retrograde amnesia
3
8.1
- noun
- /ˈrɛtroʊˌɡreɪd æmˈniːziə/
- Specialized
:
amnesia retrógrada
- After the accident, she experienced retrograde amnesia and could not remember the moments leading up to it.
Examples
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He has complete retrograde amnesia.
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You are suffering from what they call retrograde amnesia and that affects your episodic memories.
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Patients with retrograde amnesia often forget events that happened just before their injury.
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The doctor explained that retrograde amnesia could sometimes allow for the recovery of memories over time.
Synonyms
93
6.7
A loss of memory often after injury, illness, or trauma
40
3.4
A problem when a person cannot remember information or past experiences
How Complete
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term combines 'retrograde' (backward/involving earlier time) with 'amnesia' (loss of memory), so the meaning — loss of memory for events prior to an injury — is directly derivable from the constituents. Although medical/technical, the composition is transparent and mirrors equivalent constructions in many languages, making it predictable for learners who know both words.
Etymology
Retrograde amnesia comes from its parts: retrograde (moving backward) and amnesia (loss of memory). Imagine your memories as a film that is rewound; the part before the rewind is lost. So retrograde amnesia means losing memories from just 'before' an injury.