memoir
- 01 C2 Proficiency
a book about someone else's life written by a person who knew them very well.
a biographical account of a subject based on the author's personal knowledge or intimate association with them.
Simple“He wrote a moving memoir of his late father, who was a famous poet.”
In context“The diplomat's memoir of the former prime minister provides an intimate, if somewhat biased, look at the private motivations behind the treaty.”
UsageUsually followed by the preposition 'of' and the name of the subject.
Teacher's tipThis sense is less common today; modern readers usually expect a memoir to be about the author's own life.
Usage memoir titled
“He described the experience in his 1974 memoir Carrying the Fire, saying he felt "truly alone" and "isolated from any known life", but that he did not feel fear or loneliness.”
“Guo combines memoir, philosophy, visual art and language, using Chinese script to guide the reader.”
From French mémoire (“memoir”), from Latin memoria (“memory”). Doublet of memoria and memory.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.