The Collaborative International Dictionary
Memento mori \Me*men"to mo"ri\ [L.] Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's-head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"reminder of death," 1590s, Latin, literally "remember that you must die."
Wiktionary
n. An emblematic object or personal ornament, such as a skull, used as a reminder of one's mortality.
WordNet
n. a reminder (as a death's head) of your mortality
Wikipedia
Memento mori ("remember that you have to die") is a Latin expression, originating from a practice common in Ancient Rome; as a general came back victorious from a battle, and during his parade ("Triumph") received compliments and honors from the crowd of citizens, he ran the risk of falling victim to haughtiness and delusions of grandeur; to avoid it, a slave stationed behind him would say "Respice post te. Hominem te memento" ( "Look after you [to the time after your death] and remember you're [only] a man."). It was then reused during the medieval period, it is also related to the ars moriendi ("The Art of Dying") and related literature. Memento mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife.
In art, mementos mori are artistic or symbolic reminders of mortality. In the European Christian art context, "the expression... developed with the growth of Christianity, which emphasized Heaven, Hell, and salvation of the soul in the afterlife."
Memento Mori ( also known as Whispering Corridors 2: Memento Mori) is a 1999 South Korean horror film, and the second installment of the Whispering Corridors film series. It is a sequel to 1998's Whispering Corridors, and is also set in an all-girls high school, but the films are otherwise unrelated. Memento Mori was one of the first Korean commercial films to depict lesbian characters. However, prevailing Korean attitudes constrained its potential to be widely viewed, even more so as the controversial themes targeted the teen demographic.
Memento Mori was a Swedish doom metal band with power metal influences. The band was founded by Messiah Marcolin and Mike Wead in 1992 after Messiah left Candlemass. After two albums, however, Messiah left the band; the third album was sung by a different singer. For the fourth album, Messiah returned. After that album, the band broke up. All albums were released by Black Mark.
Memento mori (Latin: "remember you will die") is a common motif in art.
It may also refer to:
"Memento Mori" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on . It was directed by Rob Bowman, and written by series creator Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz. "Memento Mori" featured guest appearances by Sheila Larken, David Lovgren and Morris Panych. The episode helped to explore the overarching mythology, or fictional history of The X-Files. "Memento Mori" earned a Nielsen household rating of 15.5, being watched by 19.1 million people in its initial broadcast. The title translates from Latin as " remember that you will die."
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. When Scully is diagnosed with an inoperable nasopharyngeal tumor, Mulder attempts to discover what happened to her during her abduction experience, believing the two events to be related.
"Memento Mori" was written in only two days, when previous series writer Darin Morgan did not contribute a script for the season. Discussion between the writing staff led to the "obligatory" decision to have Scully diagnosed with cancer, although the decision was not unanimous. Guest actor Lovgren portrayed multiple clones of his character using post-production techniques to merge several shots together; while actor Pat Skipper had a scene cut from the final episode for time restraints, later appearing in the season finale.
Memento Mori is the debut album from the indie rock band The Bastard Fairies. The title of the album is the Latin phrase, "Remember that you are mortal". There are two versions of this album, one free to download, and one available in stores, which contains 5 tracks not available on the download.
The Bastard Fairies store album became available to download on May 1, 2007.
"Memento Mori" is a short story written by Jonathan Nolan and published in the March 2001 edition of Esquire magazine. It was the basis for the film Memento. The name refers to memento mori, a symbolic or artistic expression of the Latin phrase meaning "remember that you will die."
Memento Mori is a novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark published by Macmillan in 1959. The title translates to "Remember you must die" and is the message delivered by a series of insidious phone-calls made to the elderly Dame Lettie Colston and her acquaintances. Who is making the calls and why? The recipients reflect on their past lives whilst trying to identify the culprit.
Memento Mori (Latin for " Remember to Die") is the 16th album by Buck-Tick, released on February 18, 2009. The limited edition came with a DVD of the making of the album. It reached number seven on the Oricon chart. Satoshi Mishiba of Kinniku Shōjo Tai provides piano on "Katte ni Shiyagare" and "Message".
Memento Mori is the second studio album by American rock band Flyleaf, released through A&M/Octone Records on November 10, 2009. The title is a Latin phrase meaning "be mindful of death" or "remember you will die". Memento Mori debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200, selling 56,000 units in its opening week. The album sold more than 311,600 copies in the U.S. in a little over one year.
Memento Mori is an adventure video game developed by Czech company Centauri Production in 2008.
Memento Mori is the upcoming fifth studio album by the Norwegian heavy metal band Sahg. It was announced that will be released on September 23, 2016 under Indie Recordings.
' Memento Mori ' is the second studio album from American heavy metal band Gemini Syndrome. Scheduled for release on 19 August 2016, the work shall be published by Another Century Records.
Usage examples of "memento mori".
I still have mine boot into the white-on-black teletype screen however, as a computational memento mori.
Although Caroline told her not to be superstitious, she herself was somewhat troubled by those memento mori.
But the modem memento mori is the insurance agent, with his pencils, and whenever I see one I mutter through the General Confession, just in case.
Maybe it was once his dog, and it died, so he wanted to keep the picture as a -memento mori-.
The pieces were made into many snuffboxes and other mementoes of the tree, some of them being inscribed with the punning motto, 'Memento Mori.
Now they spoke, gloved hand in gloved hand, looking down through ski-masks at the memento mori in the grey light.
Rumor has it that most of the things in there now are memento mori, and the descriptions of some are enough to make the Sith artifacts look absolutely benign.