Etymologically
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anniversaire

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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

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