souvenir

Forms

souvenir m (plural souvenirs)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French souvenir (“memory; keepsake”), a French word used unadapted.^[2][3][4] In French the noun is the infinitive of the verb “to come to mind” used as a noun, first in the late 13th century.^[5]

The French verb continues Old French suvenir (1080) and sovenir, from Latin subveniō (“to come to help; to occur to the mind”).^[5][1] The Latin verb is formed from sub- and veniō (“to come”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyd-Bowman's first record is from Mexico in 1831, in a comedy where a departing character wants to take una prenda, un souvenir “a token, a keepsake” with him.^[7] The CDH dates the same play before 1845.^[8] In Spain Larra wrote in 1835 that something written in an album of remembrances, a souvenir, is a written monologue.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In French the noun first meant a memory and then, by metonymy, something that recalls a person or thing (1690); it came to mean an object that recalls someone in 1836 and a trinket that recalls a place in the 20th century.^[5] Spanish first used it in the older sense of a keepsake: Mesonero Romanos in 1838 mentions sortijas de souvenir, rings given as keepsakes.^[8] The DLE and Moliner define it now as an object that serves as a reminder of a visit to a place, especially one bought by tourists.^[2][3] In 1966 a Cuban author notes that souvenirs are bought when leaving the country, and a Bogotá text of 1986 glosses it with the Spanish word recuerdo.^[7]

Timeline

• 1831 – first record, in Mexico: una prenda, un souvenir.^[7]
• 1835 – Larra uses it for an entry in an album of remembrances.^[8]
• 1838 – Mesonero Romanos mentions sortijas de souvenir.^[8]
• 1966 – a Cuban text uses the plural souvenirs for tourist purchases.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A souvenir: an object kept or bought as a reminder of a visit to a place: Compré un imán de souvenir en Lisboa.^[2][3][9][1]
2. An article sold as a reminder of a place or of an event.^[4]

Related words

• recuerdo

Usage notes

Moliner gives the pronunciation [subenír] and the plural souvenirs.^[3] The Spanish word recuerdo is used in the same sense.^[7][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. souvenir
3. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. souvenir
4. ^ a b c Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. souvenir
8. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. souvenir
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. souvenir