Etymologically
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anniversarium

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Forms

anniversārium n (genitive anniversāriī); second declension[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin anniversārius (“returning every year”), the neuter of that adjective used as a noun.[1][3][4] Etymonline traces the use of the adjective as a noun in Church Latin to its use with diēs (“day”) for saints' days.[4] The adjective is formed from annus (“year”) and ⟨versus⟩ “turned”, from vertō (“to turn”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in a charter of 859, and glosses it as a yearly commemoration, an office with a Mass.[1]

Semantic evolution

Niermeyer gives it the senses “birthday”, “commemoration on the day of someone's death”, “anniversary of the ordination of a bishop, abbot or priest” and “obit”, a Mass said yearly on the day of a death.[3] In Bohemia it named the day on which the election or consecration of the pope or a bishop was commemorated.[5] In British sources it is the day on which an obit is kept, the record of it, the Mass or alms of the year's mind, and the payment for such a celebration.[6]

English anniversary, from about 1200, first meant especially the yearly return of the day of a person's death or a saint's martyrdom.[4]

Timeline

  • 859 – A charter uses it of a yearly commemoration.[1]
  • c. 1183 – An English letter orders deans to pay ten shillings on a dean's anniversary.[6]
  • c. 1200 – English anniversary appears, from Medieval Latin.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) An anniversary, a yearly commemoration.[1][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A birthday.[3][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The anniversary of a death; an obit, a Mass said yearly on that day.[3][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) The anniversary of the ordination of a bishop, abbot or priest, or of the election of a pope.[3][5]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A payment for the celebration of an anniversary.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  2. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  3. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  6. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press