Origin and history of forget-me-not

Let me not forget the receptionist — generally and preferably, a woman of refined and gentle manners, well informed and specially...It is not too much to say that she can both make and destroy a business, if she has the amount of discretionary power given...

"forget, not remember," 1805, a colloquialism, from dis- "opposite of" + remember....With a great many of our wise folk, the old, absurd word forget is given over to oblivion, and the sonorous and elegant word...

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously...while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget...whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly...to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously...

at the top for admission of air," 1780, originally in a French context, from French oubliette (14c.), from oublier "to forget...negligence" (Old French oblier, oblider), from Vulgar Latin *oblitare, from Latin oblitus, past participle of oblivisci "to forget...

mid-15c., "forgetful, disposed to forget, heedless," from Latin obliviosus "forgetful, that easily forgets; producing forgetfulness...Properly it should be used with to, not of. Related: Obliviously; obliviousness....

But pentagonal geometry is basic to many living things, from roses and forget-me-nots to sea urchins and starfish....

from Latin oblivionem (nominative oblivio) "forgetfulness; a being forgotten," from oblivisci (past participle oblitus) "forget...over" (see ob-) + root of lēvis "smooth," but de Vaan and others find that "a semantic shift from 'to be smooth' to 'to forget...' is not very convincing."...

c. 1300, erbe "non-woody plant," especially a leafy vegetable used for human food, from Old French erbe "grass, herb, plant fed to animals" (12c., Modern French herbe), from Latin herba "grass, an herb; herbage, turf, weeds" (source also of Spanish yerba, Portuguese herva, Italia

Middle English mous, from Old English mus "small rodent," also "muscle of the arm" (compare muscle (n.)); from Proto-Germanic *mus (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Danish, Swedish mus, Dutch muis, German Maus "mouse"). This is from PIE *mus-, the old Indo-Eur

"organ of hearing," Old English eare "ear," from Proto-Germanic *auzon (source also of Old Norse eyra, Danish øre, Old Frisian are, Old Saxon ore, Middle Dutch ore, Dutch oor, Old High German ora, German Ohr, Gothic auso), from PIE *ous- "ear" (source also of Greek ous, Latin aur