Aren't Anniversaries About Years?

[abajan]

Why are we butchering English like this? How often have we heard "We're celebrating our one week anniversary..."?

The word anniversary is derived from the Latin for "year" and "turn". So, strictly speaking, one cannot celebrate a one day (one week, one month) anniversary of anything.

It is also unnecessary (and grammatically incorrect) to state that one is celebrating a one year anniversary of an event when "first" would suffice. News anchors (of all people!) constantly make this error.

I'm not a linguist or anything of the sort but it just seems to me that daily we're really making mess of a beautiful language.

[Ed Mahmoud]

You have a point, although, through common useage, American English words do not have to stay completely true to their Latin or Germanic roots.


The French, in both France and Quebec try to keep their language 'pure', and avoid picking up new words and jargon, especially ones derived from American English, but I think that is a reflection about insecurity, as they realize the lingua franca is no longer franca.

[tropicana]

really good point! i never thought about it. But it makes complete sense.