memento

See also: mémento

English

WOTD – 20 September 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mementō (remember), imperative form of meminī (I remember).

Pronunciation

  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛntəʊ

Noun

memento (plural mementos or mementoes)

  1. 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.
    • 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian:
      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

Translations

References


Italian

Noun

memento m (plural mementi)

  1. memento, keepsake
  2. warning

Latin

Verb

mementō

  1. second-person singular future active imperative of meminī - remember!

References


Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /memento/
  • Hyphenation: me‧men‧to

Noun

memento m (Cyrillic spelling мементо)

  1. memento

Spanish

Noun

memento m (plural mementos)

  1. memento
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