remembrance

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English remembraunce,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman remembraunce and remembrance,^[4][3][5] from remembrer (“to remember”) and the suffix -ance;^[4][3][6] in later use it was also felt as remember with -ance.^[4] The French verb is from Latin rememoror (“to recall to mind”), from re- (“again”) and memoror (“to be mindful of”), from memor (“mindful”).^[3] The OED compares Old Occitan remembransa, Spanish remembranza and Italian rimembranza.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A memory or recollection, chiefly in phrases such as to have in remembrance: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin;^[4] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary gives thought or reflection as its first sense.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Many of the senses were already present in French: awareness, memory, mention, record, and a person's memory.^[4] In English the word was used from the late 14th century for present consciousness of the past and the store of things one can recall,^[3][4] and in the same period it meant a record or account, a sense that lasted until 1737.^[4] By the 15th century it also meant a keepsake or souvenir and a commemoration of the dead,^[3][5] and in the early 15th century it came to mean the faculty of memory itself.^[3][4] In the plural, remembrances were friendly greetings sent through someone, from 1631; the OED now calls this formal and somewhat archaic.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "retention in memory" as the first sense.^[7] A short-lived verb remembrance, to remind, was used from 1593 to 1824.^[4] The British Remembrance Day, for the dead of the First World War, is recorded from 1921.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – memory, recollection (to have in remembrance).^[4]
• c. 1380–1737 – a record, account or narration (obsolete).^[4]
• late 14th century – a memento or keepsake; a commemoration.^[3]
• before 1425 – a recollection, a reminiscence (Chaucer).^[4]
• c. 1425 – the faculty of memory.^[4][3]
• 1561 – the period over which a person's memory extends.^[4]
• 1593–1824 – verb, to remind (obsolete).^[4]
• 1631 – plural, greetings.^[4]
• 1921 – Remembrance Day.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of remembering, or the state of being remembered: a ceremony held in remembrance of the flood victims.^[8][9][4]
2. Something remembered; a memory or reminiscence.^[8][4][5]
3. An object kept to remind one of a person or event; a memento or keepsake.^[8][5]
4. The act of honouring a past event or person who has died; commemoration: a remembrance service.^[8][3]
5. The period over which a person's memory reaches.^[8][9][4]
6. The faculty or power of remembering.^[9][4][5]
7. remembrances: (formal) greetings sent through another person.^[4][5]

Word family

• nonremembrance

Related words

• remember
• remembrancer
• memory
• memorial
• commemoration

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster