memoire

Old French memoire derives from Latin memoria ('memory, remembrance'), from memor ('mindful'). In its earliest English use (1400s), a memoir was simply a written record — a memorandum, a note, a reminder. The word did not imply a personal narrative. It was closer to a filing system than a literary form.

The literary memoir emerged in France in the 17th century. The memoires of the Duc de Saint-Simon (written 1694-1723, published posthumously) and other court observers became a recognized genre: a first-person account of events the writer had witnessed or participated in. The form distinguished itself from biography (a life written by someone else) and autobiography (an attempt to cover an entire life).

English adopted both spellings — 'memoir' and 'memoire' — before settling on 'memoir' by the 1800s. The genre exploded in the late 20th century. Mary Karr's The Liars' Club (1995), Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996), and others triggered a memoir boom that has not stopped. The memoir replaced the novel as the dominant form of American literary non-fiction.

The plural 'memoirs' traditionally meant a different thing from the singular 'memoir.' Memoirs (plural) were a diplomat's or soldier's account of public events. A memoir (singular) was a more intimate, personal narrative. The distinction has blurred. Today, 'memoir' usually means a selective narrative of personal experience — not everything that happened, but the parts the writer chose to remember.