Word for the Forgetful: Lethologica

I’m terrible at recalling people’s names. I can be introduced to someone, shake their hand, look in their eyes, and seconds later, not have a clue about their name. Or I can find myself raving about a new show on Netflix to a friend and then not be able to remember the show’s title or main actor. Wait, it’s on the tip of my tongue!

We all have moments like this—times when we think we have a word or name stitched in our memories but the moment we want to utter it, it’s not there. Poof! Where did it go? What’s wrong with me?

I’ve written a lot about the mysteries of the brain and its innocent—and sometimes frightening—glitches in its memory powers. Most lapses in memory are completely normal and the result of simply not associating a new, unfamiliar word with something memorable when we first hear it. So the word, quite literally, goes in one ear and out the other.

This week I learned of a new word that describes this phenomenon: lethologica. It means “the inability to remember the proper word.” Of course, lethologica can be a symptom of a serious medical condition like aphasia or dementia but it’s usually just a case of forgetfulness. Lethologica entered our vocabulary in the early 20th century from the Greek language. The root “lethe” means “forgetfulness” and comes from Greek mythology; Lethe is the river in Hades whose water when drunk made the souls of the dead forget their previous life on earth. “Logos” is Greek for “word.”

I’m not sure I can easily find a way to use this word in my writings. It would call too much attention to itself: “I worry about my lethologica when I arrive at a party to meet a bunch of new people.” And it doesn’t help that the word itself is not that memorable! When I look at it, I see “lethal logic.”

Touché.

Credit: Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash