]) or noting characters’ lack of even a single cent to their name ([7], [8]). Moreover, its use extends to abbreviating historical time periods, as in “13th cent.” indicating centuries ([9], [10]). Even in linguistic manuals and foreign languages (e.g. Esperanto in [11] and [12]), the word’s versatility is evident, underscoring its rich semantic breadth in literature across genres and epochs.