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November 15, 2018

Word of the Day: Memento

1 CQ

Word of the Day : November 15, 2018

memento \muh-MEN-toh\ noun

Definition

: something that serves to warn or remind; also : souvenir

Did You Know?

Memento comes from the imperative form of meminisse, a Latin verb that literally means "to remember." (The term memento mori, meaning "a reminder of mortality," translates as "remember that you must die.") 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 usually considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose to have been entered in most dictionaries as an acceptable variant spelling.

Aired November 15, 2018

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