Vocabulary Mnemonics

August 23, 2025

Matt’s words

Lagniappe (n): Pronounced “lan yap.” A small gift given to the customer at time of purchase, or given at other times (like a waiter giving you a free appetizer).

“We picked up one excellent word,” wrote Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi (1883), “a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word—’lagniappe’…. It is Spanish—so they said.” —From Quechua, meaning “something added.”

Amarys says one of her favorite lagniappes to send folks from out of town is gumbo. —Joshua Carlucci, Southern Living, 14 Oct. 2024

Mnemonic: A lanyard is a freebie given to you when you go to a convention. A lan yap is a freebie given at a restaurant.

Entre nous (adj): Pronounced “entrée new” (French phrase). Between us; in confidence

Entre nous, I’m not actually a member of the club… I sneaked in.

Mnemonic: Imagine you’re a chef and you’ve made a new entrée. The waiter whispers to the table, just between us, this is a new entrée.

Solarium (n): glass-enclosed porch or room; sun room

The stunning home features a solarium, an outdoor fireplace, and a multi-functional office space that Deschanel uses as her glam room, music studio, closet and crafting corner. —Natalia Senanayake, People.com, 5 Aug. 2025

Mnemonic: “Sol” means sun. “Arium” is short form a place for (aquarium, terrarium). Put them together and you have a place for sun.

Aqueous (adj): relating to water; made with water  

Cylindrical… rocky…

The key element of this new strategy is an aqueous solvent for dissolving perovskites.—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Feb. 2025

Aqueous deficiency (don’t produce enough tears)

Mnemonic: “Aqua” means water.

Unctuous (adj): oily, greasy, slick; smooth; phony; ingratiating; flattering

From Latin unguere: “to anoint”

At times, the display of closeness felt a bit unctuous, as when Musk praised Trump for his gold-heavy interior design makeover of the Oval Office.—Niall Stanage, The Hill, 30 May 2025

Mnemonic: Unctuous things are always saying “chew us” because they go down smooth. So, imagine a bunch of oily foods. They’re saying too your uncle, “chew us, we go down smooth.”

Dr. Mom’s words

Rubric (n): in education, a scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students’ constructed responses; also, a statement of purpose or function

The teacher liked using a rubric to grade student work because it made the process so much quicker.

Mnemonic: Utilizing the two syllables, “Ru” is a student that earns a “b,” and “Ri” is another student that earns a “c.”

Tumid (adj): abnormally distended, especially by fluids or gas; bloated or swollen

…sails tumid in the breeze…

He’d just been in a fight and was nursing a tumid lip.

Mnemonic: Tumid rhymes with humid, which means full of moisture. So a tumid tummy bulges, becomes swollen, or gets bloated.

Inimical (adj): having the disposition of an enemy; reflecting or indicating hostility

There are forces inimical to democracy which threaten our country.

The man’s inimical glare gave me the willies.

Mnemonic: The prefix “in” means “not,” and the root of the word is based on amicus or, more familiar to us, amicable (friendly). So think in-amicable, or not friendly, even hostile.

Filigree (n): delicate and intricate ornamentation; decorations or embellishments

The queen loved her crowns to be decorated with sparkly gold and silver filigree.

…a filigree of frost… –Merriam Webster

Mnemonic: Filament is fine wire or threadlike material. Think of a filly (a young female horse) whose mane is filled with filament of green as ornamentation.

Capitulate (v): surrender under agreed conditions; to give in

It will be interesting to see whether the team’s owner capitulates to the players’ demands. Hansard archive

She capitulated with grace, as we would expect her to do, as a result. Hansard archive

Mnemonic: You’re captured, and it’s too late to do anything but surrender.

COLOSSAL COMPILATION:

The aqueous atmosphere in our solarium creates the perfect environment in which to discuss, entre nous, a policy rubric for dispensing filigreed lagniappe in our boutique, a practice that unfortunately has become tumid and inimical to profit-making due to our ill-advised capitulation to the most unctuous segment of our customer base.