memory

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmem.ᵊr.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English memorie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman memorie, Old French memoire,^[4][2] and directly from Latin memoria (“memory, remembrance, faculty of remembering”),^[4][2] from memor (“mindful, remembering”),^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[4][2] It is related to Greek mérimna “care, thought”, Sanskrit smárati “he remembers” and Old English gemimor “known”.^[2][3] The same Latin word came into English again through French as memoir.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Remembrance, renown: about 1250 in Barnhart^[2] and the late 13th century in Etymonline, as “recollection of someone; fame, reputation”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Commemoration is from about 1300.^[4] The faculty of remembering is from 1340 in the OED^[6] and about 1380, in Chaucer, in Barnhart.^[2] The art of memory, mnemonics, is from 1491.^[6] The length of time a person can remember is from the 1520s.^[4] Something remembered, a recollection, is from 1817,^[6][4] though its correctness was once disputed.^[4] In physics, the capacity of a substance to show the effects of its past states is from 1887,^[6] and in computing a device for storing data is first recorded in 1946.^[2][6] Memorize first meant “to commemorate in writing”, in Spenser (1591), and “to commit to memory” from 1838 in American English.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – remembrance, renown.^[2]
• c. 1300 – commemoration.^[4]
• 1340 – the faculty of remembering.^[6]
• 1520s – the span of remembrance.^[4]
• 1591 – memorize.^[2]
• 1817 – a recollection.^[6][4]
• 1887 – in physics.^[6]
• 1946 – computer memory.^[2][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The power of the mind to keep and recall past experience.
2. Something remembered; a recollection.
3. Remembrance: in memory of.
4. The length of time a person can remember: within living memory.
5. (computing) The part of a computer that stores data, or its capacity.

Word family

• memoried
• memorist
• bubble memory
• core memory
• false-memory syndrome
• flash memory
• long-term memory

Related words

• memo
• memoir
• memorabilia
• memorable
• memorandum
• memorial
• memorise
• memorize
• memory bank
• memory lane
• remember
• commemorate
• memento
• mourn

Usage notes

Memory is the faculty of keeping and reviving past impressions, while remembrance is the act of remembering, recollection a deliberate effort to remember, and reminiscence the recalling of long-past experiences.^[7]

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 k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin