Vocabulary Mnemonics

May 17, 2024

Matt’s words

Outré (adj): unusual; startling; weird

Sentence: “The musician’s outré fashion sense added to his mystic.”

“The clean-cut girl was shocked by the outré art in the tattoo parlor.”

Mnemonic: Imagine you’re at a dinner party. It’s a wholesome, family environment. Then, a goth teenager arrives with what she calls an “eww tray.” It’s a tray of food with weird, funky items. Eel heads, cow stomach, etc. It all very outré.

Dizygotic (adj): fraternal twins

Sentence: “The two friends were dizygotic twins.”

Mnemonic: Break the word down. Zygote = fertilized egg. Di = two, duo, dice. So, you’re left with two zygotes.

Bonus word: Monozygotic: identical twins. Mono = one, as in monogamy.

Anthropophagy (n): the eating of human flesh by human beings. Humans eating humans vs. eating your own species (cannibalism).

Sentence: “The gravesite had all the signs of anthropophagy.”

Anthropologists have discovered that anthropophagy was surprisingly common in ancient times.

Mnemonic: Break the word down to its etymology. Anthropo = humans, as in anthropology (the study of human societies). Phagy = to eat, as in esophagus.

Chary (adj): careful; wary; cautious

Sentence: “The dance company was chary about hiring a coach with a criminal record.”

“The young girls charily entered the haunted house.”

Mnemonic: You’re in a haunted house and have to enter a room. You’re scared. So, you pick up a chair and charily open the door with the chair.

Eunoia Yoo – NOY – uh (n): beautiful thinking; well mind. Think “good vibes.”

Sentence: “Striving for eunoia helps one approach each day with gratefulness.”

“Fostering eunoia in challenging times can bring peace.”

Mnemonic: Think about Jamaicans. They’re known for their eunoia. Relaxed, good vibes, etc.

You take a trip to Jamaica. The flight was terrible. You leave the airport flustered and angry. You meet your Jamaican cab driver and he asks, “How ya doin, mon?”

“I’m flustered.”

“Ya noy ya need to relax. You’re in Jamaica, mon.”

Suddenly, you’ve found eunoia.

Dr. Mom’s words

Sialoquent (adj): one that spits saliva much while speaking

Sentence: “We never get front row seats at the Shakespeare Festival lest we be showered by the extremely capable but sialoquent actors.”

Mnemonic: Pronounce the word as “sal-loquent.” “Sal” for saliva, and “loquent,” which is part of “eloquent” and “loquacious,” both of which have to do with speaking. So saliva and speaking coming together.

Nudiustertian (adj): of the day before yesterday, or very recently  

Sentence: “As much as the athlete aspired to exercising every day, the best he could manage long term was a nudiustertian schedule.”

Mnemonic: “Nu dius” sounds like new dia. “Dia” means day in Spanish. So think of a new day. Tertian comes from tertiary or tertius, which means third. So, think of the third new day, today being the third day after the day before yesterday (inclusive).

Jesus Christ was said to have been raised from the dead on the third day. The third day was Sunday (Easter), and he was crucified the “day before yesterday,” a Friday.

Screeve (v): to write a begging letter; also, to draw on the pavement with chalk in order to attract attention and obtain charity

Sentence: “Screeving outside the entrance to the amusement park usually led to at least a few donations.”

Mnemonic: A “screed” is a piece of writing, often ranting about something. When you are “peeved,” you are bothered by something, so combining screed and peeve leads to writing about something that you’re passionate about or about something that you need or want.

Geminate (adj): arranged in pairs or duplicates; also, two identical speech sounds that are pronounced as if they were independent (e.g., bookcase and and newsstand).

Sentence: “After scouring through every nook and cranny in the house, Mom felt satisfied all her socks and shoes were geminate.”

Mnemonic: “Gemini” is the astrological symbol of twins, which are a pair.  

Borborygmi (n): rumbling or gurgling noises in the belly or bowels

Sentence: “It’s utterly embarrassing when my borborygmi are loud enough for my students to hear!”

Mnemonic: “Bor” is repeated, “bor-bor,” and imagine each “bor” sounding like a growl or grumble, or “boooorrrrr.”  

BIG sentence:

The borborygmi produced by the chary, sialoquent, dizygotic trolls—geminate creatures who never engaged in eunoia but instead screeved regularly about their lack of nudiustertian eating patterns—led to their outre foray into anthropophagy.