Word of the Day

: September 8, 2024

memento

noun muh-MEN-toh

What It Means

Memento is a synonym of souvenir; it refers to something that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or thing.

// The box on the shelf in her closet is filled with mementos of her basketball career—awards, newspaper clippings, team photographs, and her old uniform.

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memento in Context

“In the months after the Eagles trial was tossed out, the music memorabilia world returned to business. And if you think we’re just talking boomer items, think again. As the Prince guitar shows, a new generation had already begun prepping to lay out sizable cash for mementos of their youth. Those patched Cobain jeans went for $412,750. An anonymous buyer (rumored to be Jay-Z, whose team would not confirm) shelled out nearly $600,000 for a plastic crown the Notorious B.I.G. wore for a photo...” — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 7 June 2024

Did You Know?

In Latin, memento is the imperative form (meaning it is used as a command) of meminisse, a verb that means “to remember.” (The term memento mori, which refers to a reminder of mortality, translates literally as “remember that you must die,” for example). The history of memento makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember a particular moment, people occasionally spell the term momento. This is typically considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose (including the work of such esteemed authors as George Eliot and Dylan Thomas) to have been entered in most dictionaries as an acceptable variant spelling.