Etymologically
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remembrance

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɪˈmɛm.bɹəns/[1]

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

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