Etymology

of blessed memory

Today it means: Honorific epithet used parenthetically to mark a beloved person as being deceased. Full definition →

Latin beatae memoriae ← Hebrew זיכרונו לברכה
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The story

  1. Hebrew · derived fromזיכרונו לברכה“memory-of-him/her/them to blessing”
  2. Latin · derived frombeatae memoriae
  3. English todayof blessed memory

A calque of Latin beatae memoriae, possibly a calque of Hebrew זיכרונו לברכה (zikhronó/á/ám/án livrakhá, “memory-of-him/her/them to blessing”), ז״ל (Z.L.).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.