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Subject:mnemonic: M-W's Word of the Day
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Date:Fri, 18 Jan 2002 02:00:00 -0800 (PST)

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He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Find him and other
winners in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American Writers.
http://www.m-w.com/book/peoplace/amwrit.htm
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The Word of the Day for January 19 is:

mnemonic \nih-MAH-nik\ (adjective)
: assisting or designed to assist memory

Example sentence:
Our music teacher taught us the mnemonic sentence "Every
good boy does fine" to help us remember the names of the lines
of the treble staff.

Did you know?
The word "mnemonic" derives from Greek "mnemon" ("mindful"),
which itself comes from the Greek word for "remember." (In
classical mythology, Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses, is the
goddess of memory.) As with many classical borrowings, we
retained the double initial consonant, but not the pronunciation
of both, since the combination doesn't occur naturally in English.
("Pneumonia" is a similar case.) "Mnemonic" can also be a noun
meaning "a mnemonic device." If the spelling of this word strikes
you as particularly fiendish to remember, try this mnemonic to
get you started on the right track: keep in mind that although
the pronunciation begins with an "n" sound, the spelling begins
with an "m," as in "memory."

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