Word of the Day

: June 12, 2012

commemorate

verb kuh-MEM-uh-rayt

What It Means

1 : to call to remembrance

2 : to mark by some ceremony or observation : observe

3 : to serve as a memorial of

commemorate in Context

A plaque commemorates the battle that took place on the spot 200 years ago.

"Pictorial postmarks are event postmarks offered by the Postal Service to commemorate local community events, such as fairs, conventions or other types of local celebrations." - From an article in the Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), May 14, 2012

Did You Know?

When you remember something, you are mindful of it. It's appropriate, therefore, that "commemorate" and other related memory-associated words (including "memorable," "memorial," "remember," and "memory" itself) come from the Latin root "memor," meaning "mindful." Some distant older relatives are Old English "gemimor" ("well-known"), Greek "mermēra" ("care"), and Sanskrit "smarati" ("he remembers"). English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with "commemorate" since the late 16th century.