Etymologically
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memorial

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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
  • 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