• (America) IPA: /əˈnɑn/ enPR: ə-nŏn'
• (British) IPA: /əˈnɒn/

From Middle English anoon, anon, anan, from on + ān.

anon (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Straight away; at once.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Caliban: Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon,
     I know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Matthew 13:20 ↗:

     But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

2. Soon; in a little while.
   • 1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC ↗, pages 12–13 ↗:

     With this man this is the hour of the white logic (of which more anon), when he knows that he may know only the laws of things—the meaning of things never.

3. At another time; then; again.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC ↗:

     Sometimes he trots, as if he told the steps,
     With gentle majesty and modest pride;
     Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps,
     As who should say, lo! thus my strength is try'd...

   • 1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “A Cosmopolite in a Café”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC ↗, page 27 ↗:

     Anon he would be telling you of a cold he acquired in a Chicago lake breeze and how old Escamila cured it in Buenos Ayres with a hot infusion of the chuchula weed.

• French: tout de suite, tantôt (Québec)
• German: sofort
• Russian: то́тчас

• German: bald
• Portuguese: em breve
• Russian: ско́ро

anon (plural anons)

1. An anonymous person, especially an author.
   • 1904, Thomas Wright, The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, volume 1, page 94:

     Indeed they did all they could to avoid it, coyly hiding their identities behind initials, asterisks, and anons

   • 1940, Virginia Woolf, Anon:

     Every body shared in the emotion of Anons [sic] song .... Anon is sometimes man, sometimes woman....

   • 2004, Jane Milling, Peter Thomson, Joseph W. Donohue, Baz Kershaw, The Cambridge History of British Theatre, page 207:

     Indeed, virtually every known playwright (and probably most of those 'anons') occupied some position in one or more of the patronage networks

   • 2006, J. Michael Walton, Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English, page 185:

     those identified by initials only and the 'Anons' (some of whom are here unmasked)

   1. (internet) An anonymous poster. A participant in an online site, such as a forum or an imageboard, without an account, or who posts without identifying themselves, or hidden behind a pseudonym.
2. A work with an unknown author.
   • 1984, Helen Hooven Santmyer, "...And Ladies of the Club", page 214:

     On the floor again she came upon a couple of "Anons" and frowned at them: Ought We to Visit Her and Cast Away in The Cold. Those would certainly do very well on the top shelf.

3. A work without a title.

• Italian: anonimo
• Portuguese: anão
• Russian: ано́н

• German: Bernd

anon (not comparable)

1. Short for anonymous.

• anonym
• anonymal
• anonymity

• anonymize
• anonymosity
• anonymous
• anonymously
• anonymousness

Shortened form of anonymous

1. The name given when an author's name is unknown.