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#25311 03/29/01 03:46 PM
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welcome, nagrao

my thought on the subject would be that the very existence of a word descriptive of the phenomenon you've illustrated would be obviated by the fact that, ipso facto, one should not be able to recall it at will.

that being said, how about letholalia? or lethogramma?

EDIT: Darn you, tsuwm. and i typo'ed "litho" as opposed to "letho".... *sigh*

~b


#25312 03/29/01 03:52 PM
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typo'ed

So litholalia is a description of all the books you have forgotten you've already read until half-way through?


#25313 03/29/01 03:57 PM
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yes! and much akin to cinemalalia



#25314 03/29/01 04:00 PM
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all the books you have forgotten you've already read

Oh, dear Maverick ... thank you.
I don't feel so alone now!
wow


#25315 03/29/01 04:09 PM
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Lethe, in Greek mythology, was the river of forgetfulness in Hades;

As I recall, one drinks from the Lethe, to forget the world of the living, just before crossing the better-known Styx, with a coin in the mouth. What I don't get is how "lethargic," which comes from "Lethe," ended up meaning sluggish or sleepy, rather than forgetful. In the myths, does drinking from the Lethe make one drowsy? Or has the word just transmogrified since the days of Orpheous?

The neighboring stream to the Lethe was the Mnemosyne, the river of memory - which is where we get mnemonic - which seems much truer to its source.


#25316 03/29/01 04:32 PM
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all the books you have forgotten you've already read

but if you get all the way through and still don't remember you read it before , it's not a problem, right?

Rod Ward

#25317 03/29/01 04:40 PM
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here is an interesting British slang word for a "what's it's name": oojah

[tugging forelock emoticon]
I haven't heard "oojah" used, but have heard "oojah-ma-flip", "thing-a-ma-jig" "thingummy" "thingummy-bob" "wassisname" "whatchamacallit".
And I learnt the very useful French (possibly Swiss French) phrase "machin-truc-chose" which effectively means "thing-thing-thing"

Rod Ward

#25318 03/29/01 06:09 PM
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hyla's lethe-->lethargic and Mnemosyne-->mnemonic led me to wonder what other common words were derived from the rivers separating Hades from the living world (i was thinking perhaps "stigma" is derived somehow from Stygian/Styx?) unfortunately, Google turned up only a ton of anime (Sailor Moon) links, and now i'm curious about the names of the rivers themselves; my search yielded Acheron - the river of woe; Cocytus - the river of lamentation; Phlegethon - the river of fire; Lethe - the river of forgetfulness; Styx - the river of hate, but mentioned Mnemosyne only as one of the Muses who guarded the river of memory. the river itself is not named (or it is simply Mnemosyne?). has anyone a good link that will make this clear?

TIA
b


#25319 03/29/01 07:04 PM
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forgotten books
Thanks indeed, Mav and WOW; I see I'm a member of another club. Just a couple days ago I paid $3.50 for a magazine and when I started reading it realized I had already bought and read it earlier in this very month. At one time I had 3 different copies of a P.D. James novel which I kept buying thinking I had not yet read it.


#25320 03/29/01 07:08 PM
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Styx
The adjective 'stygian' means dark, basically. Interesting to know how this applies to the Styx, if that was the river of hate.


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