commemorate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commemorātus, the past participle of commemorō (“to bring to remembrance, mention”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from com-, here probably intensive,^[2][7][8][9] and memorō (“to remind; to relate, mention”), from memor (“mindful”).^{[2][7][4][10]} Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace memor to Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”), the root of memory.^[2][7] Barnhart thinks it may have come through Old French commemorer, or have been a back-formation from the older noun commemoration, recorded from about 1384.^[5] The OED compares French commémorer.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To call to the memory of hearers or readers; to mention, relate: 1599, in Sandys's Europæ Speculum, a sense obsolete by the end of the 18th century.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was simply to mention or recount, as in the Latin verb.^[4][2] Before 1638 it came to mean to honour or preserve the memory of someone or something by a ceremony or celebration,^[5][4][2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "to preserve the memory by some publick act; to celebrate solemnly".^[11] From 1714 it was also used for mentioning someone as worthy of remembrance, or praising them in speech or writing,^[4] and, since 1766, of things such as monuments, that serve as a memorial.^[4][2] MWU notes that the plain sense "to mention" survives chiefly in church use.^[3]

Timeline

• 1599 – to call to remembrance; to mention or relate (obsolete by 1794).^[4][3]
• before 1638 – to honour the memory of by a ceremony or celebration.^[4][5]
• 1714 – to mention as worthy of remembrance; to celebrate in speech or writing.^[4]
• 1766 – of things, to serve as a memorial of.^[4][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To honour or keep alive the memory of a person or event, especially with a ceremony: The town commemorates the flood with a service every spring.^[9][3][4]
2. Of a monument, plaque or the like, to serve as a memorial of: A bronze plaque commemorates the founding of the library.^[3][4]
3. To mention as worthy of remembrance; to celebrate in speech or writing.^[4][12]
4. (chiefly in church use) To call to remembrance; to mention.^[3][4]

Word family

• commemorator
• commemorable
• uncommemorated

Related words

• commemoratory
• commemorative
• commemoration
• memory
• memorial
• remember
• memorandum

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press