Tip of the tongue....

Tip of the tongue (or TOT) is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue." The tip of the tongue phenomenon reveals that lexical access occurs in stages. (Online)

I read that the equivalent of this kind of brink-memory (my term) is recognized in every language but Icelandic. I wonder why.

I have written about TOT in my yet-unpublished memoir on ageing. Perhaps I am a victim of agism - though heaven knows there are a lot of ageing memoirs out there - the young whipper-snappers who have scanned (not read, I am sure) my book, Endings, have turned it down. I have been type-cast over the years by the people who know me only as a non-fiction writer and not as a playwright. (Theatre is my first love; non-fiction was for bread and butter when I was trying to support me and my kids with my writing.) They think I am a self-help writer. Oh, well.

Back to TOT and my reference to it Endings. I have been writing a blog for a few years now and I have consciously tried not to say anything I have written in that elusive book. Perhaps I will begin soon - a chapter or a thought at a time? It's one way to get "published" - and lose a copyright?

I finished writing it a couple of years ago now. It's not dated, exactly, but I am. I keep growing older and older. Remember that answer to the question, "how old are you?" - "I'm as old as my tongue and a little younger than my teeth." Anything on the tip of my tongue is pretty old.

And that's when I'll get back to you/me.

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Oh, dear, how did it get to be Thursday? Maybe I meant next Sunday. Anyway, s is for -ster. that's what I want to discuss.

spinster noun derogatory: an unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage. DERIVATIVES: spinsterhood noun.spinsterish adjective ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense ‘woman who spins’): from the verb spin +

NOTE: in early use the term was appended to names of women to denote their occupation. The current sense dates from the early 18th cent.usage: The development of the word spinster is a good example of the way in which a word acquires strong connotations to the extent that it can no longer be used in a neutral sense. From the 17th century, the word was appended to names as the official legal description of an unmarried woman: Elizabeth Harris of Boston, Spinster. This type of use survives today only in some legal and religious contexts. In modern everyday English, however, spinster cannot be used to mean simply ‘unmarried woman’; as such, it is a derogatory term, referring or alluding to a stereotype of an older woman who is unmarried, childless, prissy, and repressed. (Online Dictionary)

I knew that and I'm sure you did too. But I was trying to think of other -ster words. So far I have huckster:

huckster noun: a person who sells small items, either door-to-door or from a stall or small store.• a mercenary person eager to make a profit out of anything.• a publicity agent or advertising copywriter, esp. for radio or television.verb [ with obj. ]promote or sell (something, typically a product of questionable value).• [ no obj. ] bargain; haggle. DERIVATIVES hucksterism noun. ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense ‘retailer at a stall, hawker’): probably of Low German origin.

Advertising men are called hucksters, or were. Now they are called Mad Men. There was a bestselling novel a while back, called The Hucksters, made into a movie starring Clark Gable? I'll look it up.

The Hucksters is a 1947 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable that marked the debut of Deborah Kerr in an American film. The supporting cast includes Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnoldand Ava Gardner. The movie is based on the novel The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman, Sr., a skewering of the post-World War II radio advertising industry with a racy backdrop for its day involving Gable and his alternating pursuit of Kerr and Gardner. (Wikipedia)

What about webster? Originally a webster was a weaver, probably female, but the online dicitonary doesn't say so. I know that ster was a feminine suffix. The only one that sticks now is the derogatory use in spinster. Youngster can be either gender, I think, but gangster, mobster and trickster seem to me to be male.

What about blogster? The dictionary thinks it's only a game, but we know better. I am a blogster.