keepsake means an object given by a person and retained in memory of something or someone; something kept for sentimental or nostalgic reasons. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 71 out of 100.
keepsake is pronounced /ˈkiːp.seɪk/.
Why “keepsake” is a great word
KEEPSAKE — [Noun] A small object kept or given to serve as a tangible reminder of a person, event, or personal bond. From the verb 'keep' (to retain) + 'sake' (as in 'for the sake of', meaning purpose or regard), first attested in the late 18th century. Unlike a 'souvenir' (a purchased, generic token of a place visited) or a 'relic' (an object of veneration due to antiquity or sacred history), a keepsake is an artifact of private affection. It is the smooth river-stone pressed into your palm during a farewell, the ticket stub from a film seen on a first date, or the frayed edge of a baby's blanket saved long after the child has grown—each a modest vessel freighted with the impossible task of holding time, a fragile, physical pact against forgetting.
Etymology
From keep + sake.
noun
- An object given by a person and retained in memory of something or someone; something kept for sentimental or nostalgic reasons.“And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been ”
- Specifically, a type of literary album popular in the nineteenth-century, containing scraps of poetry and prose, and engravings.“He had brought the last “Keepsake,” the gorgeous watered-silk publication which marked modern progress at that time; and he considered himself very fortunate that he could be the first to look over it with her, dwelling on the ladies and gentlemen with shiny copper-plate cheeks and copper-plate smiles, and pointing to comic verses as capital and sentimental stories as interesting.”