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Glite Dictionary
cryptomnesia

cryptomnesia

1 9.9
Belief that an idea is new when it is actually a forgotten memory of something you saw or heard before
  • noun
  • /ˌkrɪptoʊˈmniːziə/
  • Specialized
: criptomnesia
  • During the debate, he mistakenly claimed that his arguments were original, only to realize later that it was a classic case of cryptomnesia.

Examples

  • Moreover, some of the communication may consist of information and memories that the conscious personality has long forgotten, a phenomenon known as "cryptomnesia."

    Academic text (1990)

  • In art and music, some creators may experience cryptomnesia when they unknowingly reproduce ideas they previously encountered.

  • The author was surprised to learn that her bestselling plot was a case of cryptomnesia, as she had forgotten where she had first heard it.

Antonyms

authenticity
73 4.8

A quality that shows something is real and believable to people

originality
30 4.5

A quality of being new and different in ideas and not copied from others

Surface Forms

cryptomnesia singular
cryptomnesias plural

Morphology

cryptomnesia = crypto + mnes + ia

The word is built from Greek elements meaning roughly 'hidden' and 'memory', but the specialized psychological sense is not readily recoverable for most learners from the parts alone.

Etymology

Cryptomnesia comes from Greek parts crypto- meaning 'hidden' and -mnesia meaning 'memory'. So, cryptomnesia is like a secret memory that returns and feels like a new idea, which is why someone can believe a forgotten memory is their own original thought.