Well I just came across the word “tyro” on my daily bread, the Diane Ravitch blog. Do you know it/ use it? I’ll admit I was clueless. Turns out it comes from the Latin noun “tiro,” which means “young soldier,” “recruit,” or “novice.” Merriam-Webster lists synonyms as “amateur,” “dilettante,” “dabbler.” I get the connection to the Latin noun, but am having trouble understanding the relationship between that & the rest of the etymology, which is said to be from PIE dere (to tear, tear apart), & proto-Germanic teraną (“to tear, tear away, rip or snatch off, pull violently, tug”), and Spanish “tirar” (to throw, shoot).

Anybody?

While I've never looked into its etymology, I've known the word since I was quite young. It seems to have fallen into disuse in the sixties. I've not seen it in print for about fifty years.

IIRC, it once was common in military circles, just as its etymology implies.

Well that's interesting Geoff! I probably picked up the large proportion of my vocab in the '50's & '60's - I guess as it was in declining usage. And figures Ravitch would use it: she's 10yrs older than I am.

Because I couldn't understand the etymology, I was trying to figure out, how am I going to remember this word? It made me realize, that's how I relate to words. There was a big tendency in that direction since my gr-grandfather was a classics prof & multilingual, so my grandmother, mom, & 4 gr-uncle's families talked & debated about such things. Then I went same way, studying Latin, Fr, Sp.

Now that I have the typical short-term memory issues for my age, I see I lean on those connections more heavily.

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Originally posted by bethree5:
Now that I have the typical short-term memory issues for my age, I see I lean on those connections more heavily.

This makes me wonder what are our ages here? I am 65. I have noticed a definite decline in my ability to remember names, words, and ideas, especially since I had a traumatic brain injury, and had to have brain surgery at the beginning of 2018. At the time, I lost three weeks of memory and had to be in a nursing/rehab facility for two months. I feel like thoughts pop into my brain and right back out without any ability to hold on to them. It isn't unusual for me to think of something and immediately forget it 3 or 4 times in a row. At times, I wonder if there are things that I never remember, again. I feel like my moods are more all over the place now, too. Yet, I have had people tell me that they know other people with traumatic brain injuries that never seem like their old selves. They say I do seem the same. I don't feel the same, though.

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Now that I have the typical short-term memory issues for my age, I see I lean on those connections more heavily

I don't know what memory aids might help in your case, Sattva, but I might be able to help B35: Try associating beginning musicians playing "Tyro-ro-BOOM-de-A!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eh0MC8LXM8

Geoff that works for me! If I can't do word-roots, I use visual images [but I kept picturing a T-Rex...]. In fact I'm storing a mini mental 'youtube' as we speak: a beginner grade school band huffing away at that tune.

sattva, I will turn 70 in early August! I had an amazing short-term memory in youth, could memorize 1000 Fr vocab words at a clip just by copying them down Fr>Eng>Fr 3 times (on folded ppr,quizzing myself each pass). Could retain numbers for a decade or more.


I never noticed a word-memory glitch until early 40's: occasionally I'd get a 'crossed wire,' where 2 words would be confused (the first pair was "Lego" and "Rebok"(the shoe). But typical temporary loss of names, movie/book titles & rarely-used words started up in my 60's.

A seat-belted but serious head-on auto collision at 45 caused issues similar to TBI; my shrink said my brain would have gotten slammed back&forth w/n skull. For about a year I had ADD symptoms & wild mood swings. Plus I had a stroke a month after the accident (threw a clot from healing artery damage), which left me with clinical depression. That's basically lifelong, but now 25 yrs later I need only a baby dose of Effexor.


So things do heal, though slowly-- have hope! Meanwhile I have no trouble learning & remembering the names of my 160 PreK students every year over the course of 2-3 months of seeing them weekly. Apparently regularly practicing retrieval does wonders.

BTW I definitely have that experience of a thought going in & out of my head several times in a row these days. I've learned to either do the thing immediately or write it down.

I am 62. Who are you all again? Get off my lawn.

So three of us have had our brains scrambled! I knew about sattva, but not you, Bethree5. Thank goodness for neuroplasticity! Hmmmm... Isn't that from an opera? "Neuroplasticity, neuroplasticity, it keeps reminding me, I am not dead!" To the tune of "La Dona E Mobile"

Wow! Bethree5, you had an incredible memory when you were young. I am sorry you had both the accident and the stroke.

Probably got it from my gram. She was a baseball fan & could recite stats & remember players' names & that play that still fried her 30 yrs after the fact.

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Originally posted by bethree5:
Probably got it from my gram. She was a baseball fan & could recite stats & remember players' names & that play that still fried her 30 yrs after the fact.

Funny how memory can be incredibly specific. I have a friend who can recite cricket statistics to a mind-boggling level of detail. I was once at his house and he was watching a match on TV. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was a test match from about ten years earlier (I forget the specific details) and went on to tell me, ball by ball, how it would progress. When I asked him the result he told me it was rained off on the third day.

The point is that he could remember all that but had trouble remembering where he had left his glasses or what he had for breakfast.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Bob, I think that is very common with aging.

The brain is an amazing, complex organ. These stories here are fascinating.