año

Forms

año m (plural años)^[1] Old Spanish wrote anno as well as año;^[2][3] ayno, aynno and anyo are eastern spellings.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish anno, inherited from Latin annus (“year”).^[4][5][6][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese ano, Galician ano, Asturian añu, Catalan any, French an, Italian anno and Romanian an.^[7][8]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *atno- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂et-no- (“which goes, a year”);^[9][1] Wiktionary connects it with *h₂et- (“to go”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, gloss Latin post circulum anni with por lo anno pleno “for the full year”.^[3][4][5] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) a girl de nuef años “nine years old” speaks to the hero.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the word for the astronomical year, for the calendar year and for a period of twelve months from any day, and in phrases of age such as aver veinte años.^[12][13] Autoridades (1726) defined it astronomically, as the time the Sun takes to return to the same point of the zodiac.^[3] Today the Academy defines it by the Earth's revolution around the Sun, and the plural also means one's age, a birthday and a decade (los años noventa).^[6]

Corominas lists the old adverbs hogaño “this year” (980) from Latin hoc anno and antaño (Juan Ruiz) from ante annum “a year before”.^[4][5]

Timeline

• c. 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses write anno.^[3][5]
• 980 – hogaño “this year” in a charter.^[4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid gives a girl's age in years.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses anno for the course of the Sun.^[12]
• 1316 – the Navarrese spelling ayño at Fitero.^[3]
• 1528 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1770 – the Academy defines the Gregorian year of 365 days and a fraction.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The time the Earth takes to go once round the Sun.^[6][1]
2. A calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December.^[6]
3. A period of twelve months counted from any day.^[6]
4. A school or academic year, a course of study.^[6]
5. (plural) One's age: Se conserva muy bien para sus años.^[6][1]
6. (plural) A birthday: Hoy es el día de sus años.^[6]
7. (plural) A decade of a century: los años veinte del siglo pasado.^[6]

Word family

• añal
• añoso
• cumpleaños

Related words

• aniversario
• antaño
• anual
• anuario
• anuo
• añejo
• añojo
• bienio
• hogaño
• perenne
• Latin annus
• Portuguese ano

Usage notes

A second, regional word año “newborn lamb”, used in Galicia and León, comes from Latin agnus “lamb” and is unrelated to this one.^[6][16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. año
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. año
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 289
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. año
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. año
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 487
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 545
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. annus
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. año
11. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 324
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. año
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 40
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. agño
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 263
16. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 275
17. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. año