Vocabulary Mnemonics

Sept. 27, 2025

Matt’s words

Potboiler (n): a page turner

I’ve just finished reading Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie. Normally, I read a worthwhile book such as this on my daily commute and devote the wearier late-evening hours to a potboiler. –A review of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser in Compulsive Reader

Mnemonic: think of a pot getting to a boil quickly. A page turner heats up quickly too.

Marginalia (n): he notes you scribble in the margins of a book

They say John Adams made ample use of the marginalia while reading, often taking copious notes.

Mnemonic: “Margin” is right there in the word. “Alley” can also remind you that it’s on the side of the book.

Maw (n): a gaping opening; jaws of a voracious animal

Bushels of shrimp and what seemed like barrels of seawater and half-digested food spewed up from the maw of the shark. – Donald Millus, Outdoor Life

Mnemonic: It’s almost like onomatopoeia. Someone being eaten by a lion would say “mawwww.”

Go pear-shaped (n): go wrong; take a negative turn

Some want a foreign bolt-hole for when things go pear-shaped in China. – National Review

Mnemonic: Comes from fighter pilots in Britain trying to do loop-de-loops. If they didn’t do it right, it looked like a pear.

Triptych (n): a three-part picture; something with three parts, like a trilogy; an ancient Roman writing tablet with three waxed leaves hinged together

Hardy’s Tess, Zola’s L’Assommoir, or the Steinbeck of The Grapes of Wrath, a triptych of long, passionately wrought and curiously untidy novels full of flagrant symbolism and unhappy endings. Engelsbergideas.com

Mnemonic: Tri means “three.” Tick is the sound you hear when you fold the hinges.

Dr. Mom’s words

Abscotchalater (n): someone hiding from the police

The abscotchalater thought he was in the clear until he realized the men around him in the bar were plainclothes policemen.

Mnemonic: An abscotchalater attempts to abscond, to depart secretly and hide him/herself.

Obelus (n): the division symbol in math (a dash-like horizontal line with dots above and below)

Students first learn the obelus as a symbol for division, but that is shortly replaced by the forward slash.

Mnemonic: (It’s not obvious, but…) The familiar obelisk is a grand, upright monolithic pillar, but the obelus is less well known. The word has an “l” in the middle that reminds us of the pillar, but it’s oriented horizontally.

Pilliwinks (n): thumbscrews, an instrument of torture

I was horrified when the opening scene of the movie graphically showed some poor wretch being fitted with pilliwinks.

Mnemonic: “Pilliwinks” ends like “tiddlywinks.” In a game of tiddlywinks, you use your thumb strategically to hold a squidger, which shoots a wink. Pilliwinks are serioius, though—no game here. You’ve been a “pill,” so your thumbs are placed into screws and squeezed.  

Salacious (adj): arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination; lecherous, lustful

…a song with salacious lyrics…

There’s little difference between the junk mail in your mailbox and the junk e-mail that appears on your monitor, except that the e-mail is often of a salacious nature, e.g., the “hot, live XXX action” available at various dark alleyways on the web. —Michael Saunders, Boston Globe, 6 Oct.1997

Mnemonic: The word can be thought of as a combination of “salivate” and “delicious.” Imagine salivating over someone who appears delicious to you in a sexual way.

Fettle (n): usually written as “in fine fettle,” meaning in good health or a state of wholeness or fitness

I proved to her I was in fine fettle by consuming a herculean portion of eggs scrambled with onions and smoked salmon. —Lawrence Sanders

Mnemonic: The first syllable of the word sounds a lot like “fit.” Think, “in fine fitness.”

COLOSSAL COMPILATION:

After snatching the pot-boiler of a triptych from the museum and defacing it with marginalia in the form of an obelus, pilliwinks, and a disgustingly salacious maw, the abscotchalater felt in fine fettle until his escape plans went pear-shaped.