commemorative

Etymology

It is formed from English commemorate + -ive,^[2][3] and the OED compares French commémoratif.^[2] Merriam-Webster instead takes it straight from the French adjective, a Middle French formation from commémoration (from Latin commemorātiō) and -if,^[4] while Dictionary.com analyses it as commemoration with -ive.^[5] The base verb, recorded from the 1590s, comes from Latin commemorātus, the past participle of commemorō (“to bring to remembrance, remind”),^[3][6][4] from com-, here perhaps intensive, and memorō (“to remind, mention”),^[3][6] from memor (“mindful”),^[3][6][4] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Serving to commemorate: 1612, in a work by T. Taylor.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The construction commemorative of follows in 1651, in Hobbes's Leviathan.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word as tending to preserve the memory of anything, quoting Atterbury on the Paschal lamb as commemorative of the first Paschal lamb.^[7] The noun, a means of commemoration, is recorded from 1636 but stayed rare;^[2][3] its modern use is collectors' shorthand for a commemorative postage stamp, from 1916,^[3] and for a commemorative coin.^[4][6] The American Heritage Dictionary defines such coins and stamps as issued in limited numbers for a set period to honour an event or anniversary.^[6]

Timeline

• 1612 – serving to commemorate.^[2][4]
• 1636 – noun, a means of commemoration.^[2][3]
• 1651 – commemorative of, serving to recall something.^[2]
• 1916 – noun, a commemorative postage stamp.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving to honour or keep alive the memory of a person or event: A commemorative plaque was unveiled on the old bridge.^[4][6][2]
2. Of coins and postage stamps: issued for a limited time to mark a particular event or anniversary.^[6][4]

Noun

1. Something that commemorates.^[6][4][2]
2. A commemorative coin or postage stamp: Her album is mostly commemoratives from the 1950s.^[6][4]

Word family

• commemoratively
• commemorativeness
• noncommemorative

Related words

• commemorate
• commemoration
• memorial
• memory

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.