memento
(mɪˈmɛntəʊ)
Pl. mementoes, mementos (7–8 memento's).
[Imperative of meminisse to remember, a reduplicated formation on the root *men-: see mind n.]
1. Eccl. Either of the two prayers (beginning with Memento) in the Canon of the Mass, in which the living and the departed are respectively commemorated.
| 1401 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 103 Thanne was the memento put fally in the masse. 1433 Lydg. St. Giles 227 in Horstm. Alteng. Leg. (1881) 374 Beyng at thy masse,..[thou] praidest for the kyng In thy Memento. 1549 Latimer 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 86 When I shuld saye masse, I haue put in water twyse or thryse for faylynge, in so muche when I haue bene at my Memento, I haue had a grudge in my conscyence, fearynge that I hadde not putte in Watter ynoughe. 1593 Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees) 82 He that sunge masse hadde alwaies in his Memento all those that had geven any thinge to that Church. 1883 Cath. Dict. (1897) 287 After the consecration, in the fifth prayer of the Canon, the priest makes a memento of the dead. Both mementos in some MS. Missals retain the title ‘oratio super’ or ‘supra diptycha’. |
2. a. A reminder, warning, or hint as to conduct or with regard to future events. ?
Obs.| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 22 Bee sure, this practise wil I nick in a freendlye memento. 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xx. 412, I must needes giue him another memento and tell him, that he [etc.]. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 45 Since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementos. a 1711 Ken Lett. Wks. (1838) 82 God..enable us to improve all the mementoes he is pleased to give us of eternity. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. 85 This is a great security to the public,..and leaves a weighty memento to judges to be careful. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1779 (end), That this memento..must be in every letter that I should write to him, till I had obtained my object. 1814 Edin. Rev. XXIV. 243 That what we have to say may..be recorded..as a memento against future errors. |
b. concr. An object serving to remind or warn in this way.
| 1580 G. Harvey Three Proper Lett. 34 Maruell not, what I meane to send these Verses at Euensong: On Neweyeeres Euen, and Oldyeeres End, as a Memento. a 1623 Fletcher Wife for Month i. ii. Rings, deaths heads, and such mementoes. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ep. Ded., Artificial Mementos, or Coffins by our Bed-side, to mind us of our Graves. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. 229, I have been, in all my Circumstances, a Memento to those who are touch'd with the general Plague of Mankind. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. v. 73 Our only present memento of the existence of volcanic action beneath us, consisting in very slight shocks of earthquake. 1885 Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines (1889) 100 There he sat, a sad memento of the fate that so often overtakes those who would penetrate into the unknown. |
3. a. Something to remind one of a past event or condition, of an absent person, of something that once existed; now chiefly, an object kept as a memorial of some person or event.
| 1768 C. Shaw Monody viii. 76 Where'er I turn my eyes, Some sad memento of my loss appears. 1791 Cowper Lett. Wks. 1837 XV. 226, I cannot even see Olney spire,..and still less the vicarage, without experiencing the force of those mementos, and recollecting a multitude of passages, to which you and yours were parties. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxx. 211 It will not suffer this memento of its former state [a cast-off skin] to remain near it. 1862 Sala Seven Sons II. x. 263 She came upon some boyish memento of him who was gone. |
† b. A memory or remembrance.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1796 Burney Mem. Metastasio I. 179 It has awakened in my mind a croud of delightful mementos of laughable adventures. |
¶ 4. Humorously misused for:
a. A reverie, ‘brown study’; hence, a doze;
b. (One's) memory.
| 1587 Greene Tritam. ii. H 3, Panthia..seeing that Aretino his choller was not yet digested, willing with some discourse to bring him out of his memento,..saide [etc.]. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 164 Dormatiue potions..that when [she] lies by him,..she may steale from him, whiles he is in his deepe memento. 1594 ― Unfort. Trav. 7 Presently he remembred himselfe, and had like to haue fallen into his memento againe. 1619 Chapman Two Wise Men iv. i. 43, I heare it well Sir, and haue lock'd it vp safely in my memento. |
‖ 5. memento mori (
ˈmɔəraɪ,
ˈmɔːrɪ). [L.
= ‘remember that you have to die’.]
a. A warning of death.
b. concr. A reminder of death, such as a skull or other symbolical object.
| [1592 Nashe Summers Last Will Wks. VIII. 48 Whateuer you do, memento mori, remember to rise early in the morning.] 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 34, I make as good vse of it, as many a man doth of a Deaths-Head, or a Memento Mori. 1597 Pilgr. Parnass. ii. 214 (Macray), If I doe not..Ile give my heade to anie good felowe to make a memento mori of! 1641 in W. W. Wilkins Pol. Ballads (1860) I. 3 Memento Mori, I'll tell you a strange story. a 1680 Rochester Let. fr. Artemiza in Town, Now scorn'd by all, forsaken, and opprest, She's a Memento mori to the rest. 1738 G. Lillo Marina i. ii, Thy face is a memento mori for thy own sex. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis II. xxiii. 229 A great man must keep his heir at his feast like a living memento mori. |
| attrib. 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 372 In the same collection is a ‘memento mori’ ring, of bronze. |
6. ‖ memento vivere [L.
= ‘remember (that you have) to live’ (used in conscious opposition to
memento mori)]: a reminder of life; a reminder of the pleasure of living.
| 1928 Blunden Undertones of War ii. 17 Sitting in the headquarters dugout with ‘La Vie Parisienne’ as a memento vivere. 1931 A. Huxley Cicadas 8 Rosy among the funeral black (Memento Vivere) a naked girl. 1966 Punch 19 Oct. 603/2 A memento vivere from an asylum sought, found, but ultimately rejected. |