Word of the Day: Memory (with a long list of definitions)

Memory (OED)

I. Senses relating to the action or process of commemorating, recollecting, or remembering.

1. a. An act of commemoration, esp. of the dead; = COMMEMORATION n. 2b. Now hist.
b. to make memory of: to commemorate; to preserve a record or memorial of; to record, mention. Also without of, in clauses with as. Obs. (arch. in later use).
c. in memory of, to the memory of: so as to keep alive the remembrance of; as a memorial to; as a record of. (to be) in memory: for a memorial (obs.).

2. a. The action of remembering; recollection, remembrance. Now chiefly in from memory (also by memory), in memory.
to draw (also take) into (or to) memory: to recollect, remember. to have memory (of): to recollect (trans. and intr.); also to have (of) (someone) in memory. out of memory: forgotten (but cf. sense 4a).
b. An act or instance of remembrance; a representation in the memory, a recollection.
c. A person or thing held in remembrance.

3. a. The perpetuated knowledge or recollection (of something); that which is remembered of a person, object, or event; (good or bad) posthumous reputation. Also (occas.) in extended use (as in quot. 1917).
b. [After classical and post-classical Latin bonae memoriae (2nd cent. A.D.), post-classical Latin sanctae memoriae (3rd cent.), beatae memoriae (4th cent.), freq. in inscriptions; also Old French, Middle French de bonne memoire (1298).] of blessed (also happy, famous, etc.) memory: used formulaically after the name of a distinguished person with reference to the actions or character which distinguish him or her in recollection; hence also used (often humorously) after other people, events, etc.

4. a. The length of time over which the recollection of a person or a number of persons extends. Chiefly in beyond (also past, out of) (the) memory (of ); similarly within memory, etc. through all memory: for all time (obs.).
within living memory: see LIVING ppl. a. 3.
b. Law. [After Anglo-Norman temps de memoire.] time of (legal) memory: time since 3 September 1189, the beginning of the reign of Richard I of England, fixed by statute of Edward I in 1275 and 1293 as the date before which documentary evidence was deemed unnecessary to prove a claim. Cf. time immemorial, etc., s.v. TIME n. 30.

5. The fact or condition of being remembered. Now somewhat arch.
The phrases given at sense 1c may in fact belong here.

II. Senses relating to the faculty of recalling to mind.

6. a. The faculty by which things are remembered; the capacity for retaining, perpetuating, or reviving the thought of things past.
to commit (or commend) to memory: see COMMIT v., COMMEND v.
b. This faculty personified.
c. Psychol. Modified by a preceding adjective or noun, esp. one designating the faculty or the bodily process with which it is believed to be connected.
d. The capacity of a body or substance for manifesting effects of, or exhibiting behaviour dependent on, its previous state, behaviour, or treatment; such effects; a state manifesting this capacity. Freq. with conscious metaphor.
e. The capacity of a body or substance for returning to a previous state when the cause of the transition from that state is removed.

7. a. The faculty by which things are remembered considered as residing in the awareness or consciousness of a particular individual or group. Freq. with preceding word or other contextual indication of the extent to which the faculty is developed or the field in which it is most active (cf. sense 6c).
b. Law. [After Anglo-Norman de bone (also seine) memoire.] In the language of wills, etc.: of (also in) good (also perfect, safe, sane, sound, whole) memory.
c. [Prob. after Anglo-Norman and Middle French revenir a sa memoire.] to come to (one's) memory (again): to recover from unconsciousness, to regain one's senses. Obs.
d. A device or facility functioning (as part of a computer, etc.) in a manner analogous to that of the human faculty of memory, spec. such that data or program instructions may be stored and then subsequently retrieved when required; (as a mass noun) capacity or facilities for storing data, etc., in this way.

8. art of memory [after post-classical Latin ars memoriae, memoriae ars, frequent in titles of works on mnemonics in the late 15th and early 16th centuries], mnemonics; a system of mnemonic devices.
The title page of Oratoriae Artis Epitomata, a work by Jacobus Publicius printed at Venice in 1482, is app. the first to mention memoriae ars. For an earlier use of ars memorie artificialis in a 14th-cent. Italian source see F. A. Yates Art of Memory (1966) iv. 90.

III. Something that perpetuates remembrance or stimulates the memory.

9. A commemorative account, a memoir; a record of a person or event; a history. Obs.

10. a. Something by which the memory of a person, thing, or event is preserved; a memento, a keepsake; a reminder. Obs.
b. regional (Newfoundland). A memorial wall hanging (see quot.).

11. A memorial tomb, shrine, chapel, or the like; a monument. Obs.

Memory: A Quote from "The Prayer of Owen Meany" by John Irving

"Your memory is a monster; you forget--it doesn't. It simply files things away. it keep things for you, or hides things from you--and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have memory, but it has you"

p.