annuus

Forms

annuus (feminine annua, neuter annuum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from annus (“year”) with the suffix -uus.^[2][1] De Vaan derives ⟨annus⟩ from Proto-Italic *atno- (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂et-no- (“a going, year”), from a root meaning “to go, wander”, so that the year was “what goes round”.^[3] Cognate with Oscan akeneí (“in the year”) and Umbrian acnu (“year”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Naevius as its first author,^[4] and de Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] whose pimp in the Pseudolus says he must be given a year's provisions that day.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is of the year or yearly, as Accius' “in the yearly course”, and of what is paid, offered or recurs every year, as Cicero's “yearly changes of cold and heat”.^[2] Of magistrates and commands it is appointed for a single year, as Cicero's state bound by annual magistrates, Caesar and Nepos;^[2][5] it is also what lasts a year, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, where “a year's talk would hardly be enough”, and a year's supply.^[2][5]

Church Latin glosses it “yearly, annual, of a year's duration”.^[6] Köbler finds it in Aldhelm, the Bible, capitularies, councils and charters.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a year's provisions.^[2][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of the yearly course.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of annual magistrates.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the year; annual, yearly; paid or recurring every year.^[2][5][1][6]
2. (of magistrates) Holding office for one year.^[2][5]
3. Lasting a year; sufficient for a year, a year's.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• annuum
• semiannuus

Related words

• annus
• annālis
• perennis
• annōna
• biennium

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson