"loss of memory," 1786 (as a Greek word in English from 1670s), Modern Latin, coined from Greek amnesia "forgetfulness," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + mnesi- "remembering" (found only in compounds), from stem of mnasthai "to recall, remember," related to mnemnon "mindful," mneme "memory;" from PIE root *men- (1) "to think." The usual word in Greek was amnestia, but this had a specialized sense of "forgetfulness of wrong" (see amnesty).
