Vocabulary Mnemonics

June 29, 2024

Matt’s words

Perspicacious (adj): good at picking up on things; can figure things out quickly; astute;

Perspicacious investors bought shares of Amazon as soon as shares started trading.

Mnemonic: You’re out searching for gold with a group of hard-core speculators. You expect to see everyone with divining rods, or other tools. Instead, they all pull out purse picks.

Bailiwick (v): Someone’s area of expertise. Jurisdiction.

Experts should confine their comments to their bailiwick.

Mnemonic: Think bailiff. That’s where this word comes from. In the court, you’re under the bailiff’s bailiwick. He’s in charge.

Confabulate (v): Definition 1: Engage in conversation; chat

Psychology: fill in memory gaps with fabrications

During lunch, Suzy and Sally loved to spend the time confabulating about nothing in particular.

Mnemonic: “con” means “with.” “Fab” is short for “fabrications.” When we chat, we often through in some fabrications.

Antediluvian (adj): occurring before the flood; antiquated

The antediluvian period of the Bible is the most fascinating.

The young teen’s antediluvian notions about marriage raised eyebrows with her friends.

Mnemonic: Break the word down. Ante means “before.” Diluvian has the same root as “deluge.”

Bonus word: Antebellum (adj): occurring before the Civil War

In the antebellum South, cotton was king.

Mnemonic: Bellum is Latin for “war.” Bellicose and casus belli (cause of war).

Magniloquent (adj): using high-flown or bombastic language; exaggerated eloquence; pompous

The job applicant’s magniloquent style was a turn-off to his potential employer.

Mnemonic: Break the word down: Magni means “great,” like magnitude. Loquent deals with speech, like “loquacious” and “eloquent.”

Combining them gives you “great,” and “speech.”

Dr. Mom’s words

Ablute: (v) to wash one’s body; to bathe; also, ablution means the washing of one’s body, often in a ritualistic, religious context

“Though he wasn’t required to, the minister always felt more prepared to addressed his congregation if he had first performed his ablutions.”

Mnemonic #1: Ablute in the loo every day.

Mnemonic #2: I ablute in my lute, though it’s tricky to squeeze between the strings.

Laconic: (adj) using a minimum of words; concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious

“The laconic teacher—a rare bird indeed—never used two words when one would do.”

Mnemonic: The word “conic” comprises most of this word and means cone-shaped. Picture a cone shoved into your mouth, then trying to speak. You’d be a person of few words, too.

Escutcheon: (n) 1—the back plate behind a doorknob or keyhole.

2—a shield with a coat of arms on it

“When remodeling our house, we decided to go with a fancy escutcheon on our front door so as to impress any lucky visitors.”

Mnemonic: “Careful you don’t ‘cut ya on’ the fancy escutcheon when you try to put your key into the keyhole” (or run your fingers admiringly over the engravings on that shield).

Surfeit: (n)an overabundance or excess; implies a nauseating repletion; opposite of deficit; can be used as a verb: to glut

“After Halloween, trick or treaters often gorge themselves on their surfeit of sweets.”

Mnemonic: I don’t surf, but I’ve heard it’s addictive to many. So, imagine the answer to any question of what activity to do is, “Surf it! Just surf it!” A true surfer might be said to surfeit (verb form) himself in a surfeit (noun form) of surfing.

Wabbit: (adj)feeling very tired, weak, and not healthy

“I still feel wabbit even three weeks after ‘recovering’ from mono.”

Mnemonic: The word sounds like Elmer Fudd naming Bugs Bunny, but just think of a generic rabbit. Rabbits love to jump, but this rabbit engaged in a surfeit 😊 of jumping and is totally wiped out. Picture him hunched over and panting, looking quite weak and unwell.

Big sentence:

Well known in the antediluvian period, Noah, always perspicacious, rarely laconic, never prone to confabulation, sometimes magniloquent, and currently feeling wabbit and out of his bailiwick, first abluted, then surfeited himself on eggs and bacon before boarding the ark with its escutcheon prominently displayed on the bow.