Ann

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A female given name commonly used in English-speaking countries
2. A shortened form or variant of the female name Anne or Anna
3. A personal name traditionally assigned to girls, often signifying grace or favor in various cultures

Etymology: The name "Ann" is a short form of "Anne" or "Anna," but the source it is most often traced to is the Latin "annus," meaning "year," and it is the sense of "year" that gives this word its unexpected turn. In medieval Latin, "annata" referred to a year's worth of income, most often a year's revenue from a church benefice, and this gave rise to related words such as French "annate" and Spanish "anata," both meaning "annats," the payments made to the papacy from such income. The English word "ann," in the sense of a shortened or variant form of the names Anne and Anna, is the one that concerns us here, and the connection to "annus" is what the source records as its ancestry.

Synonyms: year