amnesia

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin amnesia,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀμνησία (amnēsía, “forgetfulness”),^[4][2][6][7] formed with ἀ- (a-, “not”) from the stem of μιμνήσκω (mimnḗskō, “to remind, remember”),^[6][1][3] from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[2][6][7] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster take the Greek noun as probably an alteration of ἀμνηστία (amnēstía, “oblivion”), from ἄμνηστος (ámnēstos, “not remembered”),^[6][5][8] the source of amnesty;^[8][2] Etymonline notes that amnēstía was the usual Greek compound but had the special sense "forgetfulness of wrong".^[2] Barnhart derives the noun instead from ἀμνήμων (amnḗmōn, “forgetful”).^[3] The Greek root is related to mind and mnemonic.^[9][7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loss of memory: 1786, in Benjamin Rush's Medical Inquiries and Observations.^[3][4] Etymonline records it as a Greek word used in English from the 1670s,^[2] and Merriam-Webster dates the sense to 1772.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a medical term, and dictionaries define it chiefly as a loss of memory with a pathological cause, such as brain injury, shock or illness.^[8][5] Merriam-Webster also records a gap in one's memory of a particular period, and the selective forgetting of facts that do not suit one's purpose or position.^[5] Its derivatives followed in the 19th and 20th centuries: amnesic in the mid 19th century, amnestic in the late 19th and amnesiac in the early 20th.^[11] In British drug slang amnesia is a variety of cannabis.^[12]

Timeline

• 1670s – used as a Greek word in English.^[2]
• 1786 – loss of memory.^[4][3] Merriam-Webster dates the sense to 1772.^[5]
• mid 19th century – amnesic.^[11]
• late 19th century – amnestic.^[11]
• early 20th century – amnesiac.^[11]
• 2015 – British drug slang, a variety of cannabis.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A partial or total loss of memory, usually caused by brain injury, shock or illness: After the crash he suffered from amnesia and could not say his own name.^{[8][5][13][4]}
2. A gap in one's memory of a particular period: She has an amnesia about her first year at school.^[5]
3. The selective forgetting or ignoring of facts that are inconvenient to one's purpose or position.^[5]

Word family

• amnesiac
• paramnesia
• retrograde amnesia

Related words

• amnesty
• mnemonic
• mind
• anamnesis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press