memento

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English memento,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin mementō (“remember!”),^[4][5][6][7] the imperative of meminī (“to remember”),^[4][5][6] a reduplicated formation^[5][7][8] related to mēns (“mind”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[5][9] The OED's revised entry adds a step: post-classical Latin memento, from 1340 in British sources, was reinterpreted as the ablative of a noun.^[10] It compares Middle French memento, recorded from about 1375.^[10] Klein lists as cognates Ancient Greek μέμονα (mémona, “I am very eager”), Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌽𐍃 (muns, “thought, mind”) and Old English gemynd (“memory”), the ancestor of mind.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A biblical or liturgical passage whose Latin begins with the word memento: the first record is in Piers Plowman, written before 1376 and copied about 1400.^[10][4] There the penitent thief is forgiven "for memento is sake", after his plea in Luke 23.42, and the psalm beginning Memento (Psalm 131 in the Vulgate) is cited as well.^[11] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

A word of command became a noun by being the first word of a text.^[4][8] Its usual church sense was the commemoration of the living and of the dead in the Canon of the Mass, in the two prayers that open with it.^[11][7][4] From the 1580s it could mean any reminder or warning about conduct or future events,^[10][4][5] sometimes of death,^[10] as in memento mori, which the Dictionary.com text dates to 1585–95.^[12] Johnson (1755) defines it as a memorial notice or hint to awaken the memory.^[13] An object could serve as such a warning from before 1625.^[10] Turned from the future to the past, the word came by 1768 to mean a reminder of something gone,^[10] and this developed into the sense of keepsake,^[4][5] now the only one that the AHD's 5th edition gives.^[3] Greene's use for a reverie (1587–94) and the phrase in a person's memento, in one's thoughts (1533–1619), died out.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a biblical or liturgical passage beginning memento, in a copy of Piers Plowman, a text written before 1376.^[10][4]
• 1402 – the commemoration of the living or the dead in the Canon of the Mass.^[11]
• 1533 – the phrase in a person's memento: in one's memory or thoughts (obsolete after 1619).^[10]
• 1580 – a reminder or warning about future events or conduct (obsolete after 1824), in Harvey.^[10][4][5]
• 1587 – a reverie or daydream (obsolete after 1594), in Greene.^[10]
• before 1625 – an object serving as a warning (obsolete after 1885), in Fletcher.^[10]
• 1768 – a reminder of a past event or an absent person, chiefly a keepsake.^[10][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An object kept as a reminder of a person or event; a keepsake or souvenir: She kept the ticket stub as a memento of the concert.^[3][14][15]
2. Something that recalls a past event or condition; a relic or trace.^[2][10]
3. (Christianity, often capitalized) Either of two prayers in the canon of the Mass, for the living and for the dead.^[2][15][7]
4. (archaic) A reminder or warning about conduct or future events.^[2][10]
5. (obsolete, 1587–94) A reverie or daydream.^[10][16]

Related words

• memento mori
• mind
• momento
• memento vivere

Usage notes

The plural is mementos or mementoes.^[2][15][3] The spelling momento occurs often, perhaps by association with moment; many count it a misspelling, but it is frequent enough in edited writing that some regard it as a variant.^[12] The OED enters momento as a variant of the word.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers