annual

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæn.ju.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English annuel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French annuel (“yearly”),^[4][5] or a learned borrowing from Late Latin annuālis,^[5][4] a blend or alteration of Latin annuus and annālis “yearly”,^[3][5] both from annus (“year”).^[4][5] Etymonline takes annus to Proto-Italic *atno- and a root Proto-Indo-European *at- (“to go”), the year being “that which goes around”,^[4] and Merriam-Webster compares Gothic aþnam “years”.^[3] The same Latin word is the source of annals, anniversary, annuity and perennial.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Of or belonging to the year, reckoned by the year”: 1382, in Wycliffe's Bible,^[7][5] the late 14th century;^[4] occurring once a year is from about 1400.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant a mass said yearly on the anniversary of a person's death, from about 1400.^[4] A plant that lives for only one year is from the 1680s, and a book published yearly by the same period.^[4] The idea of a yearbook recording the events of the past year arose in the early 16th century.^[6] The adjective's sense “recurring once every year” is from 1548,^[7] and annual general meeting is a later phrase.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as “that which comes yearly”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1382 – reckoned by the year.^[7][5]
• c. 1400 – occurring once a year; noun, a yearly mass.^[4]
• 1548 – recurring every year.^[7]
• 1680s – an annual plant; a yearly publication.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Happening or done once every year; yearly.
2. Calculated over a year: annual income.
3. Of a plant: living for only one year or season.

Noun

1. A plant that completes its life cycle in one growing season.
2. A book or periodical published once a year.

Word family

• annually
• annualize
• biannual
• circannual
• semiannual
• triannual
• interannual
• annual ring

Related words

• biennial
• perennial
• annals
• anniversary
• annuity
• annum

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.