sb. pl. [ad. L. annāl-es the historical record of the events of each year, prop. masc. pl. (sc. libri) of annālis yearly, f. annus year. Occas. used in sing.]
1. A narrative of events written year by year.
1563. Grafton, Epist. to Cecil, in Chron. (1809), I. p. viii. (R.). Short notes in maner of Annales, commonly called Abridgementes.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. vi. 114. If you have writ your Annales true, ’tis there.
1622. Heylin, Cosmogr., Introd. (1674), 17/2. Annals … are a bare recital only of the Actions happening every year.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scotl., I. I. 1. Everything beyond that period to which well-attested annals reach is obscure.
1867. Stubbs, Benedict’s Chron., Pref. I. 12. The difference between chronicles and annals was … that the former have a continuity of subject and style, whilst the latter contain the mere jottings down of unconnected events.
b. sing. The record or entry of a single year, or a single item, in a chronicle.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 282. Diodorus in the Annal of that year, says Phæon was Archon.
1814. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, II. 309. A modest inscription to record the act of restoration … an annal which the greatest anti-Buonapartist ought to respect.
1865. Earle, Sax. Chron., Introd. 10. Here and there may be seen an annal, expressed in riper language, which must be marked as the interpolation of a later Editor.
c. attrib. quasi-adj.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., IV. Wks. 1851, 175. Huntingdon, as his manner is to comment upon the annal Text, makes a terrible description of that fight.
2. Historical records generally.
a. 1581. Campion, Hist. Irel., Ep. Ded. (1633), 1. Containing Annales and other worthy memorialls.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Anat., Ded. An Adventure that shall shine in the Annals of Fame.
1706. Addison, Rosamond, III. i. Whatever glorious and renowned In British annals can be found.
1750. Gray, Elegy, viii. The short and simple annals of the poor.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VI. ii. 226. The glorious annals of their great country.
1865. C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, i. 5. He [Melchizedek] makes his appearance at the close of the first war recorded in the annals of the human race.
3. Masses said for the space of a year.
1536. Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Conv., I. 52. No priest should sell his saying of tricennals or annals.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 190. Annals are Masses said in the Romish Church for the Space of a Year, or for any other Time, either for the Soul of a Person deceas’d, or for the Benefit of a Person living.
