Momnesia
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Mar 4 15:53:45 UTC 2008
At 10:09 AM -0500 3/4/08, John M. Spartz wrote:
>I ran across this term today -- Momnesia (1430 Google hits)
>
>Today's USA Today article
>(http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-03-momnesia_N.htm?csp=34) defines
>momnesia as the mental fuzziness and memory lapses that set in shortly after
>childbirth.
>
>Thought it was interesting. Anyone know of other "nesias"?
>
How about "magnesia", the tendency to forget the details of one's
recent digestive upset? Nope, doesn't work. I think it has to be
-mnesia to really succeed, which is nice because that's the actual
Greek root. So "momnesia" works, because of that final -m. How
about "hamnesia", the tendency for kosher Jews and Muslims observing
halal laws to suppress their memory of eating pork? Or "cramnesia",
which inevitably affects students after they've taken the exam for
which they've intensively prepared. Wait, let me check...yup, 8
g-hits. I knew someone would have gotten there first.
LH
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