Aidez ma mémoire, s'il vous plaît!

October 6, 2010 8:11 AM

Trying to remember a French term.

I'm trying to remember a French term I stumbled across once. Fittingly, directly translated it meant something along the lines of "memento" or "something that reminds" (I think. I don't remember too well)

I had googled it, and it had a Wikipedia page that said it was also a legal term (as well as the literal definition I had guessed before).

Soooooo, what was it?

posted by polly grok it to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Best answer: possibly aide-mémoire?
posted by peachfuzz at 8:14 AM on October 6, 2010

Deja vu? Souvenir?
posted by Grither at 8:15 AM on October 6, 2010

Souvenir means "to remember" and commemorates an event or trip, so that would be my guess.
posted by Phire at 8:17 AM on October 6, 2010

Souvenir.
posted by proj at 8:28 AM on October 6, 2010

Best answer: Aide-mémoire fits the Wikipedia page clue.
posted by The Michael The at 8:28 AM on October 6, 2010

A secondary possibility here is "lieu de mémoire," which is what you're looking for if you're more on the "memento/site of memory" side of things.
posted by besonders at 8:36 AM on October 6, 2010

If the title is any indication, it's probably not aide-memoire....
posted by Grither at 8:36 AM on October 6, 2010

Definitely souvenir
posted by kitkatcathy at 8:38 AM on October 6, 2010

...and yet aide-memoire has been chosen as a best answer.... :)
posted by bardophile at 9:07 AM on October 6, 2010

Response by poster: Aide-mémoire! That was definitely the wiki page. Thanks!
posted by polly grok it at 9:18 AM on October 6, 2010