Etymology Dictionary

AMNESTY,  a pardon of offenders; lit. a forgetting of offences.  (F.,—Gk.)   Used in the Lat. form amnestia by Howell, b. iii. letter 6.   Barrow has amnesty, vol. iii. serm. 41.—F. amnestie, which Cotgrave explains by 'forgetfulness of things past.'—Lat. amnestia, merely a Latinised form of the Gk. word.   [Ducange gives amnescia, but this form is probably due to the fact that t is constantly mistaken for c in MSS., and is frequently so printed.]—Gk. ἀμνηστία, a forgetfulness, esp. of wrong; hence, an amnesty.—Gk. ἀμνηστος, forgotten, unremembered.—Gk. ἀ-, privative; and μνάομαι, I remember; from a stem mná, which is a secondary form from an older MAN; cf. Lat. me-min-i, I remember.—✔MAN, to think; cf. Skt. man, to think.   See Mean, v.