Forgetting
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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To forget is to lose remembrance of; to cease remembering. It can refer to a person or animal forgetting, or, the forgetting by a society, as in a 'forgotten hero' or a 'forgotten book'.
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Of people
Forgetting (retention loss) refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. Problems with remembering, learning and retaining new information are a few of the most common complaints of older adults.
Of societies
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation said Ernest Renan in "What is a Nation?". See also oblivion, the ash heap of history.
Etymology
From Middle English forgeten, forgiten, forȝeten, forȝiten, from Old English forġietan (“to forget”), from Proto-Germanic *fragetaną (“to give up, forget”), equivalent to for- + get. Cognate with Scots forget, forȝet (“to forget”), West Frisian ferjitte, forjitte (“to forget”), Dutch vergeten (“to forget”), German vergessen (“to forget”), Swedish förgäta (“to forget”).
See also