Recollecting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The mental activity of recalling and retrieving memories from the past involves accessing stored information and recognizing prior experiences or details
2. The act of bringing past experiences or facts back into the mind from memory
3. Engaging in mental retrieval of previously learned or experienced information

Etymology: The verb "recollect" was built from two Latin parts: "re-", meaning "again" or "back", and "collect", from "colligere", meaning "gather together". Its original sense was literal and physical: to gather something up again, or to recover what had been scattered. The Latin "recolligere" carried this sense of retrieving things, and medieval writers extended it to a gathering of the mind, bringing thoughts back together. That mental sense is the one that stuck. The notion of recollection as a deliberate act of gathering up stored memories, rather than passive remembering, is built into the word's structure. The form came into English through Medieval Latin "recollectus", which meant "remembered" or "composed", and English speakers adopted it with the sense of bringing one's thoughts back into order.

Synonyms: remembering, recalling, retrieving, reminding, noting

Antonyms: forgetting, ignoring, overlooking, disregarding, neglecting