An interesting word I heard the other day is tartle. It’s a Scots word that means “To hesitate, to be uncertain as in recognising a person or object; to boggle, “as a horse does”; to hesitate about clinching a bargain.” or “To recognise, esp. after some uncertainty, to discern”.
An example of how it is used is: “I tartled at him, I could not with certainty recognise him.”
The related adjective, tartlesome, means “disposed to start objections, captious*”.
*Captious [ˈkæpʃəs] = “apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects; faultfinding; difficult to please.” [source].
Source: Dictionary of the Scots Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid.
I heard tartle on the Something Rhymes with Purple podcast, where it’s defined as “to hesitate when introducing someone because you’ve forgetten their name”.
To avoid tartling, I just don’t use people’s names, except when necessary. Although I find that if I repeat someone’s name several times after being introduced to them, I’m more likely to remember it.
Do you have any good ways to remember name, and to avoid tartling?
Remembering names? Consciously repeating someone’s name in their presence is the best, and if possible I will write down the name and look at it while they are still there; it provides a two-way reinforcement.
BTW, “tartled” seems to be almost like being on the receiving end of “started”. Probably just a coincidence.
*typo, I meant to say “tartled” is like “startled”