centuryroughly

Centuryroughly is a neologistic adverb used in historical dating to signal that a date refers to a rough time within a century rather than to a precise year. It serves a similar purpose to circa but operates at the level of the century, indicating that the event or artifact falls somewhere inside roughly a hundred-year span without committing to a specific year or narrow range. The term is not widely standardized and tends to appear in informal writing, data annotation, or exploratory discussions rather than in formal scholarly citations.

Etymology and form: centuryroughly is a portmanteau of century and roughly. It is typically written as a single word and used to modify a century designation, for example: “The manuscript dates centuryroughly to the 13th century,” or “The site dates centuryroughly to the early 1600s.” In practice, it functions as an adverbial modifier that broadens dating uncertainty to the scale of a century.

Usage notes: Because centuryroughly is informal, editors and archivists generally prefer standard bearings such as c. (circa) or explicit century ranges (e.g., “14th century” or “early 14th century”). Centuryroughly is most appropriate in preliminary notes, computational datasets, or discussions where precise dating is unavailable but a century-level placement is helpful for grouping or analysis.

See also: circa, approximate dating, historical chronology.