ano

Forms

ano m (plural anos)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spellings ano (1273), año (1275) and ãno (1278).^[2] Wiktionary and García de Diego give the older spelling anno.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin annus (“year”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ano in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician ano, Spanish año, Catalan any, French an, Italian anno and Romanian an.^[6][1]

The Latin word goes back to *atnos, from *h₂et-no-, probably a derivative of *h₂et- (“to go”), so that the year was first “that which goes”.^[7][1] Its closest relatives are in Italic and Germanic: Gothic has 𐌰𐍄𐌰𐌸𐌽𐌹 (ataþni, “year”).^[8][1] Lewis & Short still report the older view that it came from anus (“ring”), the year as a circuit of time.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes a Latin charter of 1047 with the Romance-looking plural anus (per singulos anus, “for each year”).^[10] The first record in Portuguese is in the Testament of Afonso II of 1214, which orders three commemorations a year (en tres partes do ano).^[10] Machado's first quotation is a document of 1264 dated na Era de Mil e CCC e dous anos.^[4] In these texts the word already has its modern sense, a period of twelve months.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it in phrases still current, such as cad'ano “every year” and a cabo dun ano “after a year”, and the profane cantigas already have Ano Novo for the first of January.^[11]

Later dictionaries add the astronomical definition, the time the Earth takes to go round the Sun, and extend it to other planets (o ano de Júpiter).^[2][12] The plural anos came to mean a person's age and, in Portugal, a birthday: fazer anos is “to have a birthday”, and the dia de anos is the birthday itself.^[13][14] Phrases such as ano escolar, ano agrário and ano fiscal name a yearly cycle that does not begin in January.^[2][13]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: Kabuverdianu ánu, Guinea-Bissau Creole anu and Papiamentu aña.^[1]

Timeline

• 1047 – a Latin charter writes per singulos anus.^[10]
• 1214 – tres partes do ano in the Testament of Afonso II.^[10]
• 1264 – a dated document has dous anos.^[4]
• 1273 – Houaiss's first record of the spelling ano;^[2] año follows in 1275 and ãno in 1278.^[2]
• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use cad'ano and a cabo dun ano.^[10]
• c. 1400 – the earliest occurrence in the CTA corpus, a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum of Santiago de Compostela.^[15]
• 1881 – the first Caldas Aulete lists ano novo, dia de ano-bom and fazer anos.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The time a planet takes to complete one revolution around the Sun, especially the Earth, about 365 days and a quarter.^[2][16][12]
2. A calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December: No ano de 1990 mudámos de casa.^[2][13]
3. Any period of twelve months, counted from any day: Trabalhei três anos naquela fábrica.^[2][12][1]
4. A yearly cycle in which a given activity takes place: ano escolar “school year”, ano agrário “farming year”.^[2]
5. A year of life, as a measure of age: A minha filha tem doze anos.^[2][14]
6. (in the plural) A birthday;^[2][14][13] fazer anos, to have one's birthday.^[2][14][13]
7. (in the plural) The passing of time, old age.^[2][13]

Word family

• ano-bom
• ano-novo

Related words

• anual
• anuário
• aniversário
• Latin annus
• Galician ano
• Spanish año

Usage notes

Ano Novo (also ano-novo) is New Year's Day or the year that begins, and ano-bom is an older name for the first of January.^[13][14]

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a separate, rarely used masculine noun ano “anus”, which Houaiss dates to Morais's dictionary of 1789.^[2][12] Morais defines it as a medical term, and Vieira derives it from Latin anus (“ring”), noting that the Latin form ânus is the usual one.^[17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ano
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. annus
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ano
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ano
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 487
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. annus
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. annus
10. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. ano
11. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. ano
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ano
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. ano
14. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ano
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ano
16. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. ano
17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 85
18. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 435