Also 8 annoe, 9 ana. [a. Hind. ānā.] An East Indian denomination of money; the 16th part of a rupee, equal, at present (1883), to about 11/4d. sterling. (The anna is money of account only, but half and quarter annas are coined.)
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Indies, II. App. 8. In Bengal their accounts are kept in Pice, 12 to an Annoe, 16 Annoes to a Rupee.
1770. Treaty, in Indian Rec. (1870), 26. The annual stipend of Rupees thirty-one lakhs, eighty-one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-one, and nine annas.
1804. Colebrooke, Husb. & Comm. Bengal (1806), 98. The price of this labour may be computed from the usual hire of a plough, with it yoke of oxen … at two anas per diem.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, II. V. vi. 412. These people … extort the last anna from the ryot.
¶ Among Anglo-Indians such expressions are common as ‘a 6-anna share (i.e., 6/16) in an indigo-concern’; ‘4 annas of dark blood,’ (to denote a quadroon), etc.
