memento mori
noun
me·men·to mo·ri mə-ˈmen-tō-ˈmȯr-ē 
plural memento mori
: a reminder of mortality
especially : death's-head
Did you know?
Memento mori literally means "Remember you must die". The early Puritan settlers were particularly aware of death and fearful of what it might mean, so a Puritan tombstone will often display a memento mori intended for the living. These death's-heads or skulls may strike us as ghoulish, but they helped keep the living on the straight and narrow for fear of eternal punishment. In earlier centuries, an educated European might place an actual skull on his desk to keep the idea of death always present in his mind.
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web These are a different sort of memento mori: Plastic is cheap and perishable, yet at the molecular level nearly indestructible. 
Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2022 War photographs can serve as memento mori, important tokens of a nation's collective memory and essential tools to hold authorities accountable. Alessia Glaviano, Vogue, 20 June 2022 Updating the classical memento mori, a reminder of mortality, the Tennessee artist depicts toys, ornaments and Halloween decorations. Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2022 Some saints have been known especially for their devotion to the Latin phrase memento mori, remember your death. Alexandra Desanctis, National Review, 2 Mar. 2022 The boy king’s once triumphant riches now appeared tragic, his death mask a memento mori not only for individuals but for civilizations, which, no matter how powerful, seemed destined to fall. Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2022 But the pandemic—that inescapable memento mori—serves as a frame and a catalyst rather than a subject. Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine , 4 Jan. 2022 Fighting Demons, his second posthumous album is a tortured but overall grateful memento mori from a talented artist who left us all too soon. Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 16 Dec. 2021 Letting collections of things perpetuate in this way creates both a memento mori and a refusal of death’s power: American storage-renting is the opposite of Swedish death cleaning. Rafil Kroll-zaidi, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Dec. 2021 See More
Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2022 War photographs can serve as memento mori, important tokens of a nation's collective memory and essential tools to hold authorities accountable. Alessia Glaviano, Vogue, 20 June 2022 Updating the classical memento mori, a reminder of mortality, the Tennessee artist depicts toys, ornaments and Halloween decorations. Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2022 Some saints have been known especially for their devotion to the Latin phrase memento mori, remember your death. Alexandra Desanctis, National Review, 2 Mar. 2022 The boy king’s once triumphant riches now appeared tragic, his death mask a memento mori not only for individuals but for civilizations, which, no matter how powerful, seemed destined to fall. Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2022 But the pandemic—that inescapable memento mori—serves as a frame and a catalyst rather than a subject. Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine , 4 Jan. 2022 Fighting Demons, his second posthumous album is a tortured but overall grateful memento mori from a talented artist who left us all too soon. Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 16 Dec. 2021 Letting collections of things perpetuate in this way creates both a memento mori and a refusal of death’s power: American storage-renting is the opposite of Swedish death cleaning. Rafil Kroll-zaidi, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Dec. 2021 See More Word History
Etymology
Latin, remember that you must die
First Known Use
1598, in the meaning defined above
- inexecutable
- inexecution
- inexertion
- inexertions
- inexhausted
- inexhaustibilities
- inexhaustibility
- inexhaustible
- inexhaustibleness
- inexhaustiblenesses
- inexhaustibly
- inexhaustive
- inexhaustively
- inexhaustless
- inexigible
- inexist
- inexistence
- inexistences
- inexistent
- inexorabilities
- inexorability
- inexorable
- inexorableness
- inexorablenesses
- inexorably