# Help Cure My Tip of The Tongue Phenomenon! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 19, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671 "2014-02-19T01:52:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/1 "2014-02-19T01:52:42Z")
I am trying to think of a specific term/phrase that I can’t quite retrieve from the recesses of my mind. The hints for the phrase I am thinking of (or want to be thinking of, if only I could remember it) are: 1. It refers to the nature of someone who is stubborn, pig-headed, ornery. Think “Jud” from _Oklahoma!_, or a commander who ends up getting all of his troops killed because of a lack of a willingness to deviate from the original plan regardless of how the battle unfolds, as an example. 2. It is kind of an old-fashioned phrase, maybe 19th Century or early 20th Century, possibly an American country-folk phrase, or possibly a British English phrase. 3. I think it consists of multiple elements. 4. I think it ends in “-ness”. 5. I think its elements indivudually sound nicer than the meaning as a whole, like some Southern phrases. 6. I think maybe it contains the word “blessed” with the “ed” distinctly pronounced: “bless-ed” The closest I can come up with is “God-blessedness,” except that doesn’t mean what I am thinking of, but if it did refer to someone who was ornery that would be an example of what I mean in #5. #3, #4, #5, and #6 are not absolutes; they are only my vague impressions of the phrase as I am trying to recall it. The phrase that triggers a “That’s it!” in my mind might not have all of those attributes. Although these are in the right vicinity, the term is not: Mule-headedness Pig-headedness Mulishness God-blessedness Mother-blessed It is not a made-up phrase, it was something that was used, if now archaic. I will know it when I see it. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/2 "2014-02-19T01:56:08Z")
Cussedness? ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/3 "2014-02-19T01:57:27Z")
JSGoddess in one! Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/4 "2014-02-19T01:57:54Z")
_curtsey_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/5 "2014-02-19T01:59:28Z")
Asked and answered, so please close this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/6 "2014-02-19T23:00:28Z")
Thread’s still open. Cussed mods! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cure-my-tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon/681671/7 "2014-02-20T02:53:57Z")
Of course, “cussed” it typically pronounced more like “cusst” (especially when used as a verb, but possibly also when used as an adjective). So we should write it “cusséd”, like so many verbal adjectives in Shakespeare. And “cussedness” should be written “cussédness”.