Dot Wordsworth

Anniversary

But they’ve taken root now and we’re stuck with them

issue 20 May 2017

‘It’s like Pin number,’ said my husband, drifting into lucidity.

So it is, in a way. The construction under discussion was one-year anniversary. Just as Pin embraces personal identification number (making the addition of number pleonastic), so the concept of a year is plain in anniversary, rendering the cobbling on of year redundant.

I am sorry to say there is bad news for all of us who think one-year anniversary and its family repugnant.

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