Psychology and learning

Seventh on this list is l’oblio, and the English word that looks like it will not do the work. Italian has one noun here where English has to choose. L’oblio is the process, the going of what was once there — l’oblio è rapido nei primi giorni describes a curve — and it is equally the condition of having been forgotten, as in cadere nell’oblio. « Oblivion » covers only the second. It is where a name ends up, not something that happens hour by hour, so « oblivion is fast in the first few days » reads as nonsense; for the first sense the ordinary word is the bare gerund, « forgetting ». The adjective has travelled further still. « Oblivious » once meant forgetful and now means unaware: somebody oblivious to the noise never registered it at all, which is nearly the opposite of having lost it. One Italian noun therefore faces three English pieces, and only one of the three is its cognate. Read l’oblio as « forgetting » by default, and keep « oblivion » for the sentences in which a reputation, rather than a fact, is going under.