memorize

Etymology

It is formed from English memory + -ize.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Memory came into Middle English from Anglo-Norman memorie and directly from Latin memoria (“memory, remembrance”),^[3] a noun from memor (“mindful, remembering”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[3] The OED compares Middle French memoriser (“to recall to the memory”), recorded once in 1488, and French mémoriser, which became general French only in the early 20th century.^[2] Johnson (1755) derived the verb from memory.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To preserve the memory of something in writing; to record or mention: 1590, in a dedicatory sonnet by Edmund Spenser printed in The Faerie Queene.^[2] Etymonline glosses the 1590s sense as "commit to writing, cause to be remembered by writing or inscription",^[3] and Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1591.^[4]

Semantic evolution

For more than two centuries the verb meant keeping someone or something in remembrance, not learning by heart: Nashe used it in 1593 of something that makes a thing memorable, while from 1594 a person could memorize a deed by celebrating it.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "to record; to commit to memory by writing", quoting Spenser and Shakespeare.^[8] The modern sense, to commit to memory or learn by heart, appeared in the United States: the OED's first example is from the North American Review of 1834,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to 1838.^[3] The older senses faded; the OED's last record of the writing sense is from 1869,^[2] and Merriam-Webster labels both "archaic".^[4]

Timeline

• 1590 – to record or relate in writing (obsolete by the 1860s).^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1591.^[4]
• 1593 – to keep alive the memory of something; to make memorable.^[2]
• 1594 – the same, with a person as subject (now rare).^[2]
• 1834 – to commit to memory, learn by heart, at first in the United States.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1838.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To commit something to memory; to learn it so well that it can be repeated: The actors memorized their lines in a week.^[9][4][2]
2. (archaic) To commemorate in writing; to record or mention.^[4][5][2]
3. (archaic) To cause to be remembered; to make memorable.^[4][5][2]

Word family

• memorizable
• memorizer
• memorization
• rememorize

Related words

• memory
• memorial
• memorable
• remember
• commemorate
• memoir

Usage notes

The spelling memorise is used especially in British English.^[9][7][4][5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins