Vocabulary Mnemonics

January 3, 2025

Matt’s words

Soiree (n): a party; usually a private party

This year’s New Year’s Eve soiree was a smash hit.

Mnemonic: You invite a country boy to a soiree. He answers, a soir, eh? What’s that? You explain that it’s one word meaning a party, but he never quite gets it. All night he keeps saying things like, this is a swell soir, eh?

Svelte (adj): slender (with an elegant twist); lithe; sleek (sometimes used to describe apple products)

Svelte, graceful, and fashionable, the young princess dazzled the crowd.

Mnemonic: Think of a Russian dancer named Svetlana. She moves around the dance floor in an L-shaped pattern

Zaftig (adj): plump, having a full rounded figure

For many years, Adele was known for her zaftig figure.

Mnemonic: Think “soft.”

Mnemonic 2: Think of the “z” in zeppelin.

Blithe (adj): indifference to the rules; clueless; shows up late but not out of malice

Our guests had a blithe attitude toward our no shoes in the house rule.

Mnemonic: Someone who’s BLIthe is BLInd to the rules and norms.

Argot (n): jargon or slang of a particular field

When you start a new job, it takes time to understand industry argot.

Mnemonic: We’ll turn it into a rhyme with “jargon.” Think argot jargo.

Dr. Mom’s words

Rakish (adj): corrupt; having or showing lowered moral character or standards

Wes is described as charming and rakish, an agent whose impeccable instincts and unconventional tactics fuel his drive to stop at nothing to achieve justice. Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 4 Sep. 2024

Mnemonic: A garden rake has stiff, jagged teeth. If it scraped down your back, you’d be in pain. A rakish person will scrape and harm you just that way if you get too close.  

Sequelae (n): (last syllable is pronounced as a long e) an aftereffect of a disease, condition, or injury; a secondary result; i.e.,

Because of his relative youth, the 45-year-old patient coped well with the sequelae of his stroke.

Mnemonic: From the Latin word, “sequel.” A sequel in movies follows the original event, just as the sequela follow the original disease or harm.

Zeugma (n): a literary term for using one word to modify two other words in two different ways.

John and his license expired last week.

She broke his heart and his car.

This is a zeugma: the intentional juxtaposition of different senses of a single word. The Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker

Mnemonic: You go to the zoo (the beginning of the word) and see g, m, a (the following three letters): a gorilla, a monkey, and an anaconda. They are three really varied animals that you wouldn’t expect to see in the same place. It’s the same idea if you think of someone breaking a heart and a car. Plus it’s just a weird word describing a weird/unusual figure of speech.

Defenestrate (v): to throw out of a window or to suddenly remove from an important office or position

The prime minister was defenestrated from his job and his corner office on the 10^th floor of the office building.

Mnemonic: Picture a window in a high-rise building. Instead of having glass covering the window, there’s a fence. Much less stable, one would think. If you were thrown against that fence, you would likely fly through.

Bloviate (v): to go on and on with speaking or writing, especially pompously or boastfully; to talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way

If you just can’t resist bloviating about your skill at something, you’d better be able to make good.

Mnemonic: Someone who goes on and on in a big way about something is often called a “blowhard.” It’s right there at the beginning of the word.

BIG SENTENCE:

The sequelae of engaging in rakish, bloviating, inappropriately blithe, zeugma-saturated diatribes might include finding yourself uninvited from soirees attended by the svelte, as opposed to zaftig, argot-utilizing bourgeoisie or, worse, being defenestrated from your own office high above the hoi polloi.