souvenir

Definition

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

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

• "Back then, nobody knew in the schoolyard / Now then, you have grown up to be this hard / Go then, walk through this world with your heart scarred / You're the souvenir of sadness"
• "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."