Whenever possible, try to remember concepts rather than memorizing random data. For instance, if someone told you to memorize a long string of numbers—e.g., 147101316192225—it would be far better to note that each number is three higher than the one before (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, etc.) and simply remember that rule.

Similarly, it is far better to absorb the way words are constructed—to memorize a relatively small number of prefixes, suffixes, and roots—rather than trying to cram the contents of Webster’s Dictionary into your already crowded memory.

Our borrowed mother tongue, English, is perhaps the most democratic of all languages. Built on a Celtic base, it has freely admitted a multitude of words from other languages, particularly French, Latin, Greek, German, and a rich body of slang (from anywhere we could get it).

The oldest branches in this diverse family tree, Celtic and Old English, are the least amenable to some of the techniques we are about to learn. These are basically simple words, not built in complicated fashion as are Latinate and Greek terms.

However, as anyone addicted to crossword puzzles can tell you, our language is replete with myriad Romance words (those from French, Italian, Spanish, and others) that often can be dissected into rather simple elements.

Here are two dozen or so roots from Latin and Greek that contribute to thousands of English words:

As the list of root words suggests, knowing its definition alone is usually not enough. Prefixes, the fragments added to the beginning of a word, can greatly change the message conveyed by the root. Here are some examples of common prefixes:

The last, but certainly not the least important building block of words, is the suffix, which quite often indicates how the word is being used. Suffixes can be used to turn an adjective into an adverb (the “-ly” ending), to compare things (smallER, smallEST), or even to modify other suffixes (liveLIEST). Some suffixes with which you should be familiar are:

Of course, I don’t expect that you’ll memorize these lists. But if you read them over a few times, paying particular attention to the examples, you’ll absorb the roots, prefixes, and suffixes fairly quickly.

Here’s a list of 20 words. Write the definition in the blank space using what you’ve just learned about the building blocks of words. Then check the earlier lists to see how you did.

How did you do on the quiz? I’ll bet a lot better than you thought, simply because of this rather brief introduction to etymology.

Now let’s examine another way of remembering so that you can have powerful words at your disposal: the soundalike method. As we saw in Chapter 3, forming your own associations—sometimes wildly outrageous ones— can be quite helpful in carving easy-access roads to the long-term memory banks.

In order to use this method, create a scenario using the soundalike of the word or parts of the word and the definition of the word.

Consider this example: Let’s say that you’ve seen the word “ostracize” countless times, but can never quite remember that it means “to cast out from a group.” You could then create this nonsense thought: “The ostrich’s eyes are so big, no one wants to look at him.”

In such an example, you would be using the size of the ostrich and creating an absurd reason he might be a cast out. I could have also made the phrase: “The ostrich’s size was so big he was thrown out of his hole.”

Sure, you’re saying, that’s an easy example. But let’s take another one. Since we’re in a chapter on vocabulary, let’s consider “sesquipedalian,” which means “having many syllables” or “tending to use long words.” Our soundalike association could be: She says, “Quit peddling those big words.”

One picture might be worthy of a particular vocabulary word. You might associate the difficult-to-remember word not with a phrase, but with an outrageous picture.

For instance, to remember that the word “flambe” means a food covered with flames, think of a plate of food with bees whose wings are ablaze flying from it.

Again, as we learned in Chapter 3, this sort of exercise is not a lot of work, but it is a great deal of fun. It’ll help your mind hold onto words, even those you use infrequently, forever.

Here’s a list of “50-cent words” with soundalikes that will make them easy to learn:

With this tool, you can become a pedantic conversationalist and never have to run to the dictionary while reading Finnegan’s Wake.

Feel free to use any of the memory methods in this book to remember anything. If you have to remember the word “surreptitious,” for example, why not combine the soundalike and chain-link methods by picturing a burglar, black mask and all, carrying a bottle of pancake syrup?