commemoro

Forms

commemorō (present infinitive commemorāre, perfect active commemorāvī, supine commemorātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled conmemorō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + memorō (“to mention, tell”).^[2][1][4] memorō is from memor (“mindful”), which recent scholars, de Vaan among them, derive from ⟨*me-mn-os-⟩, from the perfect stem of meminī (“to remember”), Walde and Ernout–Meillet took it from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has nec potis quicquam commemorārier quod plūs salis … habeat, “nothing can be named that has more charm”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Commemorāre is “to recall”, usually to someone else, sometimes to oneself (Cicero: ō commemorānda iūdicia!, “judgments worth recalling!”).^[2][3][1] Its common sense is “to mention, relate, recount” in speech.^[2][1] In inscriptions it is “to place on record” (a wife who came from Gaul to record her husband's memory).^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “to commemorate, remember”.^[6] English commemorate comes from its past participle in the 1590s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nec potis quicquam commemorārier.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: ō commemorānda iūdicia!.^[2][7]
• 1590s – English commemorate.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To recall, remind (someone) of; to remember.^[2][3][1][6]
2. To mention, relate, recount.^[2][1]
3. To place on record.^[2][1]

Word family

• commemorābilis
• commemorāmentum
• commemorātiō
• commemorator
• commemorātōrium
• commemorātorius

Related words

• memorō
• memor
• meminī
• English commemorate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de