英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

memorandum (n.)[memorandum 词源字典]: early 15c., from Latin memorandum "(thing) to be remembered," neuter singular of memorandus "worthy of remembrance, noteworthy," gerundive of memorare "to call to mind," from memor "mindful of" (see memory). Originally a word written at the top of a note, by 1540s it came to stand for the note itself. The Latin plural is memoranda. Compare also agenda.[memorandum etymology, memorandum origin, 英语词源]
memorial (adj.): late 14c., "memorable, excellent; remembered, committed to memory," from Old French memorial "mindful of, remembering," from Latin memorialis (adj.) "of or belonging to memory," from memoria "memory" (see memory).
memorial (n.): late 14c., "fame, renown, reputation," also "commemorative gesture, monument, or rite;" in general, "something by which the memory of a person, thing, or event is preserved," from Old French memorial "record, report," and directly from Late Latin memoriale "a memorial," noun use of neuter of Latin memorialis (adj.) "of or belonging to memory," from memoria "memory" (see memory). Meaning "memorial act, commemoration" is from mid-15c.
Memorial Day: used in a general sense is from 1830s; as a specific holiday commemorating U.S. war dead (originally Northern soldiers killed in the Civil War) it began informally in late 1860s. officially from 1869 among veterans' organizations.
memorialize (v.): 1798, from memorial + -ize. Related: Memorialized; memorializing. Earlier verb was simply memorial (1731).
memorious (adj.): 1590s, from French memorieux or directly from Medieval Latin memoriosus, from Latin memoria (see memory).
memorise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of memorize; for suffix, see -ize. Related: Memorised; memorising; memorisation.
memorization (n.): 1823 "memorialization," 1857 as "action of committing to memory;" noun of action from memorize (v.).
memorize (v.): 1590s, "commit to writing;" see memory + -ize. The meaning "commit to memory" is from 1838. Related: Memorized; memorizing.
memory (n.): mid-13c., "recollection (of someone or something); awareness, consciousness," also "fame, renown, reputation," from Anglo-French memorie (Old French memoire, 11c., "mind, memory, remembrance; memorial, record") and directly from Latin memoria "memory, remembrance, faculty of remembering," noun of quality from memor "mindful, remembering," from PIE root *(s)mer- (1) "to remember" (Sanskrit smarati "remembers," Avestan mimara "mindful;" Greek merimna "care, thought," mermeros "causing anxiety, mischievous, baneful;" Serbo-Croatian mariti "to care for;" Welsh marth "sadness, anxiety;" Old Norse Mimir, name of the giant who guards the Well of Wisdom; Old English gemimor "known," murnan "mourn, remember sorrowfully;" Dutch mijmeren "to ponder"). Meaning "faculty of remembering" is late 14c. in English.
I am grown old and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it. [Mark Twain, "Autobiography"]
Computer sense, "device which stores information," is from 1946. Related: Memories.
Memphis: ancient city of Egypt, from Greek form of Egyptian Mennefer, literally "his beauty," from men "his" + nefer "beauty" (as in Queen Nefertiti, literally "Beauty has Come"). A reference to pharaoh Pepi I (24c. B.C.E.). The city in Tennessee, U.S., was so named 1826 for obscure reasons. Related: Memphian (1590s); Memphitic (1580s).
men (n.): plural of man (n.). To separate the men from the boys in a figurative sense is from 1943; earliest uses tend to credit it to U.S. aviators in World War II.
One of the most expressive G.I. terms to come out of the late strife was "that's where they separate the men from the boys" -- so stated by American aviators leaning from their cockpits to observe a beach-landing under fire on some Pacific island far below. ["Arts Magazine," 1947]
menace (n.): c. 1300, "declaration of hostile intent," also "act of threatening," from Old French menace "menace, threat" (9c.), from Vulgar Latin minacia "threat, menace" (also source of Spanish amenaza, Italian minaccia), singular of Latin minaciæ "threatening things," from minax (genitive minacis) "threatening," from minari "threaten, jut, project," from minæ "threats, projecting points," from PIE root *men- (2) "to project." Applied to persons from 1936.
menace (v.): c. 1300, from Old French menacer "threaten, urge" (11c.), Anglo-French manasser, from Vulgar Latin *minaciare "to threaten," from minacia (see menace (n.)). Related: Menaced; menacing.
menacing (adj.): 1540s, present participle adjective from menace (v.). Related: Menacingly.
menage (n.): 1690s, "management of a household, domestic establishment," from French ménage, from Old French manage "household, family dwelling" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *mansionaticum "household, that which pertains to a house," from Latin mansionem "dwelling" (see mansion). Now generally used in suggestive borrowed phrase ménage à trois (1891), literally "household of three." Borrowed earlier as mayngnage, maynage and in the sense "members of a household, a man's household" (c. 1300); but this was obsolete by c. 1500.
menage a trois (n.): 1891, see menage.
menagerie (n.): "collection of wild animals kept in captivity," 1712, from French ménagerie "housing for domestic animals" (16c.), from Old French manage (see menage).
menarche (n.): 1896, from German menarche (1895), from Greek men (genitive menos) "month" (see moon (n.)) + arkhe "beginning" (see archon).
mend (v.): c. 1200, "to repair," from a shortened form of Old French amender (see amend). Meaning "to put right, atone for, amend (one's life), repent" is from c. 1300; that of "to regain health" is from early 15c. Related: Mended; mending.