superannuation

Etymology

It is formed from English superannuate + -ion,^[2][3][4][5] the OED thinks partly from the adjective and partly from the verb, and compares post-classical Latin superannuatio, used in British legal sources from the 14th century for the running out of a year's time limit.^[2] Superannuate comes from Medieval Latin superannuātus (“more than a year old”),^[2][6] an alteration, after annuus (“yearly”), of superannātus,^[2][7][3] which was used of cattle and other animals more than a year old.^[3][2] That word is from the phrase super annum (“beyond a year”), formed from super (“over, beyond”) and annus (“year”).^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The reaching of the age at which a pupil had to leave school, and exclusion from school for that reason: 1653, in T. Smith's translation of J. Daillé, a sense now rare.^[2] Etymonline gives "disqualification on account of old age" from the 1650s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 1650s the word was used for the weakness of old age (1655) and for being out of date or antiquated (1658).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the state of being disqualified by years".^[8] By about 1700, at first among sailors, it meant money paid to a person retired from work, a pension;^[2] from 1722 it also meant the retiring of a person on a pension.^[2] Etymonline notes this sense of removal from an office with an allowance after long service.^[3] Today Collins describes it chiefly as the regular deductions from employees' pay into a contributory pension scheme, and the pension finally paid from it.^[9]

Timeline

• 1653 – reaching the age for leaving school (now rare).^[2]
• 1655 – the infirmity of old age (now rare).^[2]
• 1658 – the condition of being out of date.^[2]
• before 1704 – a pension or allowance paid to a retired person, originally among sailors.^[2]
• 1722 – the act of retiring a person, especially on a pension.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pension paid to a retired person, or the fund that pays it; also the regular deductions from an employee's pay into such a fund: A tenth of her salary goes into superannuation.^[9][4][2]
2. The retiring of a person, especially with a pension, or the state of being retired because of age.^[4][9][2]
3. (rare) The weakness or infirmity of old age.^[2][10]

Related words

• superannuate
• superannuated
• annual
• 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 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.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press