anonymousn.adj.

Etymology: As noun < post-classical Latin anonymus person (especially a writer) whose name is not given or not known (1544 (in a British source) or earlier), use as noun of anonymus, adjective (see below). As adjective < post-classical Latin anonymos, anonymus nameless, having no name (6th cent. (compare classical Latin anōnymos , denoting a Scythian plant (see note)); < ancient Greek ἀνώνυμος having no name, nameless, (of a writing) not bearing the name of the author < ἀν- an- prefix² + ancient Greek (Aeolic) ὄνυμα name: see -onym comb. form) + -ous suffix Compare anonym n.¹Compare Middle French, French anonyme , adjective and noun (see anonym n.¹), Portuguese anônimo (1652 as adjective; also as noun), Italian anonimo , adjective (1726) and noun (1765). With use of the form Anonymus as the proper name of an anonymous author, compare occasional use of a corresponding plural form Anonymi :1652 E. Ashmole Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum 484 Dialogue is there placed among the Anonymi, in regard I then knew not the Author. In sense A. 2 < classical Latin anōnymos, denoting a Scythian plant (Pliny); compare Middle French anonymos (1562 in Du Pinet's translation of Pliny). This may show a folk-etymological alteration of a loanword from an eastern language, in which case it would ultimately represent a distinct word. The following example apparently shows the plural of a form anonymo used as noun. It is uncertain whether this reflects independent use of such a form as noun (compare anonym n.¹), or whether it results from reinterpretation of examples of anonymos (singular) as plural:1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 208 It were..wisdome it selfe, to read all Authors as Anonymo's, looking on the Sence, not Names of Books.