Etymologically
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commemoro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔmˈmɛ.mɔ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [komˈmɛː.mo.ro][1]

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

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