annals

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin annālēs (“chronicles, yearly records”), short for annālēs librī (“yearly books”),^[2][3][4][5] the masculine plural of annālis (“yearly”), from annus (“year”) and the suffix -ālis.^[2][6] Barnhart thinks it came perhaps through Middle French annales but more likely directly from Latin,^[3] and Hoad, Skeat, Weekley and the Shorter Oxford give French and Latin as alternatives;^{[7][8][9][10]} the revised OED derives it from Latin.^[2] Etymonline explains that in the early Roman republic the Pontifex Maximus recorded each year's public events on tablets called the “Annales Maximi”, hence the name of Latin historical works.^[4] The Latin noun annus shares its Indo-European base with Gothic 𐌰𐌸𐌽𐌰𐌼 (aþnam, “years (dative plural)”).^[2] The OED compares Italian annali (before 1353), Dutch annalen (1553) and German Annalen (early 16th century).^[2] The singular annal is a back-formation from annals.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A record of events written year by year: before 1533, in Lord Berners's translation of Guevara's Golden Boke.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word 1542, Barnhart 1563 and Etymonline the 1560s.^[6][3][4]

Semantic evolution

From 1537 the word was also used for a year of daily masses said for a soul, a sense the OED records until 1872 and the Shorter Oxford only to the 18th century;^[2][10] it is compared with Medieval Latin annalia of the same meaning.^[2] From 1569 annals widened to historical records in general, or the history of a place or subject.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as histories arranged strictly by year and noted that it had no singular.^[12] The singular annal was used from 1647 for the annals of a single year or people,^[6] and by the OED from 1699 for a single entry in such a record.^[2] Since 1763 the word has appeared in the titles of periodicals that publish the reports of a learned body or discipline.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1533 – a record of events year by year.^[2]
• 1537 – a year of daily masses for a soul (obsolete).^[2][10]
• 1542 – first use according to Merriam-Webster.^[6]
• 1563 – first use according to Barnhart.^[3]
• 1569 – historical records in general.^[2]
• 1647 – the singular annal.^[6]
• 1763 – in the titles of periodicals.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A record of events arranged year by year, usually without comment.^[6][13][2]
2. Historical records in general; the recorded history of a field or place: the annals of aviation.^[13][6][2]
3. A periodical that publishes the reports of a learned society or discipline.^[13][2][6]
4. (obsolete, 1537–1872) A series of masses said every day for a year for a person's soul.^[2][10]

Related words

• annual
• annalist
• anniversary
• annuity

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins