engram

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A postulated physical or biochemical change in neural tissue that represents a memory.

   I use the word engram to denote this permanent change wrought by a stimulus; the sum of such engrams in an organism may be called its "engram-store," among which must distinguish inherited from acquired engrams.

2. 2
   noun

   a postulated biochemical change (presumably in neural tissue) that represents a memory

3. 3
   noun

   A painful, negative mental image representing a past event.

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”).

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