I’m revising a journal article based on my Master’s thesis, and I just had one of those moments when I made up an English word because I knew in the back of my mind that there was a German word for what I wanted to say but I couldn’t quite pull it to the front of my brain.

After I remembered the German word, the concept made WAY more sense.

See, I wanted to come up with a word to express “die Unverständlichkeit,” so the English word that came to mind was “unknowability.” This is apparently not really an English word (at least, not according to Microsoft Word’s dictionary.) So what does LEO recommend as a translation?

Incomprehensibility.

Oh. Well of course. Duh. That’s what I was going for.

Ironically enough, this situation took place in an amount of time shorter than it took to write this blog post, PLUS it happened while summarizing an article about the implication of words in the social construction of memorialization! Now back to work…