Vocabulary Mnemonics

August 24, 2024

Matt’s words

Thalasophile (n): someone who loves the sea, ocean, or other big body of water

Thalasotherapy (sea therapy), thalasophobic (fear of the sea).

The right beach could turn anyone into a thalasophile.

Moana, the famous thalasophile…

Mnemonic: Imagine a lasso-file sea serpent emerges from the ocean and drags you in.

Flaneur (n): someone who strolls around town observing

Nassim Taleb describes himself as a flaneur.

For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world…

Charles Baudelaire (The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays)

Mnemonic: He’s not a city planner; he’s a city “flaneur.”

Noctilucent (n): something that glows or shines at night

The noctilucent clouds allowed the sailors to see well into the night.

Mnemonic: Nocti comes from nocturnal. Lucent means “light.”

Adoxography (n): fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects; Writing praising negligence adultery, etc.

A quotation from Julius Caesar: I came, I saw, I conquered.

On murder considered one of the fine arts…

Mnemonic: “Graphy” means “writing,” as in biography (written account of someone’s life), and “dox” means to release someone’s personal info on the web.

So, instead of writing a biography, imagine writing an “adoxography” in praise of doxing.

Velleity (n): A wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action

For years, Frank claimed he wanted to run a triathlon, but his wife knew it was just a velleity.

Many people express a velleity to learn a second language; few actually follow through.

Mnemonic: Think “velleity bitty,” as in an itty bitty desires for something.

Dr. Mom’s words

Melee (n): a skirmish or scuffle; a confused fight; brouhaha, fracas

That incident caused a melee which led to yellow cards on both sides.

Mnemonic: Melee (sort of) rhymes with “mayday,” a distress signal, a call warning of imminent danger. A melee might not be that serious but could be if it escalated.

Perfidy (n): treachery, deceitfulness, untrustworthiness

Sometimes people ascend to positions of power through perfidy or intolerable violence.

Mnemonic: “Perf” is the beginning of perforate, which means to pierce through. “Fides” means faith (think semper, always faithful, or adeste fideles, O Come, All Ye Faithful). Perfidy pierces through your faith in something, making it untrustworthy.

Al dente (adj): a cooking term for something being cooked just enough to retain a somewhat firm texture but not being crunchy; often used with pasta

Mom got distracted while boiling the pasta—an unfortunately common occurrence—and the resultant texture was more like mush than al dente.

Mnemonic: This Italian phrase means, “to the tooth” (think “dentist” or “dental”). You want the food to need teeth, or some chewing, to be eaten.

Charcuterie (n): from the French, “the products of a fancy pork butcher”; cold cuts, or a cutting board of sliced meats, cheeses, fruits, and condiments served on bread or crackers  

If I could have a charcuterie board filled with deliciousness placed in front of me every day, prepared by someone else, of course, I’d be in food heaven.

Mnemonic: Change the pronunciation to char-“cut-array.” Your friend Char had an array of cuts on your charcuterie board.

Balter (v): to dance or tread clumsily, but perhaps with some enjoyment; to hobble, totter

The prototype for baltering is Elaine of Seinfeld fame. No one did it better/worse.

Mnemonic: Balter rhymes with falter, which means to stumble or move unsteadily. Think of moving clumsily at the ball, but you don’t fall.

BIG sentence:

A perfidious, thalasophilic flaneur and devotee of adoxography, succumbed to his velleity to learning how to balter and instead caused a melee when he created a noctilucent charcuterie board—yes, strange but true—filled with al dente pasta rather than cold cuts.