engram

Meanings

1. A postulated physical or biochemical change in neural tissue that represents a memory.
2. A painful, negative mental image representing a past event.

1. A surname transferred from the given name, a rare variant of Ingram.

Etymology

Borrowed from German Engramm which was coined by German evolutionary biologist Richard Semon in 1904. First attested in English in 1921 (see quotation below). Ultimately from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + γράμμα (grámma, “writing, picture”).