# What's the word for when you can't think of the word?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for-when-you-cant-think-of-the-word/85046>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 2, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for-when-you-cant-think-of-the-word/85046 "2001-10-02T21:13:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MachPi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MachPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachPi)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for-when-you-cant-think-of-the-word/85046/1 "2001-10-02T21:13:45Z")

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No mention was made of the French, dammit, and you _know_ they have a phrase for it: ‘presque vu.’

source: “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon

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**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for-when-you-cant-think-of-the-word/85046/2 "2001-10-02T21:30:46Z")

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Here’s the link to the column: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a961213.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a961213.html)

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**Author:** ![Shanachie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Shanachie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shanachie)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-word-for-when-you-cant-think-of-the-word/85046/3 "2001-10-05T12:22:56Z")

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I don’t think “presque vu” fits. “Presque vu” translates as “almost seen” and refers to the phenomemon, familiar to most college students, where, during a lecture by some pedantic buffoon on some excruciatingly-obscure-but-infinitesimally-useless concept, you finally almost “get it” but it slips away before you can fully grasp it. (Brings to mind the course I took in Discrete Structures, for you CompSci folks.) Related to the “deja vu” and “jamais vu” phenoms.

Not the same as the “tip-of-the-tongue” phenom.

IMHO, of course.

Shanachie