Vocabulary Mnemonics

Oct. 18, 2025

Matt’s words

Redoubt (n): Temporary fortification; stronghold

Heavily armed Hamas fighters have reestablished control over a hospital complex that residents and Israel’s military said was a redoubt for the group. –WSJ.com

Mnemonic: If you’re fighting someone in war and you think you’ve won, finding the enemy in a redoubt might make you doubt that you’ve won.

Atavism (n): (atavistic (adj)) throwback; recurrence of or reversion to a past style, manner, outlook, approach, or activity

He was a magnificent atavism, a man so purely primitive that he was of the type that came into the world before the development of the moral nature. —Jack London

Dad, are you reading a newspaper? That’s so atavistic.

Mnemonic: Break it into “ate a vism.” This is someone eating something really old… which only an atavism would do.

Cosset (v): pamper; treat as a pet

While its remote location at the top of the world makes flying and staying here expensive, Greenland isn’t for luxury lovers accustomed to being cosseted. —Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Nov. 2024

Mnemonic 1: Sounds like “coddle.”

Mnemonic 2: “Toss it to cosset.”

Adrenals (n): having to do with your adrenal glands

Your adrenal glands produce adrenaline and other important hormones.

At first, my adrenals were going, my nervous system was really activated. —Jennifer Maas, Variety, 1 Oct. 2025

TikTok users are claiming ‘cortisol cocktails,’ also called adrenal cocktails, can ease stress and aid weight loss.—Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 17 July 2025

Mnemonic: Adrenal has adrenalin in the word.

Esemplastic (adj): shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole

The esemplastic power of the poetic imagination. —W. H. Gardner

“Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater,” wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled esemplastic by melding the Greek phrase es hen, meaning “into one,” with plastic to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination’s ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet’s imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb intensify was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia. – Merriam-Webster.com

Mnemonic: Think of plasticity.

Dr. Mom’s words

Hapless (adj): unlucky; without hap, which means fortune or luck

The hapless motorist had barely paid his bill and driven away from the body shop when a truck sideswiped his car.

There was quiet affirmation sprinkled throughout this game that Vance Joseph’s defense can and will keep the Broncos afloat in the playoff race, no matter how hapless their offense remains. —Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025

Mnemonic #1: Think “happy-less.”

Mnemonic #2: Think “hope-less.”

Codswallop (n): words or ideas that are foolish or untrue; nonsense

Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion … —J. K. Rowling

… I muttered, “Yes, that’s right,” knowing all the while that it was a load of codswallop. —Steven Pinker

Mnemonic: You see “cod” and you think of the bottom-dwelling fish. Then imagine this cod and a few of his buddies walloping you. Can cods wallop? No way! Nonsense!

Backronym (n): an existing word, phrase, or abbreviation that has been made into an acronym (= a set of letters in which each is the first letter of a word in a name or phrase)

Two examples of backronyms:

–Amber Alert – Named after a girl, Amber, and now stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response

–Apgar score – Named after Dr. Virginia Apgar; became a mnemonic backronym for Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration

Remember, an acronym (Episode 17) is a shortened word of phrase formed from the initial letters of other words, pronounced as a single word (e.g., SCUBA, meaning a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). The mnemonic was an acronym: Acronyms can reinforce one’s new young memories.

Mnemonic: Belatedly, acronyms can keep reinforcing one’s new young memories.

Initialism: an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately

Two examples of initialisms:

–CPU, central processing unit.  

–FBI, the U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation

Mnemonic: It’s right there in the word. Speak the initial letters of a phrase or concept.

Aspersion (n): a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone’s reputation; usually with “cast;” defamation

Such vehement aspersions that defame our sacred ideals and institutions cannot be ignored. 601 Words You Need to Know

The entire point of declaring some rock cool is to cast further aspersionson the actual popular rock bands at the time. —Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 21 July 2025

Mnemonic: From Episode 53, an “aspergillum” is a device used to sprinkle holy water on someone. “Asperse” means to sprinkle, but this time it is “zhun,” or “shun!” You’re sprinkling “shuns,” or negative things about someone.

COLOSSAL COMPILATION:

It’s disappointing to observe hoity toity people, from the safety of their ivory tower redoubts, casting aspersions at cosseted, adrenally challenged souls who, annoyingly but nonetheless harmlessly, over-employ initialisms, backronyms, and esemplastic, atavistic codswallop to those hapless souls around them.