memento mori
/məˌmɛntoʊ ˈmɔːɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.71 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "No, Ile be ſworne: I make as good vſe of it, as many a man doth of a Deaths-Head, or a Memento Mori."
- "A great man must keep his heir at his feast like a living memento mori. If he holds very much by life, the presence of the other must be a constant sting and warning. “Make ready to go,” says the successor to your honour; “I am waiting: and I could hold it as well as you.”"
- "I have often heard you express your dislike of any impertinent memento moris—you have even thought it irreligious, and unthankful for present good; and tending to chill the life-blood, the little that is left in the old, and to throw a wet blanket over the cheerfulness of the young, out of which cheerfulness elastic manhood is to spring, and to take upon itself to do the manly responsible duties of life vigorously. I repeat that you have always maintained, that to thrust a memento mori in every man’s face, or to carve it upon his walking-stick, is irreligious, because it is essential unthankfulness."
- "On All Saints’ day, Toussaint, the festival of the dead, the fête des morts, the whole town, and especially the cemetery of Rheims, was a scene of lively, and I may say cheerful, excitement. Along the street leading to the latter were arranged on both sides stalls and tables, gayly festooned with crowns, crosses, and memento moris, and attended by female hucksters."
- "Here Rudolf tried to insulate himself from the world in a huge accumulation of curiosities and works of art, by all accounts just such a hodge-podge as that of effigies of giants, portraits of horned dwarfs, chastity belts, and mementoes mori in coral as one may see today in the rooms of the Hapsburg Schloss Ambras outside Innsbruck."
- "Three days after her proclamation Victoria drove down to Windsor. She had already given an audience to the Earl Marshal and Garter King at Arms about her uncle’s funeral. It remained to visit the Castle, where his remains lay in state, and give her condolences to the Queen Dowager. / Despite her morbid interest in mementoes mori she did not enjoy this visit. The royal standard hung limply at half mast."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: mementō morī