the.com/memento
A souvenir of a moment that refuses to become the past.
means An object you keep specifically to jog a memory — a physical reminder of a person, place, or event.
from Straight from Latin memento, meaning 'remember!' — the imperative form of meminisse, 'to remember.' It entered English the way a command sometimes softens into a noun: the word that once ordered you to recall became the thing that does the recalling for you.
- etymology
- Latin for remember, imperative mood, basically a command
- film twist
- Nolan told it backwards so you forget too
- psychology
- objects outlast memory, so we outsource remembering to things
- paradox
- the keepsake changes meaning as the memory it guards fades