annus horribilis

annus horribilis, phrase made famous by Queen Elizabeth II in a speech delivered near the end of 1992, a year marked by scandal and disaster for the British royal family. The queen’s remarks made international news, and the phrase (meaning “terrible year” or “disastrous year,” a play on a better know Latin phrase) subsequently entered the lexicon to describe a year of great personal or political misfortune.

In 1992 the British royal family’s numerous scandals included marriage difficulties for three of the queen’s children, which garnered extensive press coverage. Early in the year her son Prince Andrew separated from Sarah Ferguson, duchess of York. This news was followed in April by the divorce of Elizabeth’s daughter, Princess Anne, from Capt. Mark Phillips. In the summer a newly published unauthorized biography of Diana, princess of Wales, consort of Elizabeth’s heir, Prince Charles (later Charles III), revealed details of the couple’s unhappy marriage, adding to tabloid gossip. Then in November a fire caused extensive damage to Windsor Castle.

Shortly after the fire the queen delivered a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne. Noting her family’s recent challenges, she said:

1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis.”

The “sympathetic correspondent” was the queen’s former assistant private secretary Sir Edward Ford, who had written to Elizabeth’s private secretary expressing sympathy for the queen’s troubles.

Ford’s expression played on the better-known phrase annus mirabilis (Latin for “miraculous year” or “wondrous year”), the use of which in English dates at least to the publication of John Dryden’s epic poem “Annus Mirabilis” in 1667. Dryden’s poem commemorates two victories by the English fleet over the Dutch and the city of London’s survival after the Great Fire of 1666. In this instance annus mirabilis refers to both celebrated and tragic events, unlike the strictly disastrous incidents signified by annus horribilis.

A few obscure uses of annus horribilis predate Queen Elizabeth II’s. In 1891 a Methodist periodical used it to describe the year in which papal infallibility was declared as dogma by the Roman Catholic Church (1870). In 1985 a book review in the British newspaper The Guardian described the tumultuous year of 1968 as “annus mirabilis, annus horribilis.”

The phrase was used more frequently after the queen popularized it in 1992. In December 2004, after a year in which the United Nations (UN) faced allegations of corruption in an oil-for-food program, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that he was “relieved that this annus horribilis is coming to an end.” That same year it was used by a British news reporter in a year-end recap about the misfortunes that had fallen on Japan’s royal family as well as by former U.S. ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke in reference to Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin’s loss of influence over Georgia and Ukraine after people’s revolutions in the two former Soviet states brought pro-Western presidents to power.

Further, the year 2020, during which the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged much of the globe, was pronounced an annus horribilis in many year-end reviews.