annul

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English annullen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman anuller, also annuller and adnuller,^[5][6][7] from Late Latin annullō (“to reduce to nothing”).^[5][4][8][9] Barnhart and Etymonline allow that the English word may also have been taken straight from the Latin verb.^[10][11] The verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and nūllus (“none, no”), the source of null,^[11][4][10] which is from Proto-Indo-European *ne- (“not”).^[11][4] In the Vetus Latina it meant to annihilate or destroy, rendering a Greek verb.^[5][12][7] It came to mean to invalidate in the 7th century.^[5] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1386, meaning both to destroy and to cancel or rescind;^[6] the OED dates the French sense "to make void" to 1289.^[5] Related verbs are Italian annullare, Spanish anular, Portuguese anular and Catalan anullar.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To declare something no longer valid, and to annihilate or destroy: both in 1395, in Lollard texts.^[5] Barnhart likewise dates it to 1395, in the writings of Wycliffe.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, setting aside a charter, a statute or an accusation, is well recorded in Middle English, as in the rolls of Parliament of 1414.^[2][5] A stronger sense, to do lasting harm to a person or ruin his good name, was used from about 1425 to 1532.^[5] From about 1425, in Lydgate, it could also mean to bring a process to an end.^[5] The special use for declaring that a marriage never legally existed is recorded from about 1530, in St German's Doctor and Student.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "to make void" and "to reduce to nothing", quoting Milton for the second.^[13] Merriam-Webster dates the word only to the 15th century.^[12]

Timeline

• 1395 – to declare not valid; also to annihilate.^[5][10]
• c. 1425 – to bring to an end; to ruin a person (until 1532).^[5]
• c. 1530 – to declare a marriage void.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To declare officially or legally that a law, agreement, decision or result is no longer valid; to nullify: The board annulled the vote after the irregularities came to light.^[14][12][5]
2. To declare that a marriage never legally existed.^[12][5][14]
3. To make ineffective; to neutralize or cancel out.^[12]
4. To reduce to nothing; to obliterate.^[12][5][13]

Word family

• annullable
• annulment
• disannul

Related words

• null and void
• null
• nullify
• nullity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins