α. (In plural form) 1500s–1600s annales, 1500s–1600s 1600s annalles, 1500s–1700s annalls, 1500s– annals.
β. (In singular form) 1500s annall, 1600s– annal, 1700s annale.
annalsn.
/ˈanlz/, U.S. /ˈæn(ə)lz/ I. Historical records and related uses.
1.
a. In plural. A record of events written year by year, typically containing brief statements of facts without interpretation; yearly records. Also occasionally in singular in same sense. Cf. chronicle n. 1a.Annals often constitute the earliest form of historical writing of a particular culture.
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society > communication > record > written record > historical record or chronicle > [noun] > yearly
annuals1520
annalsa1533
annual register1598
annarya1661
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. K.vijv Other thynges I fynd in the saied annales worthie of etern memorie.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. Epist. to Cecil sig. *2 Short notes in maner of Annales, commonly called Abridgementes.
1621 P. Heylyn Microcosmus 12 Annals are onely a bare recitall of the occurrents happening euery yeere.
1727 W. Warburton Crit. & Philos. Enq. Causes Prodigies & Miracles i. 54 The Soul of History is here disingaged from the unweildy..Carcasses of Chronicle and Annal?
1759 W. Robertson Hist. Scotl. I. i. 1 Everything beyond that period to which well-attested annals reach is obscure.
1841 Manners & Customs of Japanese 357 The Annals begin to tell..of rival heirs contending for the ziogoonship.
1867 W. Stubbs Gesta Regis Henrici II I. Pref. 12 The difference between chronicles and annals was..that the former have a continuity of subject and style, whilst the latter contain the mere jottings down of unconnected events.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 157/1 The Acta differed from the Annals..in that..in the former things of less note were recorded.
1961 J. Taylor Medieval Hist. Writing in Yorks. 4 The Gesta Veterum Northanymbrorum as these annals were known in the twelfth century, have entries in common with the Continuatio Bedae.
1995 B. Williams in T. Barry et al. Colony & Frontier in Medieval Ireland v. 85 After 1316, the annal remained in, or returned to, the same locality as before, Castledermot.
2004 Educ. Facilities & Risk Managem.: Nat. Disasters (OECD) vi. 84 According to written annals, the first destructive earthquake in Iceland resulting in casualties occurred in 1013.
b. In singular. A single item in such a record; esp. the entry for a single year.
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society > communication > record > written record > historical record or chronicle > [noun] > yearly > entry in
annals1699
1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 282 Diodorus in the Annal of that year, says Phæon was Archon.
1724 Rev. Bp. Burnet's Hist. 45 The Annal preceding the Pretender's Birth.
1865 J. Earle Two Saxon Chron. Introd. 10 Here and there may be seen an annal, expressed in riper language, which must be marked as the interpolation of a later Editor.
1900 Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. 751 Is it likely that a new writer entering an annal in a chronicle should quote parts of a poem which had been partially quoted thirty-six years before?
1974 J. Rosenmeyer in S. Bercovitch Amer. Puritan Imagination vi. 89 In the 1620 annal, Bradford writes that the peace treaty with Massasoit has lasted for twenty-four years.
2006 T. F. Guimon in A. R. Rumble Writing & Texts in Anglo-Saxon Eng. ix. 145 The annal for 1078 consists of five notes on events not related to each other, two of which have got precise dates.
2. In plural (chiefly with of): historical records generally; the actual or notional records or history of a particular place, group, subject, etc. Later also in singular: a historical event or episode.
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society > communication > record > written record > historical record or chronicle > [noun]
historyeOE
chronicle1303
storya1382
chroniquec1386
memoryc1425
historialc1487
annals1569
res gestae1587
fasts1606
fasti1617
archive1638
time book1865
1569 J. Leslie Def. Honour Marie Quene of Scotl. iii. f. 131 From thence, as the Annales of the saide contreye [sc. Cephala] recorde, Salomans shipps euerye thirde yeare browght meruelouse plentye of golde and siluer.
1603 W. Clark Replie Libell Father Parsons f. 4v Let him but read the annales of the Primitiue Church, and he shall finde what authoritie the actions, and examples of Confessors in prison carried with the Christians in those daies.
a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland (1691) Ep. Ded. sig. A3v An Adventure that shall shine in the Annals of Fame.
1706 J. Addison Rosamond iii. i Whatever glorious and renowned In British annals can be found.
1751 T. Gray Elegy viii. 6 The short and simple annals of the poor.
1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby III. vi. ii. 12 The glorious annals of their great country.
1878 C. Stanford Symbols Christ (new ed.) i. 5 The first war recorded in the annals of the human race.
1917 Congress. Rec. 54 4869/1 A disgraceful annal in the history of the American Nation.
1922 H. S. Salt Call of Wildflower xvi. 163 Plants which might make a memorable day in the annals of a flower-lover, notably the maiden pink and the milk-thistle.
1972 G. M. Brown Greenvoe (1976) iv. 114 In the year of Our Lord fifteen hundred and sixty an event happened in the annals of our church and nation of which we can, I think, be justly proud. I refer of course to the Reformation.
2010 Wall St. Jrnl. 20 Feb. w8/2 The annals of warfare are of course studded with questionable military decisions and after-battle lies.
3. In plural. In the titles of periodicals: the published reports or records of a specified (esp. academic) organization, discipline, or subject, typically consisting of articles, research, reviews, etc.
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society > communication > journalism > journal > periodical > [noun] > other periodicals
annals1763
scientific journal1797
story paper1849
woman's magazine1868
woman's mag1887
house journal1912
film magazine1916
digest1922
fan magazine1928
pulp magazine1929
confession magazine1931
slick1934
glossy1945
trade1949
photonovel1967
1763 (title) The theatrical review; or, annals of the drama.
1862 Frank Leslie's Illustr. Newspaper 28 June 199/3 A new fossil reptile..is described in a paper in the reports of the Royal Bavarian Academy, which has been translated in the Annals of Natural History.
1959 Friends Bull. Oct. 5/1 One of his better known publications was ‘Capital Punishment in Oregon’, which appeared in the annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
2006 Jrnl. Lat. Amer. Geogr. 5 140 Butzer accepted a commission from the Association of American Geographers to edit a special issue of its Annals.
4. In plural: a set of masses celebrated every day for a year, for the benefit of the soul of a person (living or dead); (occasionally in singular) one of these masses. Later also (in singular): a commemorative mass celebrated annually on a particular day, esp. the anniversary of a person's death. Cf. annual n. 2. Obsolete (historical in later use).
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the world > life > death > obsequies > commemorative ceremonies > [noun] > religious or mass > for one year
annals1537
anniversary1612
1537 tr. H. Latimer Serm. to Clergie sig. E.ii No priest shuld sell his sayinge of tricennals, or annals.
1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 190 Annals are Masses said in the Romish Church for the Space of a Year, or for any other Time, either for the Soul of a Person deceas'd, or for the Benefit of a Person living.
1834 Penny Cycl. II. 41/2 In the Romish Church a mass said for any person every day during a whole year was anciently called an annal; and sometimes the same word was applied to a mass said on a particular day of every year.
1872 E. L. Cutts Scenes & Char. Middle Ages iv. i. 206 One of the temporary engagements to celebrate annals, of which there were so many provided by..wills.
Compounds
As a modifier, chiefly with the sense ‘of, consisting of, or containing annals or an annal’; also with agent nouns, verbal nouns, or participles, forming compounds in which annal or annals expresses the object of the underlying verb.
a. With the first element in the singular, as in annal book, annal text, and annal writer, annal writing, etc.
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1587 R. Greene Euphues sig. C3 As the annall recordes makes mention.
1670 J. Milton Hist. Brit. iv. 175 Huntingdon, as his manner is to comment upon the annal Text, makes a terrible description of that fight.
1785 New Rev. Sept. 197 His own plan..was to depart from the common custom of annal writers, by putting together the accounts relating to the same people.
1833 Penny Cycl. I. 41/1 The distinction we have stated between history-writing and annal-writing seems to be one that has been commonly adopted.
1869 Ld. Tennyson Coming of Arthur 157 In one great annal-book, where after-years Will learn the secret of our Arthur's birth.
1918 D. Paton Early Egyptian Rec. Trav. III. i. xxxvii. 45 The lacunae of the ancient Annal-text seem to be quite important.
1973 Jrnl. Cuneiform Stud. 25 96 Three annal texts..record the tributaries of 738 B.C.
2007 L. Abrams in B. B. Smith et al. West over Sea ii. 181 The Irish annal-record has little to say.
b. With the first element in the plural, as in annals text, annals maker, annals writing, etc.Much less common than formations with the first element in the singular.
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1733 J. Morgan tr. P. Rapin de Thoyras Hist. Eng. II. xviii. 424/1 So, if we are to believe the said Annals-writer, this benevolence procured King James only 52,909 l.
1775 R. Shepherd Miscellanies I. 71 Shall I, in this rare annals-writing age, With deeds of British heroes swell my page Historic; and, as modern custom is, Rob old historians for new histories?
1830 Trans. Royal Irish Acad. 16 110 The chief and most important object of their cultivation was history or annals-writing.
1919 Alpha Tau Omega Palm Mar. 78 Each chapter is provided with an annals book like every other annals book in the fraternity.
1940 Irish Hist. Stud. 2 155 The note was taken into the body of the annals text at some stage, and so appears in the sole copy of this chronicle which we possess.
2009 D. Leibsohn Script & Glyph i. 13 Alonso and his annals-makers were not looking to write court history.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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