mention

English

Etymology

From Middle English mencioun, mention, from Old French mention, from Latin mentiōnem, accusative of mentiō (“a mention, calling to mind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: men‧tion
• Rhymes: -ɛnʃən

Noun

mention (plural mentions)

1. A speaking or notice of anything, usually in a brief or cursory manner. Used especially in the phrase make mention of.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 71:16:

     I will make mention of thy righteousness.

   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention / Of me more must be heard of.

2. (Internet, plural only) A social media feed, a list of replies or posts mentioning a person.
   • 2012 November 20, Kavitha Rao, “The Problems With Policing Sexism on Twitter”, in The Atlantic:

     "I would like Twitter to put some kind of filters in place," suggests Prakash. "At present I can't see troll tweets if I block the user, but others who go into my 'mentions' can do so, and read the graphic abuse, which is disturbing."

   • 2017 March 28, Jaleesa M. Jones, “Time to update your resumes: Chance the Rapper is hiring an intern”, in USA Today:

     In response to the flood of replies, Chance returned to Twitter several hours later — presumably, after his mentions calmed down — to request that users format their resumes as "creative decks, pitches or proposals" […] .

   • 2018 December 3, Bari Weiss, Eve Peyser, “Can You Like the Person You Love to Hate?”, in The New York Times:

     I didn’t delete my account — yet! I know! I am full of shame! — but I did change the way I use it (no looking at my mentions; far less tweeting; aiming to highlight the work of people I like rather than criticize the work of those I don’t).

Derived terms

• honorable mention
• honorary mention
• make mention
• make mention of
• mentionable
• mentionless
• use-mention distinction

 

Translations

a speaking or notice of anything, usually in a brief or cursory manner

• Arabic: ذِكْر (ar) m (ḏikr)

  Moroccan Arabic: هدرة

• Bulgarian: спомена́ване n (spomenávane)
• Catalan: menció f, esment (ca) m
• Cebuano: hisgot
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 言及 (zh) (yánjí), 提到 (zh) (tídào)

• Czech: zmínka f
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: vermelding (nl) f
• Esperanto: mencio
• Finnish: maininta (fi)
• German: Erwähnung (de) f
• Greek: αναφορά (el) f (anaforá), μνεία (el) f (mneía), μνημόνευση (el) f (mnimónefsi)
• Hindi: ज़िक्र m (zikr)
• Icelandic: umtal n
• Italian: cenno (it) m, accenno (it) m, menzione (it) f
• Japanese: 言及 (ja) (げんきゅう, genkyū)
• Korean: 언급(言及) (ko) (eon'geup)
• Latin: mentiō f
• Macedonian: спомнување n (spomnuvanje), напомена f (napomena), споменување n (spomenuvanje)
• Old English: ymbsprǣc n
• Polish: wzmianka (pl) f
• Portuguese: menção f
• Russian: упомина́ние (ru) n (upominánije), ссы́лка (ru) f (ssýlka)
• Scottish Gaelic: iomradh m, luaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: помен f, помињање n

  Latin: pomen (sh) f, pominjanje n

• Spanish: mención (es) f
• Swedish: omnämnande (sv) n
• Tagalog: banggit, ungkat (tl)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: посила́ння (uk) n (posylánnja), зга́дка f (zhádka)
• Vietnamese: đề cập (vi)

Verb

mention (third-person singular simple present mentions, present participle mentioning, simple past and past participle mentioned)

1. To make a short reference to something.
   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. […] Banks and credit-card firms are kept out of the picture. Talk to enough people in the field and someone is bound to mention the “democratisation of finance”.

2. (philosophy, linguistics) To utter a word or expression in order to refer to the expression itself, as opposed to its usual referent.
   • 2006, Tony Evans, The Transforming Word: Discovering the Power and Provision of the Bible, Moody Publishers, →ISBN, page 140:

     I can illustrate this by mentioning the word lead. Now you have no way of knowing for sure which meaning I have in mind until I give it some context by using it in a sentence.

   • 2009, Lieven Vandelanotte, Speech and Thought Representation in English: A Cognitive-functional Approach, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 124:

     If the verbatimness view derives from the popular notion that DST repeats 'the actual words spoken', a second line of thought takes its cue from Quine's (1940: 23–26, 1960: 146–156) philosophical distinction between words which are “used” vs. words which are merely “mentioned”.

   • 2013, Richard Hanley, South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating, Open Court, →ISBN:

     If I said rightly, “'Niggers' is a seven letter word,” I would be mentioning the word, and when we write it, we use mention-quotes for this purpose (speech typically lacks quotes, except for the occasional air-quotes). If I said, rightly or wrongly, “Niggers are good athletes,” then I would be using “niggers,” not merely mentioning it.

Synonyms

(make a short reference to something): See Thesaurus:mention

Derived terms

• come to mention it
• don't mention it
• more than one cares to mention
• not to mention
• now that you mention it
• now you mention it
• unmention

 

Translations

mention — see cover

make a short reference to something

• Afrikaans: noem (af)
• Arabic: ذَكَرَ (ar) (ḏakara)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: xatırlamaq (az), adını çəkmək (a person), dilə gətirmək, sadalamaq (to list, to mention several things)
• Belarusian: зга́дваць impf (zhádvacʹ)
• Bulgarian: спомена́вам (bg) impf (spomenávam)
• Catalan: mencionar (ca), esmentar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 提及 (tai⁴ kap⁶)

  Mandarin: 提到 (zh) (tídào)

• Czech: zmínit (cs)
• Danish: omtale
• Dutch: vermelden (nl)
• Esperanto: mencii
• Estonian: mainima, viitama
• Finnish: mainita (fi), viitata (fi)
• French: mentionner (fr)

  Old French: mentevoir

• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: erwähnen (de)
• Greek: αναφέρω (el) (anaféro), μνημονεύω (el) (mnimonévo)

  Ancient: μνημονεύω (mnēmoneúō)

• Hungarian: megemlít (hu)
• Icelandic: minnast á, nefna (is), orða, geta (is), koma á framfæri, hafa orð á, vekja máls á, koma inn á, víkja að, drepa á, impra á
• Indonesian: menyebut (id)
• Interlingua: mentionar
• Irish: trácht ar

  Old Irish: as·beir

• Italian: menzionare (it)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} について話す (についてはなす, ni tsuite hanasu), 言及する (ja) (げんきゅうする, genkyū suru)
• Khmer: ក្លាវ (km) (klaaw)
• Korean: 말하다 (ko) (malhada), 언급하다 (ko) (eon'geuphada)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ناوھێنان (nawhênan)

• Latin: memorō
• Macedonian: спомнува (spomnuva), напоменува (napomenuva)
• Maori: takarure (repeatedly), whakahua, pōtete (frequently)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nevne (no), omtale (no)

  Nynorsk: nemne

• Old Norse: nefna
• Ottoman Turkish: آڭمق (anmak)
• Persian: اشاریدن (fa)
• Polish: wspomnieć (pl) pf, wspominać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: mencionar (pt)
• Russian: упомина́ть (ru) impf (upominátʹ), упомяну́ть (ru) pf (upomjanútʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: luaidh
• Spanish: mencionar (es), mentar (es)
• Swedish: nämna (sv), omnämna (sv)
• Tagalog: bumanggit, magbanggit, banggitin
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: bahsetmek (tr), değinmek (tr), dile getirmek (tr), söylemek (tr), söz etmek (tr), zikretmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: зга́дувати impf (zháduvaty), згада́ти pf (zhadáty), посила́тися impf (posylátysja)
• Vietnamese: đề cập (vi)
• Zulu: -biza

to utter an expression in order to refer to the expression itself

• Finnish: mainita (fi)

Anagrams

• nontime, omentin

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mentiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mention f (plural mentions)

1. mention (act of mentioning)
2. slogan

Derived terms

• faire mention

Related terms

• mentionner

Further reading

• “mention”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Alternative forms

• mencion
• mension

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mentiō, mentionis.

Noun

mention oblique singular, f (oblique plural mentions, nominative singular mention, nominative plural mentions)

1. mention (act of mentioning)

See also

• mentevoir