The word anniversary comes from the Latin word for “to return annually”: anniversarius. The word was created from a combination of the words for “year”, annus, and for “to turn”, versus. It was first used in churches in reference to saints’ days.

In French, the words for birthday and anniversary are actually the same word (anniversaire), which makes sense since both dates return every year.

In that spirit, Happy Birthday to some of history’s most celebrated individuals who were born on November 29th: Louisa May Alcott (author – Little Women), C.S. Lewis (author – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe), Christian Doppler (mathematician and physicist – the Doppler effect), Jacques Chirac (politician – former president of France), Joel Coen (filmmaker – Fargo), Don Cheadle (actor – Boogie Nights), Anna Faris (actor – Scary Movie films), and Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback, Russell Wilson.

That’s all – I hope this satisfies your Word Nerd fix for the week! Feel free to request words you’d like to see in subsequent weeks in the comments below or on Instagram. In the meantime, Happy Humpday!