memento
See also: mémento
English
WOTD – 20 September 2007
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin mementō (“remember”), imperative form of meminī (“I remember”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /məˈmɛntoʊ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛntəʊ
Noun
memento (plural mementos or mementoes)
- A keepsake; an object kept as a reminder of a place or event.
- I kept the shell as a memento of my visit to the seashore.
- 1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893:
- In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Abbey, or the Tower, and they are as worthy a memento of this century as those buildings are of the days that are gone.
- 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian[1]:
- Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.
Usage notes
- The spelling momento is so common that some references now no longer consider it a misspelling.
Synonyms
- keepsake
- souvenir
- (plural): memorabilia
Related terms
Descendants
- → Japanese: メメント
- → Serbo-Croatian: memento
- → Marathi: मेमेटो (memeṭo)
Translations
a keepsake
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References
- “memento”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present. (usage note)
Italian
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /meˈmen.to/
- Rhymes: -ento
- Hyphenation: me‧mén‧to
Noun
memento m (plural mementi)
Further reading
- memento in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Anagrams
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [mɛˈmɛn.toː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [meˈmɛn̪.t̪o]
Verb
mementō
- second/third-person singular future active imperative of meminī
References
- "memento", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Romanian
Etymology
Noun
memento n (uncountable)
Declension
singular only | indefinite | definite |
---|---|---|
nominative-accusative | memento | mementoul |
genitive-dative | memento | mementoului |
vocative | mementoule |
Serbo-Croatian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /memento/
- Hyphenation: me‧men‧to
Noun
memento m inan (Cyrillic spelling мементо)
Spanish
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /meˈmento/ [meˈmẽn̪.t̪o]
- Rhymes: -ento
- Syllabification: me‧men‧to
Noun
memento m (plural mementos)
Further reading
- “memento”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024