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anniversary

Etymology and origin of the English word anniversary

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1230
From
Middle English anniversarie
Ultimate origin
Latin (anniversarius)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˌæn.ɪˈvɜː.sər.i/, US /ˌæn.ɪˈvɝː.sər.i/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English anniversarie, through Anglo-Norman anniversarie,[2] from Medieval Latin anniversārium, a noun use of Latin anniversārius (“returning yearly”),[3][2][4] from annus “year” and versus, the past participle of vertere “to turn”,[3][2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).[3] In Church Latin the adjective was used as a noun in anniversāria diēs “anniversary day” for saints' days.[3][6] It is related to annual, verse and version.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The yearly return of the date of an event, originally especially of a person's death or a saint's martyrdom: probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle;[2] about 1200 in Etymonline,[3] about 1230 in the OED.[7]

Semantic evolution

The celebration on such a date, originally a mass said yearly for the soul of a dead person, is from 1447.[7] The adjective, returning every year, is from the mid-15th century in Etymonline and 1552 in the OED.[3][7] Old English had a native word for an anniversary, mynddæg, literally “mind-day”.[3] The modern use for wedding anniversaries and the anniversaries of historical events grew from this sense of a yearly commemoration.[8][9]

Timeline

  • a. 1200 – the yearly return of a date.[2]
  • 1447 – a yearly celebration or mass.[7]
  • 1552 – adjective, yearly.[7]
  • 1861 – verb, to celebrate an anniversary.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The date on which an event happened in an earlier year, especially a wedding.
  2. The celebration of such a date.

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to an anniversary.

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Anniversary.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/anniversary. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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