cento

¹ American  

[sen-toh] / ˈsɛn toʊ /

noun

plural

centos

1. a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.

2. anything composed of incongruous parts; conglomeration.

3. Obsolete. a patchwork.

---

CENTO ² American  

[sen-toh] / ˈsɛn toʊ /

noun

1. a former organization (1959–79) for economic and military cooperation, established as successor to the Baghdad Pact, and comprising Great Britain, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. The U.S. had affiliate status.

---

CENTO ¹ British  

/ ˈsɛntəʊ /

acronym

1. Central Treaty Organization; an organization for military and economic cooperation formed in 1959 by the UK, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey as a successor to the Baghdad Pact: disbanded 1979

---

cento ² British  

/ ˈsɛntəʊ /

noun

1. a piece of writing, esp a poem, composed of quotations from other authors

---

Other Word Forms

• centonical adjective
• centonism noun
• centonization noun

Etymology

Origin of cento¹

First recorded in 1595–1605, cento is from the Latin word centō patchwork quilt or curtain

Origin of CENTO²

Cen(tral) T(reaty) O(rganization)

Example Sentences

Author’s Note: A cento, from the Latin for “patchwork,” is a collage poem composed of lines from other sources.

From Scientific American • Feb. 4, 2023

If not, it should, for Robert Irwin’s ingenious historical fantasy “Wonders Will Never Cease” is a contemporary novelist’s version of the poetic form known as a cento.

From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2017

While reading a cento, one savored its imaginative repurposing of bits from Horace, Virgil and any number of lesser ancients.

From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2017

It adapts the pastoral form to that ideal of civility dependent upon culture, which took so strong a hold upon the imagination of the cinque cento.

From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by Symonds, John Addington

Various insects, like everything else in the world, occur in cinque cento work; grasshoppers most frequently.

From The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) by Ruskin, John