mement

Mement is a neologism used in philosophy, cognitive science, and speculative fiction to denote a fragment or cue that triggers memory, or that functions as a reminder. Unlike the more established term memento, mement is not universally defined and its meaning varies by field and context.

In discussions of human memory, a mement may be a sensory imprint, a contextual tag, or a deliberately created reminder that helps reconstruct an episode. In accounts of artificial memory systems, a mement can refer to the smallest retrievable unit that anchors recall—a token or state fragment attached to a particular moment.

Etymology: the term appears to blend "memento" with the -ment suffix, signaling a discrete unit. It is not standardized in major dictionaries or formal taxonomies.

Usage: in literature and theory, mement is often imagined as a portable artifact, digital token, or memory module that can be stored, traded, or transferred. This has been used to explore ideas about memory economies, identity, and persistence across time.

Limitations: because mement lacks formal definition, its precise meaning relies on the author or researcher defining it within a given work or study. Readers should treat it as a speculative or context-dependent concept rather than a universal technical term.

Notes: it is easy to confuse mement with memento, or with established web archiving terms such as Memento, which has a separate, standardized meaning in digital preservation.