Annual and Anniversary

Annual and Anniversary Annual and Anniversary Annual and Anniversary By Maeve Maddox A non-native English speaker wonders about this use of the word anniversary in a business communication: The prices and products below are based on a 36-month contract, free unit and free installation. Tracker experiences an across-the-board anniversary increase (inflation based) every October. The reader comments, I cannot remember ever seeing â€Å"anniversary† used in this context. I would have expected a word such as â€Å"annual.† The usage sounds odd to a native speaker as well. Both words, annual and anniversary, derive from the Latin annus, â€Å"returning yearly.† Anniversary entered the language as a noun in the early 13th century with the meaning â€Å"day of a person’s death.† In church use, anniversary came to be used attributively in the phrase â€Å"anniversary days,† dates on which saints or martyrs were celebrated. Annual came along as an adjective about 150 years later in the context of paying an â€Å"annual wage.† Although both words can function as either noun or adjective, in modern usage, anniversary is used primarily as a noun and annual as an adjective: The Queen to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE Day at a Westminster Abbey service with veterans   Penguin Celebrates 80th Anniversary Annual price increases are common in B2B [business-to-business] subscriptions. The  Annual Picnic  is usually a purely social event, and everyone is encouraged to attend. Although both words refer to a yearly event, anniversary carries connotations of celebration and remembrance, whereas annual is a workaday word meaning â€Å"occurring once a year.† In observing an anniversary, one might speak of â€Å"an anniversary celebration† or â€Å"an anniversary dinner,† but in a business context, it’s more idiomatic to speak of â€Å"annual meetings† and â€Å"annual price increases.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Types of Narrative ConflictCapitalization Rules for the Names of GamesHow to Punctuate Introductory Phrases