As an adjective, annual means happening once every year. As a noun, it can refer to a plant that lives for only one year or a yearly publication.
From Latin 'annuus' meaning 'yearly', from 'annus' meaning 'year'. It entered English through French and Latin legal and scientific language.
Once you spot 'ann-' for 'year', you’ll see it in 'anniversary', 'annuity', and 'per annum'. Language quietly encodes how obsessed humans are with the year cycle—seasons, school years, tax years, all marching to the same drum.
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