Dictionary

tricent en · NOUN

Etymology

From tri- (“three”) + cent (“hundred”), as if from Latin trecentī passūs (“three hundred paces”), by analogy with the etymology of mile from Latin mīlle passūs (“mile; a thousand paces”).

Meanings

1. A li, a traditional Chinese unit of distance equal to 1500 chis or 150 zhangs, now standardized as a half-kilometer (500 meters).
   • The P’eng is so huge that no one knows how many thousands of tricents its back stretches. Rousing itself to flight, its wings are like clouds suspended in the sky. 1994, Zhuangzi, trans. Victor Mair, Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu, page 3

Forms