“What’s the word for when you– Ugh, you know when you’re… What do you call it when there’s a… Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue!” It is driving me crazy! Do you know what I’m talking about?
We all know that feeling. The frustration, and sometimes embarrassment, associated with not being able to remember the exact word you want can be debilitating. “Give me a minute! I’ll remember that! But you couldn’t, at least not in the next few minutes. So sometimes in these situations, we’re desperate for whatever our brains can find. What if it doesn’t? If there’s no suitable synonym that comes to mind, we may need to get even more creative.
To celebrate (or poke fun at, we’ll leave that up to you) all those infuriating “tip of the tongue” moments that we can all relate to and end up creating new words or phrases, the Wildbeef subreddit was born. (I believe the word they were looking for was cow.) We’ve scoured and collected all of the best, most creative, and hilarious names that people have replaced with real words and listed them below for all of you. So enjoy these photos and be sure to vote for the ones you intend to add to your personal vocabulary.
Let us know in the comments what your favorite backups are for words you often forget, then if you want to check out a bored pandaor should i say bored black and white fur ball, article with hilarious words kids made up, check out this conglomeration of text Next.
As frustrating and annoying as it can be to not be able to find the perfect word while it’s on the tip of your tongue, it can also lead to great comedy. Most of us don’t come up with creative and innovative synonyms for common words every day, but when we’re faced with the moment of forgetting, our imaginations run wild. Why can’t we call cauliflower “ghost broccoli” or sleep “eyelid hour”? We always get our point across, and we might even make the person we’re talking to laugh.
Some of the examples in this list also feature non-native English speakers who had to get creative when they lacked the vocabulary they needed, which is completely understandable. It takes a brave person to learn another language and practice it with native speakers, so if they have to find their own phrases and words to be understood, more power to them. I firmly believe in the idea that speaking a foreign language is about being understoodnot perfect.
If you commonly experience that almost painful “tip of your tongue” sensation when trying to find a word, you might not know that there is actually a word for this phenomenon: lethologica. And according to Kendra Cherry of Verywell Mind, this frustrating phenomenon is universal. Studies have shown that around 90% of speakers around the world, regardless of their native language, have this experience. And unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the frequency of these events tends to increase with age. Young people tend to have this feeling about once a week, while older adults may experience it as often as every day. It’s common for us to remember small amounts of information we want, including the first letter of the word we’re looking up or the number of syllables in the word, for example.
Researchers aren’t sure exactly why letholica occurs, but one interesting thing they’ve learned is that the longer we spend trying to remember a word, the more likely we are to struggle with the same exact word at the same time. ‘coming. “It can be incredibly frustrating – you know you know the word, but you just can’t figure it out,” says psychologist Karin Humphreys. “And once you have it, it’s such a relief that you can’t imagine forgetting it again. But then you do. So we started thinking about the mechanisms that might underlie this phenomenon. ”
In one study, researchers presented participants with questions they knew, didn’t know, or had the answers on the tip of their tongues. For answers on the tip of the tongue, participants were then split into groups and given 10 or 30 seconds to come up with answers. This whole process was then repeated two days later. The researchers found that the longer people worked to find an answer on day one, the more likely they were to repeat the same experience two days later.
“The extra time people spend trying to dig up the word is what researchers describe as ‘incorrect practice’ time,” says Karin Humphreys. “Instead of learning the correct word, people learn the error itself.” So if your brain is working hard to remember the exact word you want to use, understand that it will actually be best to give your mind a little rest. The answer will eventually come to you, or if you’re really desperate, you can always google it.
If you’ve noticed that you’ve been feeling more ethology than usual over the past year, you may not be alone. Brain fog is a common symptom for those of us who have had Covid, but it could also plague anyone. Kaitlyn Wylde addressed this phenomenon in a Bustle article she wrote titled “A Strange Consequence of the Pandemic? Forget the Words,” where she shared the story of Kristin, a women’s health worker in Denver who said she felt “verbally rusty” since the pandemic began. “I experienced brain fog last year, but trying to hold multiple conversations with different people at the same time over lunch brought out a new level of fog – I keep forgetting words,” Kristin explained. .
In fact, data from Google Trends even shows an increase in the number of people searching for words they forget in the second half of 2021. There are several possible reasons for this. One explanation could be the lack of socialization we all experienced during the first year of the pandemic. As we suddenly started working from home and self-isolating, it’s likely that we’ve all started speaking less in general, and our speech has in turn become rusty. Neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez told Bustle that stress may also have something to do with this brain fog. “Before the pandemic, many people experienced acute stress, which can cause the body to release stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine,” she explained. “But the pandemic has led to many people becoming chronically stressed, which means these stress hormones are being released into the body at much higher levels than usual.”
And if you’ve had Covid, you might run out of words way more than usual. Dr Hafeez explained that research has found increased levels of cytokines, or molecules that cause inflammation, in the fluid around the brain in cancer patients who have also had Covid. These elevated cytokine levels persist even weeks after patients are cleared of Covid. This inflammation can cause brain fog, as well as impact our sleep quality, cause stress or anxiety, cause dietary changes, and yes, increase ethology. “I can confidently say that in May, just after recovering my strength from Covid, that cognitively I could see the words in my head but found it delayed or difficult to explain what I was thinking” , said a real estate agent. Hustle.
If you have felt the effects of Covid brain fog and increased ethology, fear not. Dr. Michelle Braun from Psychology Today has provided some advice on how to keep our brains sharp. First, she recommends that we keep talking. Allowing yourself to cling to a single word usually does more harm than good, so push through! Even if you’re not as eloquent as you’d like, give yourself some time. We can all sympathize with the experience. You can always replace with a synonym as well. No one else will know it wasn’t your first choice, and luckily, especially in English, there’s almost always a synonym that will work just fine.
Once you finally remember the word that was causing you pain and suffering when you tried to use it earlier, Dr. Braun recommends “repackaging” it so it’s more readily available next time. you want to throw it away. For example, you can think of a picture that will help you remember the word or try to differentiate it from words that sound the same but mean something different. Once you figure out your plan for remembering the word, keep repeating it in your head, or try to use it several times this week, so it never fades from your memory. It’s also important to remember that managing stress and making sure you get a good night’s sleep are two other ways to ensure your brain is working at full capacity.
While it can be fun to hear the creative names people conjure up for objects, we shouldn’t forget to empathize when someone is having trouble thinking of a word. Because for some of us, being unable to remember a word can even be a medical condition: aphasia. WebMD defines aphasia as “a communication disorder that makes it difficult to use words” and explains that it can impact “our speech, writing, and ability to understand language.” It is usually the result of brain damage or damage to the linguistic part of our brain and usually affects people who have had a stroke. It can be an incredibly frustrating condition to live with, so if you know someone who has aphasia, understand that they are trying their best to communicate.
We hope you learn new words and phrases to add to your own personal dictionary from this article. Whether you’re fluent in lethologica or you’re a walking thesaurus, I’m sure there’s something on this list that you’ve never heard or used yourself. Be sure to keep up-voting for posts that make you wonder why you’re not using those phrases or terms, then let us know in the comments what your favorite Wildbeef-worthy word is. And if you want to find even more fun phrases and terms that kids have invented, then check out this Bored Panda story.
