anna
(ˈænə)
Also 8 annoe, 9 ana.
[a. Hind. ānā.]
An East Indian denomination of money; the 16th part of a rupee.
| 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..at two anas per diem. 1858 Beveridge Hist. India II. v. vi. 412 These people..extort the last anna from the ryot. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. VII. 448/2 On 1 April 1957 the decimal system came into use [in India] and the rupee was divided into 100 noye paise (new paisas) instead of into 16 annas as formerly. |
¶ 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.