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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.
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Pooh-Bah
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dalehileman
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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).
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old hand
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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.
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memorial: 
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To rephrase: is it possible to translate the phrase: "traces of memory" into an adjective-noun pairing other than, "memory traces."
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What?! Thoughtful is not the adjective of thought! It's the adjective of thoughtfulness!
AghghahghghhhhhHHHH!!!!!
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old hand
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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)
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old hand
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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)
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old hand
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What about eidetic? (what about it I hear you say)
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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.
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... 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. : )
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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.
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There's just no adjective for memory; though, if we are going to make one up, I like memoric.
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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"]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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>Mnemonic is usually a noun.
mnemonic devices notwithstanding? (but there we go with the ol' adjective/noun split, again.)
-joe (a memorous dichotomy) friday
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>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."
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"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.
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"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? 
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all adjectives are nouns. Nouns are substantive or adjective or a vice versa.
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("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.
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"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!)
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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.
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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.
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a madelaine biscuit"Proust, in his first book, wrote about, wrote about ..." (A script and a video.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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("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.
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I think it would unclash with rapidic sonority.
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“Rapidic” sonority? Is that the sound of one hand clapping fast?
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I think it would unclash with rapidic sonority. But does it clash with rabinic seniority? rabidic slobberity? raponic salacinority?
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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).
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