Per | Centum

The term evolved over time. "Per" was often abbreviated to "p", and "cento" was contracted until it eventually became the modern symbol: %.

The term is conceptually identical to one "cent" being 11001 over 100 end-fraction of a dollar, thus 37 cents is 37 percent of a dollar. Deep Mathematical Meaning per centum

The core, simple formula for a percentage is The term evolved over time