There’s a competition in this post!
Today’s word for the day on Facebook Scrabble is ADJACENT. The definition is: near, next to. I immediately thought back a thousand years to English lessons, where we had to recite:
Abundant plenty
Abundant plenty
Abundant plenty
Adhere stick
Adhere stick
Adhere stick
Adjacent next to
Adjacent next to
Adjacent next to
I can’t remember what came after that, but I did once. Reciting these definitions definitely helped to improve my vocabulary.
There are a few other things I remember learning at school. Like “M-I-double S-I-double S-I-double P-I” and “N-E-C-E-double S-A-R-Y”.
And these:
LADPOCS (Geography)
BODMAS (Maths)
King Henry’s daughter makes (/gnaws) delicious cream meringues (Maths)
Rejoice heartily, your teacher has measles (Music)
So, there’s the competition. Do you know what any of those things in red mean? The first person (people) to tell me in the comments will get… I don’t know. But I’ll think of something.
People who were at school with me (you know who are) are not eligible to enter.
Moral: when all else is forgotten, it’s the mnemonics that stick.
Miriam Drori, Author 