Verboticism: Invertintention

'What was I looking for?'

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.

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Outoflocus

petaj

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)

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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

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Wanderlost

artr

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)

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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)

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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

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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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Seeknesia

artr

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)

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Displaceia

Created by: EffingCharms

Pronunciation: dis -place- ee- ahh

Sentence:

Etymology:

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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)

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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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