remind

The word 'remind' means to cause someone to remember something, or to serve as a prompt that brings a forgotten matter back to awareness.‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‍​‌​‍​‌​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍ Unlike many English words connected to mental activity, 'remind' is not a Latin or French borrowing but a native English formation, coined in the seventeenth century by prefixing 're-' (again, back) to 'mind' used as a verb meaning 'to remember.'

The verb 'to mind' in the sense of 'to remember' or 'to call to attention' has a long history in English. It derives from the noun 'mind,' which comes from Old English 'gemynd' (memory, remembrance, thought), from Proto-Germanic *ga-mundiz. The prefix 'ge-' (a collective or perfective prefix that was lost in Middle English) combined with *mundiz (thought, memory), from the PIE root *men- (to think). This root is one of the most important in Indo-European, underlying a vast family of words related to thinking, remembering, and mental states.

The PIE root *men- produced strikingly parallel results across the daughter languages. In Latin, it yielded 'mens' (mind), 'mentis' (of the mind), from which English derived 'mental,' 'mentality,' and 'demented.' Latin 'meminisse' (to remember) and 'memoria' (memory) also trace to *men-, giving English 'memory,' 'memorial,' 'memoir,' 'memorable,' and 'commemorate.' Latin 'monēre' (to remind, to warn — literally to cause to think) produced 'monitor,' 'monument,' 'admonish,' and 'premonition.'

In Greek, *men- produced 'menos' (spirit, force, intent), 'mania' (madness — thinking gone awry), 'mantis' (a seer, one with inspired thought — also the insect, named for its praying posture), and the critically important 'mnēmē' (memory), which generated 'mnemonic' and the name Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and mother of the nine Muses. In Sanskrit, the root produced 'manas' (mind, thought), a central philosophical term in Hindu and Buddhist thought, and 'mantra' (an instrument of thought, a sacred utterance).

The formation of 'remind' in the 1640s was straightforward in principle — 're-' plus 'mind' — but it attracted criticism. Samuel Johnson, in his landmark 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, marked 'remind' with suspicion, noting he had found it only in Shakespeare (specifically in 'Coriolanus,' Act V). Johnson's objection was that the re- prefix implied an action done again, but one could not 'mind' someone in order to 're-mind' them, since 'mind' as a transitive verb meaning 'to put in mind' was itself fading. Despite this prescriptivist objection, 'remind' filled a genuine gap in the language and quickly became standard.

Before 'remind' became established, English speakers used constructions like 'put in mind,' 'call to mind,' or 'bring to remembrance.' The verb 'remember' (from Old French 'remembrer,' from Latin 'rememorārī') covered part of the same semantic territory but was primarily reflexive — one remembers, rather than being remembered by another. 'Remind' neatly captured the causative sense: one person causes another to remember.

The Germanic cognates of 'mind' reveal interesting parallel developments. German 'mahnen' (to remind, to admonish, to urge) comes from the same Proto-Germanic root and preserves the causative meaning that English achieved only by coining 'remind.' Old Norse 'minna' (memory) also relates, and in Old Norse 'minni' meant a toast drunk in remembrance of someone — a ritual invocation of memory at the drinking table.

The word 'remind' also participates in one of the most interesting networks in English etymology: the *men- family. Through this single PIE root, English possesses 'mind,' 'mental,' 'memory,' 'mention,' 'comment,' 'mnemonic,' 'amnesia,' 'mania,' 'mantra,' 'mentor,' 'monitor,' 'monument,' 'premonition,' and 'automatic' (from Greek 'automatos,' self-thinking). Few roots have generated vocabulary touching so many aspects of human inner life — thought, memory, madness, prophecy, teaching, and warning — all flowing from the primordial concept of 'thinking.'