souvenir

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French souvenir (literally “memory”); compare memento.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌsuːvəˈnɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.vəˌnɪɹ/, /ˌsu.vəˈnɪɹ/
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /ˌsoʊ.vəˈnɪ.ə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sou‧ve‧nir
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Noun

souvenir (plural souvenirs)

1. An item of sentimental value, that is given or kept to remember an event or location.

   Synonyms: keepsake, memento, memorabilia

   • 2005, Steven Church, Guinness Book of Me, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 138:

     The tourists stuck to the safe confines of the gift shop, where they bought souvenir combs, shot glasses, oversize pencils, and blocks of cedar painted with rhyming poems and shellacked to a high gloss.

Alternative forms

• souvenier (obsolete)

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Cantonese: souven

Translations

Verb

souvenir (third-person singular simple present souvenirs, present participle souveniring, simple past and past participle souvenired)

1. (transitive) To take (something) as a souvenir, especially illicitly, for example during wartime.
   • 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 57:

     "Doubletime up to the ville and souvenir me one cute orphan, man, but be sure you get a dirty one, a really skuzzy one."

   • 2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 84:

     The word is they're waiting for some blokes who had gone off souveniring before the order was announced.

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French souvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.vəˈnir/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sou‧ve‧nir

Noun

souvenir n (plural souvenirs, diminutive souvenirtje n)

1. souvenir

Synonyms

• aandenken
• gedachtenis

Descendants

• → Indonesian: suvenir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French soubvenir, from Old French sovenir, from Latin subvenīre (“come to mind, occur to”), from sub + veniō. Doublet of subvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.v(ə).niʁ/

• audio (se souvenir)

  (file)

Verb

souvenir

1. (takes a reflexive pronoun, transitive with de) to remember

   Synonym: rappeler

   il faut se souvenir que... ― It's necessary to remember that...

   Je me souviens de toi. ― I remember you.

   Est-ce que vous vous souvenez de ce que vous m’avez dit la semaine dernière ?

   Do you remember what you told me last week?

Conjugation

This is a verb in a group of -ir verbs. All verbs ending in -venir, such as convenir and devenir, are conjugated this way. Such verbs are the only verbs whose the past historic and subjunctive imperfect endings do not start in one of these thematic vowels (-a-, -i-, -u-).

Derived terms

• se souvenir

Noun

souvenir m (plural souvenirs)

1. memory (mental picture)

   Je n’ai pas le souvenir de t’avoir dit ça…

   I don't remember telling you that…

   (literally, “I don't have the memory of me having told you that…”)

2. souvenir

   J’ai ramené un souvenir de Paris.

   I have brought back a souvenir of Paris.

Derived terms

• jour du Souvenir

Descendants

Further reading

• “souvenir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French souvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.veˈnir/
• Rhymes: -ir

Noun

souvenir m (invariable)

1. souvenir

References

Further reading

• souvenir in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• universo

Old French

Verb

souvenir

1. Alternative form of sovenir

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has a stressed present stem souvien distinct from the unstressed stem souven, as well as other irregularities. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

Spanish

Alternative forms

• suvenir

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French souvenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /subeˈniɾ/
• Rhymes: -iɾ

Noun

souvenir m (plural souvenirs)

1. souvenir

   Synonym: recuerdo

   • 2015 July 8, “Resumen del día de El País América - 7 de julio”, in El País‎:

     Y eso aumenta la presión sobre México: el otrora “gigante de Concacaf”: el campeón de los ratings en las transmisiones y una de las selecciones con más ganancias por venta de jerséis y souvenires alusivos al equipo en el mundo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “souvenir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French souvenir.

Noun

souvenir c

1. a souvenir

Declension

References

• souvenir in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• souvenir in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• souvenir in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)