memorial

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /məˈmɔː.ri.əl/, /mɪˈmɔː.ri.əl/, US /məˈmɔːr.i.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English memorial, borrowed from Old French memorial (“mindful of; record, report”) and directly from Latin memoriālis (“of or belonging to memory”), with the noun from Late Latin memoriāle (“a reminder, record, monument”),^[2][3][4] from memoria (“memory”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[2] It is related to memory and memorable.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective, preserving the memory of a person or thing: about 1374 in the OED, about 1375 in Chaucer's Anelida and Arcite according to Barnhart.^[5][3] The noun, a commemorative act or the faculty of memory, is from before 1382 in the Wycliffe Bible.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the late 14th century the adjective also meant “memorable, excellent” and “remembered”,^[2][5] and the noun “fame, renown”.^[2] The monument or rite by which the memory of a person or event is kept is from the late 14th century.^[2] So is a written statement of facts presented to a legislature as the grounds for a petition,^[2][6] which gave the verb “to petition” in the 18th century.^[5][7] Middle English also had memorative “having to do with memory”, which did not survive.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – commemorative.^[5]
• a. 1382 – noun, a commemorative act.^[3]
• late 14th century – a monument; a petition.^[2]
• 1768 – verb, to petition.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something, such as a monument or a holiday, that honours the memory of a person or event.
2. A written statement of facts sent to a government or authority with a petition.

Adjective

1. Serving to remember a person or event: a memorial service.
2. Relating to memory.

Word family

• memorially
• memorialise
• memorialist
• memorialize
• memorial park

Related words

• memory
• memorable
• memorize
• commemorate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press