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[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Mark Mandel wrote:
>
> Oddly enough, though I use "Roy G. Biv" now, I first learned the colors of
> the spectrum from my dad as VIBGYOR, pronounced "VIB-ghee-or" /'vɪb.gi.ɔr/.
> Maybe that's how they remembered it in the Army in WWII.

Ben Zimmer posted an article in 2009 about various mnemonics including
"Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" for the colors of the visible
spectrum and "Mary's Violet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights" for the
planets without the plutoid Pluto.

Mnemonics, from Roy G. Biv to Mary's Violet Eyes
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/mnemonics-from-roy-g-biv-to-marys-violet-eyes/

Garson


> On Fri, Nov 1, 2019, 11:22 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > > On Nov 1, 2019, at 3:31 AM, Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET> wrote:
> > >
> > > EEs remember wires, MDs struggle to remember cranial nerves.  Lots of
> > mnemonics for the names but you have to memorize functions, too.
> > Suggestive or obscene helps but I went to St. Louis U, a Jesuit-founded
> > school so we (MD, 1980) sought also for sacrilegious;  S - sensory, M -
> > motor, B - both sensory & motor:  Sally sucked many monks but Magdalene
> > blew seven brothers before morning mass.
> > > Dave Hause
> >
> > Very elegant!  For those of us who were neither electricians nor med
> > school students but enjoyed looking at rainbows, we had it easier.  There
> > are indeed mnemonics for ROYGBIV, including at least "Richard Of York Gave
> > Battle In Vain” (for Richard, Duke of York, perhaps he of the 10,000 men
> > marched up the hill and back down again) or "Rinse Out Your Granny's Boots
> > In Vinegar”, but I always found Roy G. Biv perfectly memorable on his own.
> > I’m sure there must be obscene or sacrilegious variants extant.
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org