seculo

Seculo is a term found in several Romance languages referring to a century, that is, a 100-year period. In Portuguese the standard spelling is século, with an accent on the e; in Italian the corresponding word is secolo. When diacritics are omitted, the form may appear as seculo in plain text.

Etymology and scope: Both Portuguese século and Italian secolo derive from the Latin saeculum, meaning an age, generation, or era and by extension a 100-year span. The Latin dative/ablative singular is saeculo, a form that underlies the modern terms in these languages. The concept has long denoted a distinct block of time or a period associated with a particular era or generation.

Usage and examples: In Portuguese, século is used to denote historical periods, as in século XX or século XXI. In Italian, secolo follows the same function, for example secolo XVIII. The term also appears in historiographical expressions such as the short century, a framing used to describe the 20th century in a condensed time span; in Italian this is often translated as il secolo breve.

See also: Century, Era, Age. In Latin, related forms appear in saeculum and its derivatives, which influenced the modern Romance terms for 100-year periods. The concept remains a basic temporal unit for organizing history and chronology across languages.