Chrysti The Wordsmith: Lethologica - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. The English language vocabulary. A million words strong is richly equipped with terms to express countless concrete and abstract concepts. It's also packed with synonyms that enable us to articulate subtle distinctions such as flaw defect and fault and horse mount and steed with so many splendid and memorable terms at our disposal. Why do we sometimes forget the very word we need and often even its synonyms. It's right on the tip of my tongue we wail struggling to retrieve that perfect utterance so complete is the frustration at times that we wrap our skulls as if to dislodge the word from the brain's convolutions. It happens because all of us are occasionally afflicted with a temporary inability to remember a specific word or name. This condition is called Letha Logica L E T H O L O G i c a. My latest encounter with Letha Logica occurred when I could not retrieve the word inversion. This was

frustrating and disconcerting because I've used the term for decades but because left the logic I had claimed it I ended up substituting the clumsy phrase turn upside down for inversion. Let the logic is not only a useful term it's also beautiful in etymology. Next time the ancient tale that inspired the coinage of the word left the Logica. I'm Christi the wordsmith. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.