# What word is on the tip of my tongue that I can't remember??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976 "2013-09-30T03:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lightlystarched](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/1 "2013-09-30T03:30:16Z")
Help please - I can’t seem to focus on anything else until I remember this word. It is driving me crazy. It is a 3 or 4 syllable word. I think it ends in -tic. It means something like diseased, or diseased-state, or manic, or split-personality, or crazy. I keep thinking of something like two opposing sides, or doing something not in your own best interest. Not psychosis. Not bipolar. Help?? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/2 "2013-09-30T03:34:47Z")
Neurotic ---
**Author:** ![Lightlystarched](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/3 "2013-09-30T03:35:45Z")
Nope. I think it has one or 2 "a"s in it. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/4 "2013-09-30T03:54:46Z")
Lunatic? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/5 "2013-09-30T04:00:33Z")
Metastatic ---
**Author:** ![Lightlystarched](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/6 "2013-09-30T04:37:12Z")
Hmm. Keep thinking along the “split personality” vein. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/7 "2013-09-30T04:38:14Z")
Schizophrenic? Lovely word; my life’s goal is to lay it down in Scrabble some day. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/8 "2013-09-30T05:22:12Z")
Aphasic? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/9 "2013-09-30T07:36:41Z")
Afflicted? Erratic? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/10 "2013-09-30T07:54:20Z")
Psychosomatic? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/11 "2013-09-30T08:57:01Z")
Pathological? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/12 "2013-09-30T10:19:18Z")
Cataleptic? ---
**Author:** ![Lightlystarched](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/13 "2013-09-30T13:02:53Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Pathological? I think this might have been it. I have looked at so many google searches and scrabble "words ending in - " searches that my brain is now confuzzled. Pathologic might be just what I was thinking when I typed diseased-state. Thank you all for you help. Someone used the word I was looking for yesterday. They used it in the phrase “California is \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_”. I was trying to relay the story to someone else and just completely lost the word. I really am going to have to go back to that person today and ask them just what was the word they used. Pathologic might have been it. Somehow I remember the phrase as being a bit more clever than that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/14 "2013-09-30T17:42:59Z")
I referred to a boss as “spastic” once; it kind of has the meaning you’re looking for. Well, he did, especially. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/15 "2013-09-30T17:47:05Z")
Schizophrenic, I agree with **Troppus** ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/16 "2013-09-30T17:49:45Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > Schizophrenic, I agree with **Troppus** I agree too and it fits California. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/17 "2013-09-30T17:58:43Z")
Catatonic? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/18 "2013-09-30T18:10:32Z")
Schizophrenia isn’t the same as multiple personalities disorder though, but it is sometimes mistakenly used that way. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/19 "2013-09-30T20:50:49Z")
An **anaphylactic cataphract** would be acting against his own interests if he were allergic to metal on his skin. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976/20 "2013-09-30T21:40:19Z")
Pathologic(al) doesn’t really make all that much sense, but I’ll take your word that that’s what you were trying to think of. I would’ve gone with histrionic, myself. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-word-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-that-i-cant-remember/669976.md?page=2)