Don't you hate not being able to think of a word?

[auRa]

@pendgwen

For some reason when I can’t find the right word it usually involves a noun. Why? I don’t know. But it does allow me to substitute a nice generic word like “stuff” and just move on with what I was saying. Which let to a conversation in college where I asked a friend, “What is the rationale behind putting stuff on the thing?”

One of my favorite high-school quotes was my friend explaining in ToK class that “stuff leads to stuff, so therefore there must be a thingy”.

The other day, I was translating a Finnish text into English, and I got stuck on “nostaa käteistä”, i.e. drawing cash from an ATM. For the life of me I could not remember what the verb was. What the hell do you do with the cash? Deposi–no, that’s what you do when you put the cash in. Lift? No, that’s translating directly from Finnish. I kept writing and backspacing for about 10 minutes, finally gave up and called my father. He was rather amused.

I speak Finnish and English equally well. This leads to situations where I’ll be speaking in Finnish, and out of nowhere I’ll throw in an English word or phrase. Kind of like it’s because I can’t remember some word, but before I become conscious of it, my brain goes “look auRa, look, I found another word that means the exact same thing, so I’ll just stick in in here, huh?” and before I can go “well, not really, since it’s in another language”, off we go. It gets really embarrassing sometimes because people will assume I’m doing it to show off my language skills, while I’m standing there trying for the life of me to get that friggin’ phrase out of my head in the language I was supposed to be using.

I also gesticulate like a motherfuck. It’s really annoying when you think you’re miming something so well that it should be ridiculously easy to guess what you’re getting at, and the person you’re trying to communicate with stares at you for a long time and then just leaves the room… (Oh for crying out loud, how could you not guess “coffee machine”?!)

[Magiver]

@pinkfreud

What I find most frustrating is when I’ve almost got the word that I’m trying to think of, but some other word is blocking it out.

Once I spent hours trying to come up with the word “speculum.” I kept thinking “spatula,” and it was as if “spatula” was preventing the light from shining on “speculum.” “Spatula” was wedged into the metaphorical view-hole that would have permitted me to examine and choose the right word.

Obviously you don’t remember the movie “Stripes” or you’d know there isn’t as big a difference between the 2 words… After reading your post I couldn’t get rid of the image of Bill Murray with the spatula saying “who’s your daddy”.

Still, I wouldn’t want to use the wrong word when asking for an instrument during an exam. At least make sure the spatula is warm.

[NinjaChick]

@KarlGauss

I see people with aphasia all the time. Indeed, my own dad suffered with it towards the end.

I am hijacking this thread to note, again, that I don’t think there’s a worse fate, especially for someone whose whole life has revolved around speaking, reading, etc., and who secretly (or not-so-secretly) prides him/herself on being articulate. Please God, spare me. Please.

Ye gods - from the link, it seems like it would be possible for someone to have that as a permanant condition?

shudder I refuse to ever get old. I’m gonna stop aging at, say, 35, thanks.

[Lynne_kilii]

I hate not being able to think of words, but it rarely manifests itself at work, and my boyfriend, family, and friends all take it in stride, and it never bothers me unless I’m writing a paper. I will sometimes forage on with a sentence, and it will end up a jumble, and then I have to start all over again. “I was looking for the … stuff (baking soda), in the… wood thing (cupboard), and found the thing (the parmesan shakers at restaraunts) that holds the (powdered) sugar.” I’ll also use the wrong word or name, and not realize I did so until someone wants to clarify, which I usually brush off with, “that’s what I said” (jokingly). Things can get really jumbled, but I think it’s just a funtion of your mind working too fast, and your mouth soooo tries to keep up.

Things being on the tip of your tounge seem to be you mind is thinking of it as a picture, or an abstract thought, and language hasn’t caught up, which is frustrating, but not abnormal by any means.

According to a lot of people I know, I have an extensive working vocabulary. I wish it was more so, though, because I always find words I enjoy using, but never do. I think that may play a part too. You think of something abstractly, or not neccessarily in words, and then you put it into words and you’ve found a synonym that doesn’t quite work. So then you have to browse your internal thesaurus, and that can take a while.

My brother has a habit of bsing all the time, and people in high school would come to me with one of two opinions “your brother makes stuff up, and he always uses the wrong words” or “your brother is pretty smart”. Hit or miss…

[congodwarf]

@Prancer

One time I asked for a baked potato at a restaurant. Not being able to remember the word potato, I asked for “the brown thing shaped like a canoe with white fluffy stuff inside.” My parents had to translate.

I had to wait a while to respond to this. This made me laugh so hard last night I nearly puked. My stomach still hurts. I had trouble sleeping because I kept thinking of fluffy white stuff and I’d start laughing all over again. This morning, while eating breakfast, TVGeek pointed to his home fries and said, “fluffy white stuff”. I nearly choked on my corned beef hash.

[Podkayne]

@auRa

I speak Finnish and English equally well. This leads to situations where I’ll be speaking in Finnish, and out of nowhere I’ll throw in an English word or phrase. Kind of like it’s because I can’t remember some word, but before I become conscious of it, my brain goes “look auRa, look, I found another word that means the exact same thing, so I’ll just stick in in here, huh?” and before I can go “well, not really, since it’s in another language”, off we go.

My mom, who is a native English speaker and fluent German speaker, does the same thing, but consciously. The most amusing one was, “I need to replace my . . . uh . . um . . . ah . . . um . . . ah . . . you know, Windschutzschiebenwischer.” My (non-German speaking) friends looked on in confusion from the back seat, while I agreed, sagely, “Ja, I think they’re about kaput.” Well, I thought it was funny, anyway, mostly because I think that Windschutzschiebe is a hilarious word.