an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir.
anything serving as a reminder or warning.
(initial capital letter, italics)Roman Catholic Church. either of two prayers in the canon of the Mass, one for persons living and the other for persons dead.
Origin of memento
1350–1400;Middle English < Latinmementō, imperative of meminisse to remember
Memento is sometimes spelled momento, perhaps by association with moment. The word is actually related to remember. One of its earliest meanings was “something that serves to warn.” The meaning “souvenir” is a recent development: The stone animal carvings are mementos of our trip to Victoria.Momento is considered by many to be a misspelling, but it occurs so frequently in edited writing that some regard it as a variant spelling rather than an error.
memento mori
[muh-men-toh mawr-ahy, mohr-ahy, mawr-ee, mohr-ee; for 1 alsoLatin me-men-toh moh-ree]
noun,pluralmemento morifor 2.
(italics)Latin. remember that you must die.
an object, as a skull, serving as a reminder of death or mortality.
Origin of memento mori
First recorded in 1585–95,memento mori is from the Latin word mementō morī
c.1400, "Psalm cxxxi in the Canon of the Mass" (which begins with the Latin word Memento and in which the dead are commemorated), from Latin memento "remember," imperative of meminisse "to remember, recollect, think of, bear in mind," a reduplicated form, related to mens "mind" (see mind (n.)). Meaning "reminder, object serving as a warning" is from 1580s; sense of "keepsake" is first recorded 1768.
memento mori
n.
"reminder of death," 1590s, Latin, literally "remember that you must die."
