Cento

It is my turn to pick a word at random from the dictionary and so what do I do?  Pick a word I have never heard of.  “Cento” is a “Composition made up of quotations from other authors.”  Centipede and Central were the words next to it.  But no.  I had to pick that word.
Cento is from Latin word from the Latin word centō patchwork quilt or curtain.  In Italian is a word that means one hundred.  I guess it is where we get the word century from.  Why it means what it does today in English beats me.  Places I looked for pithy quotes assumed I was speaking Italian and what was said was totally lost on me.  I did not go to the translator.
The definition was very constricting.  So I thought I would look up others and perhaps they would give more room.  I thought I was on the right track when I read “Merriam-Webster” A literary work made up of parts of other works.  That did not imply to me the whole work consisted only of quotations from other works.  I could go with that. 
I know I write stuff and include quotes, but then I read dictionary.com which said, “a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.”  Wholly did not give me much room to move.  Reminds me heaps of plagiarism. Though I guess if the author does not pretend the work is their own that is ok.
I do know at uni there was a real stamp down on plagiarism.  Mostly because of the internet students could get whole works and copy and paste.  A program is employed to look for sentences seen before.
The internet and programs available have created a whole new world.  It is possible to produce a Master’s certificate or Doctorate, get someone to sign as the head of the department, put it behind glass on the wall, and who would know?  That sort of thing has been done to snare jobs.  I know when we first got a colour copier, we had to make currency notes 20% bigger so everyone knew the note was forged and not the real thing.  A lot of people would not remember those days as colour in copiers is very common now.  It was not that long ago that it was not.
Anyway, I am trying to avoid the topic and it has been going fairly well.
I guess I’m having trouble with it because I have never done it.  I know many of the ideas in my head are not original thoughts.  Much of what I hold to has been said by someone at some time.  But I do not think I could ever be accused of plagiarism or cento because I do not know where many things came from, so quoting it word of word would be impossible for me.
Besides if I was to be engaged in cento my work would be really short.  Like “If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me.”  The End.  The cover would cost more than the page of the book so it would probably never be published.  I reckon I would have a real problem getting reviewers to.
But I know now it is out there and I will keep an eye out for it.  I have never seen it in more than 60 years but tomorrow may be the day.  If so I will think, “ah ha, cento.”  Incredibly unlikely I reckon.