s.a.

late 14c., "appointed by the year;" c. 1400, "occurring or done once a year," from Old French annuel "yearly" (12c.) or directly from Medieval Latin annualis "yearly," corresponding to Latin annalis as adjective form of annus "year."

This is reconstructed to be from Proto-Italic *atno- "year" (compare Oscan akno- "year, holiday, time of offering"), from PIE *at-no- "which goes," also "a year" (as "going around"), suffixed form of root *at- "to go" (source also of Sanskrit atati "goes, wanders," atamana- "to travel, wander," atya- "steed, runner"). The root also has Germanic derivatives meaning "a year," such as Gothic aþnam (dative plural) "year."

c. 1300, sauns, saun, "without" (mid-12c. in surnames), from Old French san, sans, sen, senz (some of the forms with adverbial genitive -s) "without, except, apart, not counting." This is cognate with Provençal senes, Old Catalan senes, Old Spanish sen (Spanish sin), Old Italian sen, all from Vulgar Latin *sene, from Latin sine "without," an enlarged form of sed, se "without" (from PIE root *sen(e)- "apart, separated;" see sunder).

"A French word which has existed long in English without becoming naturalized; now archaic or affected, except as used in heraldry ..." [Century Dictionary, 1891]; OED writes that the words limited modern use is "chiefly with reminiscence of Shakespere," which it spells that way. In reference to fonts, by 1927, short for sans-serif. Sans souci, French, as an adverbial phrase "free from care, without care or concern," was the name of Frederick the Great's royal palace at Potsdam.