Other forms: jubilees
A jubilee is a special anniversary of an important event. A silver jubilee, the Queen's jubilee, a jubilee year.
The intervals are named: silver at twenty-five years, golden at fifty, diamond at sixty. In the Bible a jubilee came every fifty years and required debts to be forgiven and land returned, which is where the modern debt-relief campaigns took their name.
1nounjubileeA special anniversary of an important event.
“The whole street held a party to celebrate the Queen's golden jubilee.”
jubilee is an anniversary.
Hebrew yovel named a ram's horn blown to announce the year, reshaped in Latin by iubilare, to shout for joy.
Hebrew
יוֹבֵל — ram, trumpet made from a ram’s horn; jubilee
Ancient Greek
ἰωβηλαῖος — of a jubilee
Latin
iobelēus
Old French
jubilee
Middle French
jubile
Middle English
jubile
English, today
jubilee
Built from
From Late Middle English jubileiubile, iubilee, jeubile, from Middle French jubile, from Old French jubilee, jubileus (modern French jubilé), from Latin iobelēus, from Ancient Greek ἰωβηλαῖος (“of a jubilee”), from ἰώβηλος (“jubilee”) + -ῐος. Ἰώβηλος is derived from Hebrew יוֹבֵל (“ram, trumpet made from a ram’s horn; jubilee”) (because a ram’s horn trumpet was originally used to proclaim the event; see Leviticus 25:9), influenced by Latin iūbilum (“a cry, a shout”) and iūbilō (“to cheer, shout or sing joyfully”). Cognate with Italian giubileo, Spanish jubileo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA