Vocabulary Mnemonics

August 9, 2025

Matt’s words

Mot juste (n): (mo zhuest) the exactly right word or phrasing

A Writer’s Life: “She could launch her sentences into the air, knowing that they would fall upon their feet like cats, her brain was almost painlessly delivered [the] mot juste….”

I can’t think of the mot juste…

You found the mot juste…

Mnemonic: “Juste” is like just, or right.

Mnemonic 2: Think of a baby, signaling to you. He’s trying to say just the right word. Finally he says “mo juice.”

Hie (v): hasten; go quickly

Hie you to church. —William Shakespeare

Looking for a swashbuckling good time? Hie ye to the tavern.

Mnemonic: We say “hightail”–just cut off the tail.

Ambigram (n): word or image that means something both right side up and upside down.

SOS. MOM/WOW. BUD/DUB. MALAYALAM. dollop. swims.

When flipped upside down, it can create the same image, or may form a new image entirely. A very basic ambigram is the word “mom” which can be flipped to say “wow.” —Sara Gadzala

Mnemonic: Ambi means “both.” Gram means writing/record, as in telegram and Instagram. So, think of an Instagram that could be viewed upside down, as well as right-side up.

Defalcation (n): embezzlement

Absentee ownership also engenders defalcation. – David Mamet

Mnemonic: Falc means “sickle.” So you’re “slicing off” some of the profits.

Mnemonic 2: Could also think of that with a falcon. You’re going to “defalcon,” them, meaning you’re going to claw away some of their money.

Biddable (adj): something you can bid on: a biddable auction OR obedient; willing to do your bidding (amenable)

I need a more biddable secretary…

Teenagers are less biddable than young kids…

Mnemonic: Think of “bid-able” to “do your bidding.”

Dr. Mom’s words

Diffident (adj): hesitant in acting or speaking through lack of self-confidence; unassertive, reserved

Princess Mary seemed even quieter and more diffident than usual. YOURDICTIONARY

Mnemonic: The diffident person is different from the confident person. In fact, they are the opposite. The “dif” at the beginning is like “dis,” which means the absence of confidence (in this case).

Reprobate (n): a scoundrel, rogue; morally corrupt; foreordained to damnation (in Calvinism)

Jack is variously described and self-described as a ne’er-do-well, a reprobate, a black sheep and a scoundrel.
— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal, 25 Sep. 2020

Mnemonic: In Latin, “probrare” means to prove or test something by “probing” into it. If you reprobe, you probe again and find the reprobate condemned or disapproved of, even by God.

Intimate (v): to communicate delicately and indirectly; hint AND to make known especially publicly or formally; announce. It’s a contronym.

She intimated her displeasure by a subtle raising of her eyebrow. Merriam Webster

Jane Doe #3 testified, raising her voice on the stand, as to intimate the tone in which Weinstein spoke to her.
— Elizabeth Wagmeister, Variety, 2 Nov. 2022

Mnemonic: Intimate as an adjective means marked by a warm friendship or a private relationship, something personal. As a verb, when you intimate something, you are gently hinting or alluding to a thing, as if it were private.

Purloin (v): to take dishonestly, steal; filch, pilfer; originally, it meant to put something away so not one else could find and take it

A simple but effective way to stop auto bandits from purloining your key fob signal is to use a Faraday bag or pouch. –Seattle Times

Mnemonic: Purloin is a essentially a doublet (i.e., one of a pair) of the word “prolong.” By purloining the item, you prolong how long you have it.

Demotic (adj): everyday speech or writing; comes from the contrast in Greek between the higher-brow hieroglyphic cursive writing and the common script for everyday writing

Stylistically, the book becomes a motley, contaminated thing, a mix of Crews’s many modes—chatty, terse, demotic, detached, priapic, noirish, gnomic. —Charlie Lee, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025

Mnemonic: The word looks a lot like “democratic,” which means “of the people.” Demotic speeches and writings are of and for the people.

COLOSSAL COMPILATION:

Aunt Lorraine was a biddable, diffident woman who intimated her preference for hieing to the mot juste, as opposed to ambigrams, in demotic communications, especially those related to sensitive matters such as Uncle Larry’s reprobate habits of engage in defalcation at work and purloining the neighbor’s tools every chance he got.