Maybe it’s because I studied English Literature at university. Maybe it’s because I make my living as a professional freelance writer. Whatever the case, one of my pet peeves is incorrect grammar, especially when the errors can be easily avoided. It feels like nails on a chalkboard when I hear someone talk about a “six-month anniversary,” for example. Or a 30-day anniversary. Or three-month anniversary.
Do you understand why such a statement would be incorrect? The “anni” part of “anniversary” refers to a period covering one year. That’s how we get terms like biannual and semiannual, as well as annuity and per annum. It makes sense to say that you are celebrating a ten-year anniversary, because you’re discussing a period of ten years.
It does not make sense, then, to discuss a six-month anniversary, because it does not refer to a number of years. There’s nothing inherently wrong with celebrating the first six months of a new relationship. That’s great. Go out and have a nice dinner… just don’t call it an anniversary. You could say that you are celebrating your first six months together. You might say that you’ve reached a milestone. The exact wording is up to you.
On a somewhat related tangent, I recently missed the five-year anniversary of Beyond the Rhetoric. This blog launched way back on March 30, 2006. At the time, I was using GoDaddy’s built-in blogging software (which was terrible). Many things have changed on this blog since then and I anticipate many more changes to come in the future. I hope you stick around to join me. 🙂
Your 5 year anniversary (congrats by the way) could also be called the Quinquennial of your blogs inception.
Gotta love Latin 😉
Still better usage may be: “your fifth anniversary”.
BTW, we could start a movement (Remember Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”?) here. Why not refer to one’s sixth mensaversary?
I actually had no idea the ‘anni’ part of anniversary actually referred to annual. I too have been using the word for any recurring occasion worthy of celebrating this whole time. 🙁
How about writing 6 months and not 6 month Mr. Grammar
Because “six month” is correct in this instance, because it is followed by the actual noun/subject. The circumstances are the same as a four-day festival or an eight-year drought. It would be incorrect to say four days festival or eight years drought, but it would be right to say the festival runs for four days and the drought lasted for eight years.
Arriving very late to this discussion, but “ten-year anniversary” is a tautology; grammatically, “tenth anniversary” suffices. Of course, one may lay claim to common usage, etc., but that’s also how you get to “six-month anniversary.”
That’s a very good point! Just like when people say PIN number.
You’re still wrong, “ten-year anniversary” is redundant. It would be ” tenth anniversary. =)
That’s true! Touché!