[a. L. -āna in neut. pl. of adjs. in -ānus (see -AN suffix 1), as in (Dicta) Virgiliāna Sayings of Virgil, used in Fr. in 16–17th c. as sb. sing. un Virgiliana, and extended to collections of the notable sayings or ‘table-talk’ of modern authors as un Huetiana (Littré); whence also the simple termination was taken substantively un ana; both usages were known to Eng. in beginning of 18th c., and subseq. extended or transferred to anecdotes, scraps of information, or gossip about persons or places of note.]
A. suffix. Appended to proper names with sense of: a. Notable sayings of a person, literary trifles, society verses, items of gossip, etc., of a place, as Walpoliana, Tunbrigiana; b. Anecdotes of, notes about, or publications bearing upon, as Shakespeariana, Burnsiana.
[1666. (title) Scaligeriana, sive Excerpta ex ore Josephi Scaligeri (ed. 1667 Scaligerana).]
1741. (title) Caribeeana … chiefly wrote by several Hands in the West Indies.
1796. Pegge, Anonymiana.
1814. (title) Frostiana; or the History of the River Thames in a frozen State.
1863. H. Bohn, Lowndes’ Bibliogr., viii. Pref. 4. The volumes written respecting him, commonly called Shakespeariana.
B. sb. 1. coll. sing. (with pl.) A collection of the memorable sayings or table-talk of any one.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Ana’s, or books in ana, are collections of the memorable sayings of persons of learning and wit.
1796. Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 140. Those observations of the Dutchess’s that follow those of her husband are not of the nature of Anas, because they are her own.
1834. Southey, Doctor, ccxxxi. (1862), 623. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, which … for its intrinsic worth, is the Ana of all Anas.
2. coll. pl. Clever sayings or anecdotes of any one; notes and scraps of information relating to a person or place; literary gossip.
1739. ? G. West, Lett. to Gray, in D. C. Tovey, Gray (1890), 133 (T.). They were pleased to publish certain Tunbrigiana this season; but such ana!
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof, xxv. Ere days, that deal in ana, swarm’d His literary leeches.
1881. Sat. Rev., No. 1320. 214/2. To sweep ana and gossip out of the numerous biographies.
