Remembering medical and scientific word parts acet- and acetabul-

The goal of Struggling Student's Memory Guide is to develop ways to use association and mnemonic memory techniques, instead of rote memorization, to remember educational information we can use for a lifetime.

blue emboldened words are common or college terms that can be used for word association purposes.

reddish brown emboldened words are medical terms that should be looked up in a medical dictionary for their figurative meanings.

Word part and memory story from High Speed Memory Techniques for Medical Terminology.

acet-, aceto- from L. acetum, vinegar from acere, to be sour means "acetic acid". [acetic, lit. to be sour, fig. having to do with vinegar, acetabulum, acetate, Chem., acetyl, Chem., peracetate, Chem.] (see -ac-) (see acetabul-)

Memory story: Wearily you take a seat (acet-) in the vat of stomped grape juice that has turned into vinegar now that you've been demonstrating the age old technique in the same juice for about a week. This was not what you had in mind when you volunteered to be in the Renaissance Faire.

acetabul-, acetabulo- from L. acetabulum, a little saucer for vinegar, means "acetabulum, the cup shaped depression in the hipbone which the head of the femur fits into". [acetabular, lit. having to do with the acetabulum, acetabulectomy, lit. the cutting or excision of the acetabulum, acetabuloplasty, lit. the shaping or fashioning of the acetabulum] (There's no memory story for acetabulum because I felt the association between acetic and acetabulum would adequately fulfill our memory needs.)