Madam, – John Robbie’s witty label for those using the Government jet as Prats (September 1st) was most amusing. However, his definition is flawed.
Dart (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) is not a mnemonic; it is an acronym, ie a word formed from the initial letters of several words.
A mnemonic is a mental technique, sometimes rhyming, used for making information, often technical or difficult to remember, easier to memorise.
A good example is the mnemonic for remembering the order of colours in the spectrum as “Roll out your Guinness boys in vats”, representing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A more common example is that used for remembering the gain or loss when changing the clocks: “spring forward, fall back”. – Yours, etc,