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immemor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word immemor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*men-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪm.mɛ.mɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈim.me.mor][1]

Forms

immemor (genitive immemoris); third-declension one-termination adjective[1] Caecilius has a nominative immemoris.[2][3] The ablative is immemorī or immemore.[3] It is also spelled inmemor.[2][4]

Etymology

It is formed from in- (“not”) and memor (“mindful”).[2][4][1] De Vaan treats ⟨memor⟩ with the perfect meminī (“I remember”), from Proto-Italic *me-mn-os-, a reduplicated formation of Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”); older works derived it from a root *(s)mer- (“to remember”).[5] Cognate with Sanskrit मन्यते (mányate, “thinks”) and Ancient Greek μέμονα (mémona, “I have in mind”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Pseudolus: “he who reminds a mindful man of what he remembers makes him forgetful”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is not remembering or forgetful, and forgetful by nature, as Plautus' “it was enough to tell an untaught, forgetful, foolish woman so many times”.[2][3] It is also unmindful of one's obligations, ungrateful, as Cicero's “what posterity will be so forgetful?”, and heedless of the consequences, as Virgil's Trojans pressing on “heedless” with the wooden horse.[2][3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “unmindful, forgetful”.[6] Köbler finds it often in medieval texts and laws.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a forgetful man.[2][7]
  • 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius has the nominative immemoris.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of forgetful posterity.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the heedless Trojans.[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Forgetful, not remembering; lacking memory.[2][3][1][6]
  2. Unmindful (of obligations), ungrateful; heedless.[2][3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Immemor.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/immemor. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·