Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “anniversary” come from?

Anniversary comes from Middle English anniversary, from Latin anniversārium, meaning "returning annually."

anniversary (English): A day that is an exact number of years since a...

Definitions

  1. A day that is an exact number of years since a...

Ancestry of “anniversary”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishanniversary—
2Medieval Latinanniversarianominative feminine singular of anniversārius;...
3Latinanniversārius—
4Latinversusturned, changed, having been turned; towards,...
5Latinvertō—
6Proto-Italicwertō—
7Proto-Indo-Europeanwert-to turn, to rotate
8Proto-Indo-Europeanwer-to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel

Words derived from “anniversary”

  • anniversarily
  • aniveseri
Every word from Proto-Indo-European wer- →