remember

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English remembren, from Old French remembrer (“to remember”), from Late Latin rememorari (“to remember again”), from re- + memor (“mindful”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *(s)mer- (“to think about, be mindful, remember”). Cognate with Old English mimorian, mymerian (“to remember, commemorate”), Old English māmorian (“to deliberate, plan out, design”). More at mammer.

etymology note

The success of the Old French word was helped by its proximity in sound and meaning to an existing Germanic word: Old English mimorian, mymerian (“to remember, commemorate”) from Proto-Germanic *mimrōną, *mīmrōną (“to remember, be mindful”), from the same Indo-European source, and is akin to Saterland Frisian mīmerje (“to ponder, reflect”), Middle Low German mimeren (“to ponder, meditate”), Middle Dutch mimeren (“to reflect, think to oneself”) (Dutch mijmeren (“to muse, reflect deeply”)), Old English mimor (“mindful”), Old Norse Mímir, Mim (“Norse god of memory”), Old English māmrian (“to think out, design”). Related to mourn.

Displaced native Middle English ȝemuneȝen (“to remember”), from Old English ġemynegian (“to remember, remind”); Middle English minnen (“to remember, have in mind”), from Old Norse minna (“to remind”); Middle English munden, ȝemunden (“to bear in mind, remember”), from Old English ġemynd (“memory, remembrance”); Middle English ithenchen, ȝethenchen (“to think on, remember”), from Old English ġeþencan; Middle English manien (“to remind, mention, remember”), from Old English manian (“to admonish, remind, mention”).

Pronunciation
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈmɛmbɚ/, /ɹəˈmɛmbɚ/
  • (General American, uncommon or dialectal, in rapid speech) IPA(key): /ˈmɛmbɚ/, /ˈɹɪmbɚ/, /ˈɹɛmbɚ/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈmɛmbə/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛmbə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: re‧mem‧ber

Verb

remember (third-person singular simple present remembers, present participle remembering, simple past and past participle remembered)

  1. To recall from one's memory; to have an image in one's memory.
    • 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion‎, page 266:
      In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.
    • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 104:
      A man's vision reflects his memories. As I looked out on the nation from the President's Oval Office, my reflections included images burned deep in my mind for over a half a century. I remembered my father's concern for the tenant farmer and for the workers' need for collective bargaining. I remembered my mother's deep faith in the value of education. I remembered the pinched and hopeless look of poverty I saw on the faces of the Mexican-American children I had taught. I remembered the army of jobless and ragged men who rode grimy boxcars across our country during the Depression. These and a hundred other separate recollections of struggle and hope were all part of my heritage. They formed a portion of the background against which I developed the programs I felt America wanted and needed.
    • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
      Remember me? I live in your building.
      Audio (US)(file)
    • 2021, President Joe Biden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      To heal, we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation.
  2. To memorize; to put something into memory.
    Please remember this formula!
  3. To keep in mind; to be mindful of.
    Remember what I've said.
  4. To not forget (to do something required)
    Remember to lock the door when you go out.
  5. To convey greetings from.
    Please remember me to your brother.
    She asks to be remembered to you all.
  6. (obsolete) To put in mind; to remind (also used reflexively).
  7. (intransitive) To engage in the process of recalling memories.
    You don't have to remind him; he remembers very well.
  8. (transitive) To give (a person) money as a token of appreciation of past service or friendship.
    My aunt remembered me in her will, leaving me several thousand pounds.
    • 2003, Little Visits 365 Family Devotions: Building Faith for a Lifetime, Concordia Publishing House:
      Waitresses, mail carriers, and teachers were often remembered on Boxing Day.
  9. (transitive) to commemorate, to have a remembrance ceremony
    Today we remember and honour those who have served.
Usage notes
  • In sense 1 this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing).
  • In sense 3 this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive.
  • See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Conjugation
Conjugation of remember
infinitive (to) remember
present tense past tense
1st-person singular remember remembered
2nd-person singular remember, rememberest† remembered, rememberedst†
3rd-person singular remembers, remembereth† remembered
plural remember
subjunctive remember remembered
imperative remember —
participles remembering remembered

†Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Sranan Tongo: memre
Translations
(obsolete) to remind — see remind
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Etymology 2

re- +‎ member

Verb

remember (third-person singular simple present remembers, present participle remembering, simple past and past participle remembered)

  1. (rare) Alternative form of re-member
    • 1982, Book Review Digest, volume 78, page 824:
      knit 'this scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, / these broken limbs again into one body' - in other words, how to resurrect the dismembered god, to remember Osiris. Yet the only body made whole in these expert, lowering poems is the body of this death.
    • 2008, Jan Assmann, Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism, page 42:
      According to these mysteries, the rites of fashioning or remembering Osiris came to be interpreted as remembering Egypt. Egypt was the body of Osiris, dismembered and scattered across the land.
    • 2010, Sandra Ingerman, Medicine for the Earth, page 100:
      She remembered Osiris by putting his pieces back together and mating with him one last time, conceiving Horus, who eventually avenged his father's death.
    • 2012, Roy Melvyn, The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin: Pointers to Non Duality in Five Volumes, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:
      To dismember is to tear apart; / To re-member is to put back together. / The old must be dismembered / So that which was prior to it / May be remembered. / Therefore, to re-mind is / To dismember and then re-member.
Alternative forms

Anagrams
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