Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: n. A condition where you get so distracted by the fact that you can't find something, that you forget what you were looking for. v. To forget what you are looking for while you are looking for it.
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.
Diversiamnesia
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: dy ver jha am neez eeya
Sentence: My son, Whatshisname, cannot remember a thing. He suffers from diversiamnesia. I don't know where he gets it from, but he goes into a room and forgets why he went there. Ideas land on his brain but flitter away like little butterflies if he has any distraction at all. My nagging makes it worse according to him, but you cannot trust him to run a simple errand or remember important things. I think he's hitting old age early and his condition is inherited from his father, Whateverhisnamewas. Where was I...???
Etymology: Diversion (a turning aside (of your course or attention or concern); a distraction) & Amnesia (partial or total loss of memory)
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COMMENTS:
"hitting old age early" - chuckle! - splendiction, 2009-10-01: 19:15:00
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Stumblesearch
Created by: Maureen
Pronunciation: stum-ble-ser-ch
Sentence: John's gone for another one of his stumblesearches and he'll soon be asking us what it was he was looking for.
Etymology: stumble- from stumbling block when one draws a blank. search - to look for something.
Displaceia
Created by: EffingCharms
Pronunciation: dis -place- ee- ahh
Sentence:
Etymology:
Memoreverse
Created by: Sketchy
Pronunciation: memo-REE-verse
Sentence: The Doctor said It's a condition called memoreverse...wait, what was I saying again?
Etymology: Memory, Reverse
Damnesia
Created by: lauramy
Pronunciation: dam-nee-zhuh
Sentence: When you forget what you forgot it might be senility but it's probably just a case of damnesia.
Etymology: damn + amnesia
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COMMENTS:
lol... i get this all the time. - Sketchy, 2007-03-15: 16:46:00
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Seekersblock
Created by: Bulletchewer
Pronunciation: sikh-errs-blok
Sentence: He knew it would be in the last place he looked, but his seekersblock proved something of an obstacle.
Etymology: From "writer's block" and "seek". Always wonder whether you're allowed 2 separate words, because "seeker's block" would be better here.
Disfindtional
Created by: Osomatic
Pronunciation: diss + find + shun + ull
Sentence: I got so upset over my missing wallet that I was completely disfindtional. But I did find my mobile phone, at least. Now if I only had some cash...
Etymology: disfunctional + find
Confogulated
Created by: paintergrl1313
Pronunciation: con-fog-u-late-ed
Sentence: I'm so confogulated, what was I looking for?
Etymology: Confused+forgot+discombobulated
Wanderlost
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: won-der-lost
Sentence: Kev almost always has trouble keeping track of his things. Whatever he has in his hands when he gets home gets dropped somewhere. He then gets to play hide and seek finding them again. Sometimes he spends so much time hunting that he forgets what ha was looking for. He gets completely wanderlost.
Etymology: wander (to ramble without a definite purpose or objective; roam, rove, or stray) + lost (having gone astray or missed the way) play on wanderlust (a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about)
Tweekpeek
Created by: Sed8ed
Pronunciation: tw'eek p'eek
Sentence: So irritated at his inability to locate his wallet, John found himself throwing things about the room while tweekpeeking under everything.
Etymology:
Absentfindedness
Created by: splendiction
Pronunciation: AB sent find ed NESS
Sentence: Able tore around the apartment, digging through gobs of stuff to find many things he forgot he had. Unfortunately, his absentfindedness prevented him from actually remembering what he was looking for. Perhaps Able found it after all that finding!
Etymology: I forgot... (Uh, a twist together of absentmindedness and find).
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COMMENTS:
Good word...amazing how many people are afflicted with this disease...not me, at least I don't remember having it! - Nosila, 2009-10-01: 20:19:00
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Fourofourgot
Created by: purpleartichokes
Pronunciation: for-oh-four-got
Sentence: Because she suffered from mysplasia, Sue fourofourgot that she was looking for her keys and walked out to her car, content in the fact that she had found the remote.
Etymology: 404 - error message "Not Found"; forgot (literally, to not find, then forget)
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COMMENTS:
I can imagine people of the future using this word... - Discoveria, 2007-03-15: 10:11:00
Speaking of people, I wonder why so many players are 404'd lately. Hope they weren't verbducted to another room. - purpleartichokes, 2007-03-15: 11:46:00
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Stemel
Created by: Ahmad
Pronunciation: ste-ml
Sentence: After every 10 minutes , Jamil comes and asks what questions are expected in tomorrow's paper , exams has turned him into a stemel.
Etymology: Stemel is the acronym for Short term memory loss.
Unfounder
Created by: Discoveria
Pronunciation: Un-fownd-dur
Sentence: Tom had been searching for his car keys for hours when suddenly he unfoundered; his mind blanked and he couldn't remember what he needed to do.
Etymology: Unfound + founder. Founder: to stumble, fail, collapse etc.
Forgetmeenotagain
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: for/get/mee/not/a/gen
Sentence: After my fifth trip to the kitchen and experiencing a forgemeenotagain I decided to start writing all my tasks down as soon as I thought of them - then I forgot.
Etymology: forget me not + again
Brainmoshed
Created by: jonobo
Pronunciation: brainmoshed
Sentence: He was so brainmoshed, that he didn't realise the keys in his own hands - and if he would, he would have just put them aside an forgot about them...
Etymology: brain + mosh
Alzhunter
Created by: mrskellyscl
Pronunciation: allz-hun-ter
Sentence: Carl was certain that he had early onset of Alzhunter's Disease when he began to forget what it was that he was looking for in the first place; however, while he was hunting it, he found what he was looking for yesterday -- except he couldn't remember why he was looking for it.
Etymology: Alzheimer's Disease: dimentia often beginning with short-term memory loss + hunter: one who searches or seeks for something
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COMMENTS:
I often find things by looking for something else. - artr, 2009-10-01: 11:06:00
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Whichhunt
Created by: rikboyee
Pronunciation: which-hunt
Sentence: as he aimlessly entered the kitchen again, he realised he needed to give up this whichhunt.
Etymology: which, hunt, witch hunt
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COMMENTS:
excellost! - galwaywegian, 2007-03-15: 06:03:00
This could be rendered as a verb, nice. - mplsbohemian, 2007-03-15: 19:27:00
this works also because, as in a witchhunt, one is actually unlikely to find something when they forget to look for it or won't notice it when they see it - ekath, 2007-03-22: 22:37:00
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Forgetterer
Created by: erasmus
Pronunciation: for get er er
Sentence: Tom was a forgetterer, not only did he forget to pick up his keys, when he went back for them he forgot what he was looking for.
Etymology: from forget and erer means over and over. so forgetting one thing then another then another.
Absentfinded
Created by: mweinmann
Pronunciation: ab - sent - fine - ded
Sentence: Felicity was absentfinded. Everytime she went to look for something, she forgot what she was supposed to be looking for.
Etymology: absent-minded, find
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COMMENTS:
Our words today are very similar -this proves great minds think alike! Good word! - splendiction, 2009-10-01: 19:10:00
great word - Nosila, 2009-10-01: 20:22:00
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Outoflocus
Created by: petaj
Pronunciation: out-o-FLOW-cus
Sentence: Conor was so outoflocus that he spent all day retracing his steps trying to remind himself of what he was looking for.
Etymology: out of focus (not focussed) + locus (location)
Spacequesting
Created by: jedijawa
Pronunciation: space-quest-ing
Sentence: John had been looking for his keys for so long that he was now spacequesting as he looked right at them without realizing he had found them.
Etymology: space (to be spaced-out as in distracted) + questing (to be searching for something)
Resclueless
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: res kloo less
Sentence: Les often forgot what he was looking for even as he was hunting it. He was resclueless. He even forgot to look for his girlfriend Ruth when she ran off with the paper boy. He still searches Ruthlessly for her...or something.
Etymology: Rescue (recover, retrieve) & Clueless (not having even a clue from which to infer what is occurring;having forgotten all)
Dejalose
Created by: Mobelia
Pronunciation: Day-Jah-LooZ
Sentence: When wandering around with dejalose, you often have to stop looking in order to trigger recall of what you are looking for.
Etymology: from Deja Vous french for "all over again" and lose as in misplace from Lose -
Helterseeker
Created by: toadstool57
Pronunciation: hell-tor-sEk-or
Sentence: Jill's search for her keys turned into a helterseeker. She forgot that she is seeking her keys when she stumbled onto a shoe she lost 2 months ago.
Etymology: helter skelter/seek
Distrocupied
Created by: ziggy41
Pronunciation: (dis-TROC-you-PIED)
Sentence: He was so distrocupied with looking for the remote that after he forgot and walked to the tv to turn it on.
Etymology: "Distract" (to change your attention to something else), and "preoccupy" (engross one's thought into, such as finding something)
Disconcentracted
Created by: galwaywegian
Pronunciation: diss kon sent rack ted
Sentence: He was so disconcentracted that not only did he forget his mission, it took him four hours to remember that he had forgotten it.
Etymology: concentrated, distracted
Disfolocate
Created by: catgrin
Pronunciation: dis-foh-loh-keht
Sentence: While hunting for his keys, Bob disfolocated and grabbed his jacket instead.
Etymology: dis=bad, fo=first syllable of "forget" and "focus" (pronounced as in "focus"), locate
Wherehead
Created by: mplsbohemian
Pronunciation: HWEHR-hehd
Sentence: I whereheaded about until I saw the keys, at which point I remember that I was looking for them in the first place.
Etymology: where + [air]head
Flashblank
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: FLASH-blanc
Sentence: As has been happening all too often lately Delbert's mind was wandering while he was looking for his car keys and he had another flashblank, his mind going totally devoid of thought and leaving him completely unable to concentrate.
Etymology: Blend of 'flash' and 'blank'....play on the word flashback
Itemnesia
Created by: Alchemist
Pronunciation: eye-tem-NEES-yah
Sentence: After 20 minutes of frantically searching through her Prius, Sharon paused, stricken with itemnesia. Now WHAT was she looking for?
Etymology: item + amnesia
Lostenconfound
Created by: porsche
Pronunciation: lost/en/con/fownd
Sentence: Lostenconfound is the predicament in which Harry found himself more and more frequently.
Etymology: lost and found + confound
Roomnesia
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: roŏmnēzhə
Sentence: Tom has more nesias than you can shake a stick at. There*s roomnesia, where he is working and realizes he needs something to complete his task only to forget what he was going to find when he leaves the room. There is roamnesia, where he forgets what he was working on as soon as he starts to wander in search of something he now can\'t remember. He also shows signs of homenesia, where he forgets where he is going as soon as he leaves the house and Romenesia where he can*t remember his vacation to Italy. Tom figures the final stage will be tombnesia when he can forget everything and get some long-lasting rest.
Etymology: room (a part or division of a building enclosed by walls, floor, and ceiling) + amnesia (a partial or total loss of memory)
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COMMENTS:
I have worknesia, where I get so distracted thinking up a word for Verbotomy that I forget to get ready for work. - mrskellyscl, 2009-10-01: 06:40:00
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Seeknesia
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: sēknēzhə
Sentence: Al suffers from seeknesia. Not only does he have trouble finding things, he often forgets what he was looking for in the first place. The results of these slips can sometimes be a bit shocking like the time he went out to shovel his sidewalk and realized that what he had been looking for before seeknesia struck was twofold, his snow shovel and his pants.
Etymology: seek (attempt to find something) + amnesia (a partial or total loss of memory)
Seekeying
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: see kee ying
Sentence: Al Zymer did it again...he went into the room but forgot what he went in there for. He forgot what he was seekeying. In future he decided he would right it down or make a code of words to relate to what he needed to get. His favourite movie was "Johnny Mnemonic" starring Keyanu Reeves, but since he got that bad bronchial infection, he thought he was actually "Johnny Pneumonic".
Etymology: Seeking (looking for, trying to find or obtain) & Keying (effective; producing a desired effect;a generic term for any device whose possession entitles the holder to a means of access)
Comments:
Verbotomy - 2007-03-15: 00:12:18
Today's definition was suggested by mana1066.
Thank you mana1066! ~ James
erasmus - 2007-03-15: 12:25:00
I do believe in the UK the DJ on Radio 2 called Terry Wogan calls this a senior moment but thats two words.
Verbotomy - 2007-03-15: 20:02:00
Funny thing is that it's been happening to me since I was a kid... Do think it's going to get worse as I get older?
Verbotomy - 2009-10-01: 00:12:00
Today's definition was suggested by mana1066. Thank you mana1066. ~ James