that elusive word

[ian]

Last night, as I staggered like the town drunk through the half-lit hypnagogic hinterlands between reading and sleep, I encountered a word and thought to myself, that's excellent, I shall have to use it somewhere tomorrow. I'm convinced it was an awesome word. Now all I remember how certain I was that I had the word for today, but the word? The damn word. It's gone. Stolen from me by bandits on the road somewhere east of Eden. I always lose the last few pages of what I'm reading, it's like my brain announces 'that's it, I'm off to bed' and my eyes say 'oh, we'll be up a bit later' and then start playing Xbox for a bit.

I want you all to check around you, and make sure the elusive word isn't there. Also in your garages and outbuildings, in case it's wandered in there. I want that word back.

[Nuncio]

Good luck, I've been trying to think of a word for two weeks.

[Hot Flatus]

There's probably a German word for this phenomenon

[nuttycyclist]

I feel your pain.  I used to find the word via the thesaurus, but that has joined the other dinosaurs and become extinct due to modern internet.

[spesh]

Lethologica - noun: the inability to remember a particular word or name.

[Jaded]

I highlight the word and click on “Look up”

[Mrs Pingu]

Ha, I spent prolly 15km trying to remember the name of the road we'd just bought a house on, mid bike ride on Monday.

[Mrs Pingu]

There's probably a German word for this phenomenon

Oh yes and if it's less than 15 letters long I'll be disappointed.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Good luck, I've been trying to think of a word for two weeks.

I think you’ll find it is ‘fortnight’.

[Nuncio]

That's the one. Thanks.

I feel your pain.  I used to find the word via the thesaurus, but that has joined the other dinosaurs and become extinct due to modern internet.

Didn't always work, anyway.

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=112035.0

[rogerzilla]

Phantasmagoria?  Could be used to describe the next horrific PowerPoint you're made to sit through.  You know, the one with 50 lines of Comic Sans, 1990s clipart of the bald bloke with fistfuls of money, and lots of red text on a blue background so it dances in front of your eyes.

[The Family Cyclist]

Good luck, I've been trying to think of a word for two weeks.

I think you’ll find it is ‘fortnight’.

Brilliant

Although they don't understand that teem in the US of A. Immigration started asked questions why we were going to Ohio and why only for four nights till we explained what a fortnight was

[Giraffe]

Try Immigration on "se'ennight twice".

[T42]

There's probably a German word for this phenomenon

Oh yes and if it's less than 15 letters long I'll be disappointed.

Will Vorschlafsgedächnisunzuverlässigkeit do?

I started to count the letters but fell asleep halfway through.

[Mr Larrington]

There's probably a German word for this phenomenon

Oh yes and if it's less than 15 letters long I'll be disappointed.

Will Vorschlafsgedächnisunzuverlässigkeit do?

I started to count the letters but fell asleep halfway through.

36.

[ian]

Lethologica - noun: the inability to remember a particular word or name.

I like that. And I still have it. I try to remember big words to confuse my masters on the upper subdecks whose residual intellect has long since lost the battle against the Titans of Powerpoint and Excel. They can only slobber business gibberish and hope no one notices the unaddressed recruitment crisis behind their eyes.

[ian]

I highlight the word and click on “Look up”

If you just pop the cursor anywhere in a word and three-finger tap the trackpad, it magics up a definition, which is well cool.

[spesh]

Lethologica - noun: the inability to remember a particular word or name.

I like that. And I still have it. I try to remember big words to confuse my masters on the upper subdecks whose residual intellect has long since lost the battle against the Titans of Powerpoint and Excel. They can only slobber business gibberish and hope no one notices the unaddressed recruitment crisis behind their eyes.

Sesquipedalianism for teh LOLz?  People may start mistaking you for Will Self*. 



* Hmmm, now there's an idea for a mini-circle of Hades for persistent perpetrators of business-related mangling of the English language - spending eternity having minor daemons read Self's works at you...

[rogerzilla]

Exsanguination is a personal favourite from The X-Files.

Hard to get into a work meeting, but undoubtedly possible.

[Mr Larrington]

I can think of a few cow-orkers over the years who would have been immeasurably improved by exsanguination.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Balkanization

fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. The root causes of Balkanization are usually differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion and some other factors such as past grievances. When sponsored or encouraged by a sovereign third party, the term has been used as an accusation against such third party nations. Controversially, the term is often used by voices for the status quo to underscore the dangers of acrimonious or runaway secessionism.

[orienteer]

Sounds like where we're heading....

[Jaded]

Yes, thats what I thought

[TheLurker]

Given that balkanization is generally, or so it seems to me, the reversion to something like the status quo ante when an empire (Roman, Austro-Hungarian, British, Soviet) created and maintained by varying amounts of force fails perhaps it's just one more manifestation of entropy and as such we should probably just shrug our shoulders and keep buggering on as best we can.