memoir (oir as war)

[Fr. mémoire, from Lat. memoria =memory (q. v.).] 1. A memorial account; a history composed from personal experience and memory; an account of transactions in which the narrator bore a part; an account of matters connected with some period of history, but le full and formal than a history proper. "There is not in any author a computation of the revenues of the Roman empire, and hardly any memoirs from whence it might be collected."-Arbuthnot: On Coins. 2. A biographical notice, whether written by the subject himself or by another; a biography or autobiography; recollections of one's life. ( Fre quently in the plural : as, "Grant's Memoirs.") "To write his own memoirs , and leave his heirs High schemes of government, and plans of wars." Prior: Carmen Seculare . 3. An account of something worth notice or remembering; a record of investigations or discoveries on any subject, especially a communication to a learned society on some point or subject of scientific interest.