Memento - momentum

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These are two words similar in spelling and in sound - the stress pattern, with the stress on the middle syllable, is the same, and the letters are similar - but unrelated in meaning or etymology. Do not confuse them - and don't let the spell-checker confuse them for you!

  • Memento is a noun in English, although derived from a Latin verb (in the imperative form memento (~ 'Remember!'). It means 'a souvenir', quite often 'a[n object or picture, etc] kept as a souvenir of a [usually dead] person'.
    • The word can sometimes be found as part of the Latin phrase memento mori. This means "a warning or reminder of the inevitability of death, especially a skull or other symbolic object. Later sometimes in weakened use: any grim, ominous, or sobering symbol" (OED). The Latin literally means 'Remember to die', and best interpreted by Christians as the message 'Remember that you must die.'
  • Momentum is a technical word in Physical Sciences, Mathematics etc. Its basic meaning is 'the quality or force that makes a moving body continue its movement', 'the quantity of motion in a moving body', or 'what makes it difficult to stop anything heavy once it has started moving, or difficult to start in the first place.' It is calculated as the product of the mass of an object multiplied by its velocity: the usual unit is kg.m/s.
    • This literal meaning has given rise to several figurative uses. Armies that are advancing with victory after victory (like the Germans in France in 1940, or the Allies in France in 1944) are said "to have momentum". In politics, candidates in elections have momentum when the polls show that their support is rising, while that of their opponents is falling. This metaphor is sometimes extended by saying that a candidate who appears likely to win "has unstoppable momentum". In stock markets, price momentum is the tendency of a share to continue rising, or falling, once its movement has begun.


The hotel that asked its visitors to sign a Guest Book as a "lovely momentum to read and remember our treasured guests by" was guilty of a malapropism.