This was credited to ABC:"As the nation marks the one-month anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon , "
An "anniversary" of thirty days is absurd, but how should it have been written?
Dr. Bill, with all the trouble I'm having trying to think up even one better alternative, I'm willing to let them say one-month anniversary. Commemoration certainly isn't right. Neither is memorial. "The nation notes that it's the same date of the next month"? Har. One-month anniversary is ok with me, so far.
While it is true that the word anniversary is rooted in the Latin word for "year", there isn't a word that I know of to denote an occasion marking a lesser period. I guess in former times people only noted a Jahreszeit, although we do have centennials, and fractions and multiples of centennials. Since no one is going to talk about a menseversary, or a bihebdoversary etc., I guess we'll just have to go on using anniversary as an all-purpose word with suitable modifiers for the time span.
Postscript
Egad, Faldage got in mensiversary while I was writing the above.
>"As the nation marks the one-month anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ," An "anniversary" of thirty days is absurd, but how should it have been written?
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I have spent two days fuming about this myself, and was going to start a thread on it today because it irks me so. People know what they mean when they say "one-month anniversary", but it is till wrong wrong wrong. With emphasis on wrong.
Alternatives for the language purists:
"As the nation marks the passing of one month since the attacks . . .."
"It has now been a full month since the attacks . . .."
"The world pauses today to reflect on the month that has gone by since the attacks . . .."
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It is now the one-hour anniversary since my last sip of coffee. BRB
TdE
A book of poetry about people who brag about their IQs.
First mensiversary.
"Mensi" relating (I presume) to that which roughly matches the lunar cycle, and the concept being lunatic, perhaps one could coin "first lunaversary".
On the original question....seems to me that there is an element of celebration implied in the word anniversay. Is this true?
If so, it's an inappropriate and ineffectual word if used to mark the darker points of history. Guess it all comes down to the original meaning of the word that gives us the "versary" part. Over to you scholarly types.
stales
L. anniversari-us returning yearly, f. ann-us year + vers-us turned, a turning
in the sense of a celebration of an anniversary there is an attributive use of the noun.
In checking dictionary to see if Faldage's contribution appeared in it,(alas, it did not) I found a word I never saw before:
menology: a calendar of the months, with their events
I've been using them for years, and never knew it.
I went to Internet looking for "mensiverary" and found a couple sites! Dated June 2000 I had to copy and paste the URL to make it work. Not sure why.
http://andrea.editthispage.com/2000/07/25
Anniversary Um... anniversary does not seem the right word, since it comes from "annum", which is latin
and means year. At least that's what I believe. (Yes, I did take Latin at school - for six years!)
So maybe I should call it "mensiversary" instead.
And when did it become customary to mark such periods anyway? Did anyone think the passing of exactly one month after the assasination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Hitler's invasion of Poland, the dropping of the atom bomb, or the first human landing on the moon worthy of public notice? Is this just an example of the media being desperate for anything to fill those 24 hours of news programmes? [/old fogey rant]
Bingley
yes, this
one month anniversary stuff is stupid. -- October 9th marked the 4 week period..
its still burning, you know. they move some stuff, and lift out beams that still glowing red with heat. the dust, is still thick in the air, (check out the epa monitors of site in downtown area
http://www.epa.gov ) and every day the streets are washed down to keep the dust at bay.
the numbers for asbestos and PM (particulate matter) in the air are below critical, that is, we don't
have to wear dust masks, but its still way high. the smell of burning still permiates the building i work in, about a half mile from the site. for NYer's, its not something that happened a month ago, its it still the present.. Its still NOW.
subway service is still disrupted, our building only has about 90% telephone service, and other nearby buildings have 50% or less. street are still closed to traffic, store haven't re opened. AMT's don't work--(see telephone details above). every one is still jumpy.. we are up to our usual business, but it is in no way business as usual.
in no way business as usual
Bless your heart--how could it be? Those of us in the rest of the country still have you in our hearts. We still have collections being taken up, benefits held, and prayers said.
There's to be a memorial gathering this very evening, at the neighborhood gathering place at the corner down from my church.
Dear WW: I was browsing through the dictionary looking for words like Faldage's "mensiversary" when I happened on "menology" which was new to me. I can't add to the definition.
menology
n.,
pl. 3gies 5ModL menologium < LGr mcnologion < Gr mcn, month, MOON + logos, a word, account: see LOGIC6
1 a calendar of the months, with their events
2 a listing of saints, with brief biographies, arranged in calendar order
I happened on "menology" which was new to me.
A word previously unknown to dr. bill? Surely as rare as unicorns! Mirabile dictu!
WW, while monthly calendars are the most common, you can get day calendars-- (a word a day- or the Far side a day.. and weekly calendars are not at all unknown, or uncommon. I have had yearly calendars that are lunar.. each day shows the faze of the moon, and the calendar on one sheet showed the whole year. having all of the year on one sheet/view is not that uncommon.. and my check book even has 3 years displayed in one view. and there are even zodiac calendars.. which show each "month" by its zodiac sign.. Starting in March with Aries.. and while i am christian (more or less, with emphasis on less,) i always have a jewish calendar around.. if nothing else, it helps with cross word puzzles. --New Year was just last month.. September 18/19 to our way of thinking.
monthly calendars might be the most common (and i like the ones with pretty pictures, usually landscapes) best, but they are by no means the most common. (is there a name for the calendars that show three months at a time? they are really common in government offices in US.)
If I might respond...
>And when did it become customary to mark such periods anyway?
Probably when it no longer one month for people to get the news of the event.
>Did anyone think the passing of exactly one month after the assasination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Hitler's invasion of Poland, the dropping of the atom bomb, or the first human landing on the moon worthy of public notice?
In the case of the first three events it is a combination of my first point and the fact that there were other events happening of greater import.
>Is this just an example of the media being desperate for anything to fill those 24 hours of news programmes? [/old fogey rant]
To some degree it is unavoidable. It is however, more likely due to fact that it was such a monstrous event and it gives a chance to honour those souls who perished.
For the menstrual-versary (or mensual-versary) how about adapting the word "month's mind" defined in the OED as:
1. Eccl. In England before the Reformation, and still in Ireland among Roman Catholics: The commemoration of a deceased person by the celebration of masses, etc., on a day one month from the date of his death.
There seems to be no authority for applying the term to the commemoration throughout the month following the funeral. The notion that it meant a commemoration recurring every month is baseless. For an English rustic survival of the ‘month's mind’ custom, see month's end in month n. 6b.
1466 in Somerset Medieval Wills (1901) 210, I will that there be at my dirige mass and moneth mynde noon other tapers ne candelstikkes but such as be of the same chirch. 1487 in Paston Lett. III. 463 Every weke folowing unto my monthes mynde oon trentall, and iij. trentalles at my monthes mynde biside the solempne dirige and masse that is to be requyred for me at that tyme. 1530 in N. & Q. (1900) 9th Ser. VI. 414/1, I will that my executors cause an hole trigintall of masses to be saide+upon the day of my buryall+and likewise as manny at the moneths mynde and asmany at my yeres day. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. vi. viii. 128 In England the custome is to kepe the thirty daie or moneth mynde with like Obites, as wer dooen on the buriall daies. [Orig. Apud Anglos hoc fit vigesimo nono die postquam mortuus est sepultus.] 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Cenotaphium, a monument of one dead where the body is not, as the herse at the monthes minde.
<RED>1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. II. iv. 281 The month's mind for the two Dukes of Suffolk late deceased was kept September 22: so the more solemn celebration of the funerals of great persons about a month more or less after their interments used to be callid. </RED>
1830 W. Carleton Traits Irish Peas. (1843) I. 163 He hadn't even a Month's mind! Ibid. note, A Month's Mind is the repetition of one or more masses, at the expiration of a month after death, for the repose of the departed soul. 1884 Weekly Reg. 11 Oct. 452/2 The month's mind of the late Marchioness of Londonderry was celebrated in the Catholic Church of Newtownards.
Dear Rousepeteur: Once again your erudition comforts me greatly. "Month's Mind" is the very phrase we need. I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my dictionary. At the very outset there was a post quoting a general's worrying that we might become complacent. It would be very appropriate that we all should remember the events of Sept.11 at monthly intervals. I suggest a petition to the authorities to establish a calendar of formal rembrance by a moment of silence every thirty days to renew our resolve to rid the world or terrorism, as our reply to the Taliban's call for a jihad.
It would be very appropriate that we all should remember the events of Sept.11 at monthly intervals.
but bill, then we'd need yet another term for it -- The notion that it meant a commemoration recurring every month is baseless.
Thank you for that report from "Ground Zero" (or should I say from the proximity of "Ground Zero"). I didn't realize that the physical effects are so pronounced a month later. BTW, what do you think of the term "Ground Zero" which has been used consistently since September 11th to describe the site of the attack on the Twin Towers?
Excellent post, RousP. I was interested by the use, more than once, of dirige. The Dirige in the Sarum Use (the form of the Latin mass used in pre-Reformation England) was a psalm (I forget which one and am too lazy to go get a book that would tell me) which was chanted or sung, to a solemn tune, at a funeral mass. Hence, the word dirge, meaning a slow and solemn or sad piece of music.