memoir

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French memoire (“written account, record, memorandum”), a masculine noun recorded in Old French from about 1190,^[2][3][4] which was a specialized use of the feminine memoire (“memory”),^[2][5][6] from Latin memoria (“memory”),^[2][7][8] the source of memory.^[7][9] Hoad explains the change of gender by an appositional use, in which the word followed a noun for a writing to be remembered,^[5] and the OED notes that the main senses in English follow those in French.^[2] Etymonline traces the word through memorie (“note, memorandum”) to the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A note, memorandum or record, chiefly Scottish in early use: 1494, in the Loutfut Manuscript; this sense is obsolete.^[2][10] Barnhart and Etymonline date memoire, a written record, to the early 15th century (1427 in Barnhart), as a variant of memorie (memory),^[11][7] while Merriam-Webster gives 1571 and Dictionary.com 1560–70.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

The modern senses appeared in the 17th century.^[7][5] The plural memoirs, records of events written from the writer's own knowledge, is recorded from 1659,^[2][11] and memoirs as autobiographical reminiscences from 1676, in Wycherley's The Plain Dealer;^[2] Barnhart finds this sense in Evelyn's Diary in 1673.^[11] The singular for a learned essay or dissertation dates from a1680, and the plural for the proceedings of a learned society followed.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined a memoir as an account of transactions familiarly written.^[13] The use of memoir in the singular for a whole biography or autobiography is recorded from 1810.^[2] In diplomacy the word kept the old sense of a formal memorandum,^[2][3] and in West Yorkshire dialect it meant a remembrance or recollection.^[14] Wiktionary records an obsolete anglicized pronunciation /ˈmɛmɔɪəɹ/.^[15]

Timeline

• 1427 – memoire, a written record.^[11]
• 1494 – a note, memorandum or record (obsolete by 1790).^[2]
• 1571 – (diplomacy) a formal memorandum.^[2][3]
• 1659 – plural, records of events from personal knowledge.^[2][11]
• 1676 – plural, autobiographical reminiscences.^[2]
• a1680 – an essay on a learned subject.^[2]
• 1810 – a biography or autobiography.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An account of a person's own life and experiences; usually in the plural, autobiographical recollections: The former ambassador is writing her memoirs.
2. A biography or historical account, especially one based on the writer's personal knowledge.
3. An essay or monograph on a specialized or learned subject; in the plural, the published proceedings of a learned society.
4. (diplomacy) An official note or report; a memorandum.

Word family

• memoirist

Related words

• memory
• memorandum
• memorial
• remember

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ 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. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House