Vocabulary Mnemonics

August 10, 2024

Matt’s words

Pulchritudinous (adj): physically beautiful

The pulchritudinous girl…

The nightclub, known for its pulchritudinous clientele…

Mnemonic: Imagine a beautiful foreigner named Chritude. You’d want to “pull” her “in” close to you to embrace her.

Fetid (n): having a bad smell;

The swamp, with its fetid water…

An outhouse, fetid and old, stood behind the cabin.

Mnemonic: Think “feh”, as in “I don’t like that.”

Caterwaul (v): make a shrill howling or wailing noise like a cat

She was not a singer. All she could do was caterwaul off-key.

Mnemonic: Think “cat.”

Goldeneye: “Who’s strangling the cat?”

Serendipity (n): an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; happy accident; finding valuable things you’re not looking for

How serendipitous that we ran into each other!

It was serendipity that we crossed paths.

Mnemonic: Think of stumbling across a group of ferries having a “serene dip” in a pool.

Think of the movie Serendipity. The whole plot is that these two people ran into each other and are trying to do it again.

Recondite (adj): little-known; esoteric; hard to understand

The documentary was loaded with recondite stories.

A recondite genre…

Mnemonic: Think “recon.” If you’re job RECONnaissance, you’re investigating little-known things.

Dr. Mom’s words

Hoi polloi (n): the masses; the common people; from the Greek in Pericles’ funeral oration for Thucydides

Celebrities at the Superbowl are often shown sitting in private boxes, perhaps so they don’t have to watch the game with the hoi polloi.

Mnemonic: Hoi polloi has a similar flavor to hoity toity—which means the moneyed folks, stereotypically haughty or snobbish—but means just the opposite. Its connotation can sometimes be negative, as in the great unwashed, the riffraff.

Ribald (adj): referring to sexual matters in an amusingly coarse or irreverent way; raunchy, risqué

The unrelenting stream of ribald comments during the improv routine caused some patrons to leave the event.

Mnemonic: From “ri,” think of someone has a “wry” sense of humor. Expect their humor to be a little twisted from the norm. It may even veer toward not “baldy” but “bawdy,” which means raunchy, risqué, etc.

Crapulous (adj): marked by intemperance, especially in eating or drinking; sick from excessive indulgence in liquor; drunken

Researchers have recently taken a closer look at the role of the immune system in provoking those crapulous mornings. Discover Magazine, 2021

Mnemonic: Pronounce the word crap-you-lush. You’re feeling “crappy” because you’ve been a “lush (drunkard).”

Legate (n): an official emissary, a high-level representative or envoy

I felt happy for my avuncular neighbor when he was asked by our mayor to represent him to the governor.

Mnemonic: Legate is the end of the word “delegate,” or representative. Take off the “de” and think of taking off the reduced role (de-value or de-emphasize) of this person and their being elevated to, say, an ambassador.

Kerfuffle (n): a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict

Kerfuffles pop up more and more frequently these days over the issue of cell phones in schools.

Mnemonic #1: “Fuffle” sounds like “ruffle,” so think of “f”eathers being ruffled over one issue or another.

BIG sentence:

Serendipitously, the pulchritudinous legate was able dodge her crapulous, fetid counterpart as he, never one to concern himself with recondite facts, spawned a kerfuffle as he caterwauled on to the hoi polloi with ribald comments.