memorist

English

Etymology

memory +‎ -ist

Noun

memorist (plural memorists)

1. One who, or that which, causes to be remembered.
   • 1682, Sir Thomas Browne, Christian Morals (published 1716):

     Though thou hadst the memory of Seneca or Simonides, and conscience the punctual memorist within us, yet trust not to thy remembrance in things which heed phylacteries.

   • 1987 September, Ronald J. Grele, “On using oral history collections: An introduction”, in The Journal of American History, volume 74, number 2:

     A good interview allows the memorist enough room to construct a story,

   • 1990 Autumn, S. L. Wisenberg, “To Be Read Aloud, Preferably with a Stranger”, in Kenyon Review:

     i'm a memorist. i collect memories. i'm the person you forgot you told a memory to.

   1. One who writes or recites a history, biography, memoir, or similar work containing memories.
      • 1901, “A Plea for Autobiography”, in Carina Campbell Eaglesfield, editor, Books Triumphant: Essays on Literature, page 39:

        Discretion is a lost art with the memorist and we would hail its return with joy and relief.

      • 1907, Roy Horniman, Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, page 182:

        I am quite aware of the charge of coxcombry which will be made against me for writing in such a way about my conquests, but when a man sets forth to tell the history of his life he must make up his mind to be impervious to two accustaions which are sure to be thrownn at the head of the truthful memorist, namely, those of vanity and exaggeration.

      • 1908, Arba Nelson Waterman, Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography:

        When "life's fitful fever" shall be over, it will be proper for the memorist fittingly to portray a character which can be only partially developed in the days of the contemporaneous biographer.

      • 1931, Walter Shaw Sparrow, A Book of Sporting Painters, page 142:

        This means that C.T. behaved badly, misusing the kindness he received in a private collection where copying was forbidden; and since he inveighed frequently to his memorist against all art dealers, his own actions should have been entirely scrupulous.

      • 1977, Romanian books, page 36:

        Secondly, I though my memoirs could have a moral, didactic importance. The decision to become a memorist has been taken also out of an awareness of some duty towards the society in which I lived and which has helped me, not only in an indirect way, to be of use to it, as good as I could.

      • 1988, New York Theatre Critics' Reviews - Volume 49, page 157:

        The engaging memorist treats his professional colleagues with a kind of affectionate candor that can often be sharply funny.

      • 2007 Winter, Marti LoMonaco, “26th SIBMAS Congress 2006”, in Broadside: Newsletter of the Theatre Library Association, volume 34, number 2:

        […] and Sylvie Francois and Louise Guy from Cirque du Soleil in Quebec who not only detailed the admirable collecting policies of this worldwide producing organization (they retain one of each of the 100-150 costumes created for each show and they are never re-used), but also described their newest staff position, the “memorist,” who will work with each creative team to document the multiple-year process of making new work.

      • 2011, E. Mazierska, European Cinema and Intertextuality, page 7:

        The spatial dimension of history is also recognised by the chief 'memorist', Pierre Nora.

2. One who is capable of impressive feats of memory.
   • 1975, David Black, Ekstasy: Out-of-the-body Experiences, page 114:

     Still, Swann did sketch some details of the island, and memorizing aerial photographs of the entire planet would tax even the most clever memorist.

   • 1992, Lynn Beene, ‎Gerry McBroom, ‎William J. Vande Kopple, The Riverside Handbook, page 202:

     Our ethics professor is the most remarkable memorist we have ever met; in fact, his abilities to recall things are remarkable.

   • 1996, Ronald W. Fry, How to Study, page 97:

     I saw the most obvious example of this as a kid when a memorist appeared on a Sunday morning TV show. He was introduced to the 100 or so youngsters in the audience and repeated all of their names back to them at the end of the show.

   • 2013, Charles P. Thompson, ‎Thaddeus M. Cowan, ‎Jerome Frieman ·, Memory Search By A Memorist, page 127:

     It is not possible to compare his digit span with any other memorist because he refused to be tested in the usual way; his digit span would obviously be quite long because he was able to recite strings of 25 or 26 digits after an exposure of only one second (Weinland, 1948).

3. One who remembers a particular thing or in a particular way.
   • 1784, Jonathan Swift, ‎ Thomas Sheridan, The Works of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, page 256:

     I do not find how his excellency can be justly censured for favouring none but high-church, high-flyers, termagants, laudists, sacheverellians, tip-top-gallon-men, jaocobites, tantivys, anti-hanoverians, friends to popery and the pretender and to arbitrary power, disobligers of England, breakers of DEPENDENCY, inflamers of quarrels between the two nations, public incendiaries, enemies to the king and kingdoms, haters of TRUE protestants, laurel-men, annists, complainers of the nation's poverty, ormondians, iconoclasts, anti-glorious-memorists, anti-revolutioners, white-rosalists, tenth-a-junians, and the like; when, by a fair state of the account, the balance, I conceive, seems to lie on the other side.

   • 1925, The Australian Musical News - Volume 14, page 7:

     it might nevertheless send a young Music Memorist into the Contest whose card of results would be better than any others.

   • 1966, Proceedings of the Musical Association (Great Britain) - Volumes 43-45, page 35:

     The finger memorist cannot play in a key with a big change of sharps or flats.

   • 2002, Thomas Riggs, Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature, page xxxii:

     For this reason the shape of a Holocaust memorist's work may depend as much on the writer's later preoccupations as on the events themselves.