reminisce

Etymology

It is a back-formation from English from reminiscence.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Klein alone takes it from reminiscent, comparing luminesce.^[8] The noun goes back to Middle French réminiscence or its source Late Latin reminiscentia (“remembrance, recollection”), recorded from the late 2nd century in Tertullian,^[2] a loan translation of Ancient Greek ἀνάμνησις (anámnēsis, “a calling to mind”).^[8][3] The Latin noun comes from the present participle of reminīscor (“to recall to mind”),^[2][3] formed from re- (“again”) and the root of mēns (“mind”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To recollect or recall: 1829, in H. D. Best's Personal and Literary Memorials.^[2][5][3] According to Etymonline, this earliest citation in the OED is followed at once by an aside, "the word shall never enter my vocabulary".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, simply to remember, is now rare.^[2] The modern sense, to indulge in reminiscences, is dated to 1871 by Etymonline and to 1880 by the OED,^[3][2] and the Shorter Oxford puts it in the mid 19th century.^[7] From 1892 the verb could also introduce the words remembered, with direct speech as its object.^[2] Etymonline quotes the OED's label "somewhat colloquial" and notes that literary writers mistrusted the word.^[3] The verbal noun reminiscing is found by 1891.^[3]

Timeline

• 1829 – to recollect, recall.^[2][3]
• 1871 – to indulge in reminiscences.^[3] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1880.^[2]
• 1892 – to say as a recollection, with direct speech as object.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To think, talk or write about past experiences, often with pleasure: The old shipmates reminisced about their first voyage.^[4][5][9][2]
2. To say or write something while thinking about the past: “We had no money at all then,” she reminisced.^[5][2][7]
3. (rare) To recollect or recall.^[2][7]

Word family

• reminiscer

Related words

• reminiscence
• reminiscent
• reminiscential
• mind

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 g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins