"unusual power of memory," 1847, from hyper- "over, beyond, in excess" + -mnēsia "memory," probably based on amnesia, which is older.
Entries linking to hypermnesia
hyper-
word-forming element meaning "over, above, beyond," and often implying "exceedingly, to excess," from Greek hyper (prep. and adv.) "over, beyond, overmuch, above measure," from PIE root *uper "over."
amnesia n.
"loss of memory," 1786 (as a Greek word in English from 1670s), Modern Latin, from Greek amnesia "forgetfulness," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + mnesi- "remembering" (found only in compounds), from stem of mnasthai "to recall, remember," which is related to mnemnon "mindful," mneme "memory" (from PIE root *men- (1) "to think"). The usual compound in Greek was amnestia, but this had a specialized sense of "forgetfulness of wrong" (see amnesty).