anniversaire

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.ni.vɛʁ.sɛʁ/^[1]
• IPA (Quebec): [a.ni.vɛʁ.saɛ̯ʁ]^[1]

Forms

anniversaire m (plural anniversaires)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin anniversārius (“returning every year, annual”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} a compound of annus (“year”) (see an) and the past participle of vertō (“to turn”) (see version), literally “where the year turns”.^[3][2][7] In Church Latin the neuter was used as a noun, anniversārium (9th century), for the yearly commemoration of a death.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the 12th century, both as noun and adjective (Bloch and Wartburg); the GLLF dates the adjective to Benoît de Sainte-Maure (1160).^[3][5][2] In religion the noun first named the Mass or ceremony held each year on the anniversary of a death, also called bout de l'an; it was sometimes feminine (1423).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Jean de Meun's Testament mocks those for whom it is fitting faire anniversaires, and Calvin speaks of founding anniversary Masses to wipe out the memory of misdeeds.^[7] The noun then came to mean the return of any date a number of years after an event.^[2] Despite its learned form it became an everyday word because of the social custom of celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, and belongs to the language of festivity.^[2]

The adjective, taken again from classical Latin (1330, or 1556 according to the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert), stayed learned or religious, as in messe anniversaire.^[2][4][8] Socially the noun competes with formations on round numbers such as cinquantenaire and centenaire.^[2]

Timeline

• 9th century – Medieval Latin anniversarium.^[2]
• 12th century – First record in French.^[3][2]
• 1423 – Feminine use.^[2]
• 1556 – The adjective.^[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A birthday: joyeux anniversaire !, bon anniversaire !; familiar clipping anniv.^[1][8]
2. An anniversary: le cinquantième anniversaire de leur mariage.^[8][1]
3. The commemoration of an event on its anniversary: l'anniversaire de la prise de la Bastille.^[5]

Adjective

1. Recalling an event on the same day in a previous year: jour, service anniversaire.^[8][5]

Word family

• anniv

Related words

• année
• verser
• an
• version

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 609a
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert