Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world The Giant Korean @lemmy.world 10mo ago

Is there a name for knowing something is gone but not remembering what it was?

Sometimes I'll notice that a building that I used to drive by all the time is gone (leveled to the ground). I know it's gone, but I can't remember what it looked like or what was in it. I just know it's gone.

Is there a name for this?

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I know I used to know a word for this, but I'm not sure what it was.
- Ha
  
  No, that wasn't it.
Interestingly I can't find a german word for this and usually we germans have an unspeakable long word for everything. weird.
- I figured out of anyone y'all would have a good word for this experience.
Are you looking for the word, "forgotten"?
- Gone, but also forgotten.
I get this. I call it "deja durrr".
Dementia

Edit: I figured for sure that giving the wrong answer would lead to the right answer immediately showing up in the replies... Sadly, I was wrong
- Virtually everyone over 40 visiting their former home town has dementia in that case.
- When you go into a room for something and then can’t remember what it was. There is something about crossing a threshold that makes memories go poof.
  
  That's called context dependent memory.
Getting old
Alzheimer's
There's probably some really specific word in German for this, but I can't think of a single word in English that would fully describe what you're talking about.
- Oh course there is, it's:
  
  Existenzerinnerungsverlust
  
  German is crazy like that.
Gone but not remembered.
- Out of the blue and into the black...
Love the concept, don't know the name. Is "evanescent" approaching (I know it's an adjective but maybe it helps)?
- evanescence then?
  
  WAKE ME UP
That totally happened to me the other day when I was visiting the town I grew up in. It's only a little over an hour away by car, but I hadn't walked around the downtown in years, and it's so different that I couldn't even remember what buildings used to be when they were replaced sometimes.
Presque Vu maybe?
In New Orleans you'll often hear "Ain't there no more."

As in, "hey wasn't there a great little cafe here before the storm?" "Yeah, but aint dere no mo"
Reminds me a bit of Jamais Vu

It's not a perfect match to what you describe but it's defined as "the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems novel and unfamiliar."

In your case, you recognize there was a building, and recognize it should be familiar, but it still feels unfamiliar to you nevertheless.

Hopefully this is in the right direction lmao
saudade

edit: also, differently, mono no aware
- Both of these are a lot less specific, and refer to types of melancholy.
  
  oh true. anemoia?
"Passed out of memory"
This guy probably created one https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/
Alzheimer’s

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