Merriam-Webster's word of the day is
memento
pronounced muh-MEN-toh
a noun
meaning souvenir; it refers to something that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or thing.
: something that serves to warn or remind
: souvenir
In Latin, memento is the imperative form of the verb meminisse, which means “to remember.” (The term memento mori, which refers to a reminder of mortality, translates literally as “remember that you must die,” for example).
The history of memento makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember a particular moment, people occasionally spell the term momento. This is typically considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose (including the work of such esteemed authors as George Eliot and Dylan Thomas) to have been entered in most dictionaries as an acceptable variant spelling.
(taken from Merriam-Webster)
To see it in context or listen to the pronunciation, check the link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day (September 8, 2024).
