Wednesday’s Word
January 14, 2009Today’s word is:
confabulation • \kun-fab-yuh-LAY-shun\ • noun
1 : familiar talk or conversation
2 : a filling in of gaps in memory by fabrication
When Princess is older and starts asking about my childhood, I will probably have to resort to confabulation in my stories, not because I want to make my childhood seem grander and more exciting, but simply because I can’t remember. I have a horrible memory. And then there are those trips or events where you’re not really sure if it’s a memory or if you’ve just seen enough pictures and heard the story from someone else so many times it just seems like a memory. For instance, when I was very little, the house we lived on was up on a hill with a steep driveway. The schoolbus picked me up at the bottom of the hill. When it got icy, I kept slipping and my brothers (they were teenagers then) would have to help me down. I don’t know if this is an actual memory or if I’ve just heard it told so many times it seems like one. Do you have any recollections like this?
