January 10, 2025
Matt’s words
Hijinks (n): boisterous fun; playful or mischievous behavior; horseplay
During the filming of Dumb and Dumber, there was all sorts of hijinks on the set.
Mnemonic: Think of the game “jinks.” It’s a form of hijinks.
Kibitz (v): to give unwanted advice (especially during a card game); chat
While we were playing poker, others started to gather round and kibitz over our shoulders.
At the park the ladies liked to kibitz about their kids.
Mnemonic: Instead of nit pick it’s ki bitz. Think of giving little “bitz” of advice.
Skive (v): To skip work or school
… 71 per cent said rewards for good ideas and punctuality would make them work harder and not skive … —South Wales Evening Post
The kids are skiving school today…
Mnemonic: Pretend that skive is a combination of “skip” and “dive.” You skip school to go dive in the pool.
Preclude (v): prevent from happening; make impossible
Warning labels are meant to preclude companies from lawsuits.
But Mom, I have so much homework! That shouldn’t preclude you from being pleasant.
Mnemonic 1: Instead of include it’s preclude.
Mnemonic 2: Think of “pre” and “lude.” Lude behavior is something you’d want to preclude
before it event starts.
Commodious (adj): Spacious; roomy
The cabin offers several commodious rooms…
The oversize volume symbolizes her commodious royal position in society.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 17 Dec. 2024
Mnemonic: Think of accommodations. If they’re good it’s because the rooms are nice and commodious.
Dr. Mom’s words
Aegis (n): the protection, backing, or support of a particular person or organization
The strike force was set up under the aegis of the U.S. Defense Department.
As a young teacher, I worked under the aegis of my mentor and a generous principal.
Mnemonic: You need someone prestigious to provide you with “aegis” in your endeavors.
Viand (n): an item of food, especially a choice or tasty dish
That store sells fancy viands I’ve never even tasted, like caviar, foie gras, and designer chocolates.
Mnemonic: From the Anglo French, viande means meat. From Medieval Latin, it’s a form of the verb vivere, to live. From this we get survive, revive, vivacious, etc. So we survive and are vivacious by eating viands.
Privation (n): the state of being deprived, especially what is needed for existence
The constant privation of sleep has started affecting my ability to exercise.
Sometimes countries endure long periods of economic privation.
Mnemonic: From Old French, privatio means “a taking away.” You experience privation when you are deprived of necessities.
Gable (n): the vertical, triangular portion of a structure that encloses the ends of the pitched roof
A palatial house I love running past has copper gables that beautifully shine in the morning sunlight.
Mnemonic: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables describes an old house in Salem, Massachusetts (think of the witch trials) that is weather-beaten and in terrible disrepair. Picture seven gables, seven pitched areas over seven windows in the front of the house that are threatening to fall down. You also have Anne of Green Gables, so picture green-painted gables on the farmhouse where Anne lives. (Trivial tidbit: Mom’s 9th-great grandmother was imprisoned as a witch, though not put to death.)
Kvetch (v): to complain, gripe, whine, to whinge
(n): a person who kvetches a great deal
I love Matilda, but her incessant kvetching about every little thing turns me into a bear.
Mnemonic: From Yiddish, it literally means to squeeze or press. It rhymes with fetch, so think of someone constantly having you “go fetch” something for them. That would turn you into a kvetch before long, unless you’re a saint.
BIG SENTENCE:
The young woman’s life was the stuff of story books, having grown up in an environment that precluded privation, under the aegis of loving parents, in a commodious, gabled home, provided with viands aplenty, where hijinks were part of daily life, and among siblings that rarely kibitzed or kvetched on the rare occasions when she skived her chores.
Vocabulary Mnemonics 
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