|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
Is there one?
Nabokov uses mnemonic as an adjective for memory describing an old, faded postcard in The Real Life of Sebastian Knight ("a dream-wide street with droshkies all awry under incredibly blue skies, which, farther away, melt automatically into a pink flush of mnemonic banality"), though, if you are going to pick nits, it's not quite on the nose. The nostalgic reminiscential won't do either. I realise memory itself is used as an adjective at times. Are there other options? If you ask me, memorial sorely wants a third sense.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
dalehileman
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
dale, what can I say? Did you even read my post? or did you just "skip-read", see the words "nostalgic" and "reminiscential" and offer the inevitable OneLook link?
Faldage, memorable is the adjective of memorability not memory.
It seems a little odd such a common word, along with thought, does not have a separate adjectival form; I thought something might be dredged up. (Travel, for example, as an obscure adjective: viatic).
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
memorial or reminding, depending on the the exact sense - whether it is memory in the sense of reminiscing or memory in the sense of not forgetting.
Thought does have an adjectival form in thoughtful. Or in another sense, perhaps cognitive or noetic?
Last edited by The Pook; 06/16/08 02:55 AM.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
memorial:
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
To rephrase: is it possible to translate the phrase: "traces of memory" into an adjective-noun pairing other than, "memory traces."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
What?! Thoughtful is not the adjective of thought! It's the adjective of thoughtfulness!
AghghahghghhhhhHHHH!!!!!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876 |
Interesting choice! This sculpture is amazing, and must be seen in person to be appreciated fully. You can get a feel for it, though, by looking at the photo and covering half vertically through his face. The left side (viewing) of the body is relaxed, almost with a hint of contentment, but the right side is tense and worried. In person one can stand and view it from the side, where it is even more apparent. It is very tall (15 feet or so?) and imposing. I highly recommend a visit to anyone who's never done so. :0)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876 |
To rephrase: is it possible to translate the phrase: "traces of memory" into an adjective-noun pairing other than, "memory traces."
Are you going for poetic? How about "threads of remembrance"? :0)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956 |
What about eidetic? (what about it I hear you say)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
I like eidetic, but technically, that is the adjective for photographic memory.
But let's not lose heart yet. After all, bad breath has its halitotic, prison its carceral.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
... and yesterday has its hesternal, and summer its aestival.
You wanna know the truth? My experience seems to suggest that if you can't find a word, AWADtalk won't be able to help you. And that's not talking down the board. It's just to make the point that if the word is out there (even if there is here!) Google is your best bet.
Wordsmith Talk, then, is a great place to chat about words, make friends, and sometimes, just sometimes, to be thrown a bone by someone with better Googling skills that you. : )
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Memory is so broad a subject that we need to have an idea what about memory we're after if we are to try to find a suitable adjective, don't we?
If we're not limited to an etymological root, we have more possibilities; for instance, one could consider using unforgettable, or memorable (suggested by Faldage), or possibly another adjective, for one meaning related to memory.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
There's just no adjective for memory; though, if we are going to make one up, I like memoric.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I think mnemonic works, though perhaps it would be a new usage. it certainly hearkens back to the Greek root.
[Mid-18th century. <mnemonics, or < Greek mnēmonikos "relating to memory" < mnēmon- "mindful"]
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
Nabokov uses mnemonic like that, more than once in the 12 novels of his I have read. I think it works pretty well too, with a dash of artistic license. It was just the necessity of that dash that prompted my little query. The man is a millionaire of words.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Wow, Hydra, I haven't been able to come up with an adjectival form for memory. And though you did not explicitly ask, I've thought of two for thought: thinking and sentient.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
I don't know if this is right, but to me, thinking is the adjective of thinking the noun not thought the noun. Hence, "A thinking man," but not "thinking flashes" for "flashes of thought." Sentient, to me, is feeling. "A sentient mollusk," for example can't think (?).
But if any one would like to join me, I will be storming Oxford University Press tomorrow at dawn to demand the inclusion of my "memoric" into our lexicon.
Mouthfroth optional.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
if you really want something with some historic bite, memorous is an obs. rare form, used in the sense of the Latin memor, or mindful.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
memorous
If it's archaic or pretend words you're looking for, you could do no worse than Old English myndig (which would be mindy these days) 'mindful', or along the lines of German denkwürdig 'memorable', thoughtworthy. (There was an OE myndwyrðe 'worth mentioning'.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
I think mnemonic works, though perhaps it would be a new usage. it certainly hearkens back to the Greek root.
[Mid-18th century. <mnemonics, or < Greek mnēmonikos "relating to memory" < mnēmon- "mindful"] Mnemonic is usually a noun. Nabokov's use of it as an adjective is probably novel, yes. (no pun intended)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I think mnemonic works, though perhaps it would be a new usage. it certainly hearkens back to the Greek root.
[Mid-18th century. <mnemonics, or < Greek mnēmonikos "relating to memory" < mnēmon- "mindful"] Mnemonic is usually a noun. Nabokov's use of it as an adjective is probably novel, yes. (no pun intended) I know, but I still like it. I think it works.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>Mnemonic is usually a noun.
mnemonic devices notwithstanding? (but there we go with the ol' adjective/noun split, again.)
-joe (a memorous dichotomy) friday
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
>Mnemonic is usually a noun.
mnemonic devices notwithstanding? (but there we go with the ol' adjective/noun split, again.)
-joe (a memorous dichotomy) friday Here's a good debating subject: "That any noun can be used as an adjective."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
"That any noun can be used as an adjective."
If you're a flatus senex like me that's an easy one to answer: all adjectives are nouns. Nouns are substantive or adjective or a vice versa.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
"That any noun can be used as an adjective."
If you're a flatus senex like me My Latin is not too good but that sounds like you're admitting to being an old fart?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956 |
all adjectives are nouns. Nouns are substantive or adjective or a vice versa.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
("a dream-wide street with droshkies all awry under incredibly blue skies, which, farther away, melt automatically into a pink flush of mnemonic banality"),
And never needed no better word.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
"a dream-wide street with droshkies all awry under incredibly blue skies, which, farther away, melt automatically into a pink flush of memorous banality".
And never needed no better word. It still feels like a last resort to me, but perhaps that's because mnemonics is a little hobby of mine. I can't read the word without thinking of such things as the Master Peg System, or the loci method of Simonides, and whathaveyou. Who knows. Perhaps Nabokov would have preferred tswum's memorous. (He was no stranger to obscure words!)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Mnemonic is about the odd object, perfumes, shreds of music that bring back strong, unexpected and complex memories. I think an old postcard, a madelaine biscuit, a passing little breath (breeze?)of air, a sound - can do that wonderfully. I like that word mnemonic since I came to know it.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
an old fart
In Bog Latin mayhaps, and that was my intention. Latin flatus 'breathing; wind; snorting' is one of those medical Latin euphemisms.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
a madelaine biscuit"Proust, in his first book, wrote about, wrote about ..." (A script and a video.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
("a dream-wide street with droshkies all awry under incredibly blue skies, which, farther away, melt automatically into a pink flush of mnemonic banality"),
And never needed no better word. To this native speaker it clashes too harshly with the more common noun meaning of mnemonic that Hydra and others speak of.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I think it would unclash with rapidic sonority.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
“Rapidic” sonority? Is that the sound of one hand clapping fast?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876 |
I think it would unclash with rapidic sonority. But does it clash with rabinic seniority? rabidic slobberity? raponic salacinority?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
a madelaine biscuit"Proust, in his first book, wrote about, wrote about ..." (A script and a video.) That's for sending me off on a two hour Monty Python viewing marathon zmjezhd! (Curse YouTube's related videos window).
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,412
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
907
guests, and
3
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|