Etymologically
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memory

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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
  • 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