The origin can be traced to nineteenth century censuses. A run-away serf would not wish to reveal his name or place of origin. He would respond "I don't remember"; even though he had not forgotten his name. Once he had said this, the census taker would record his name as "Not Remembering".
The problem with employing "forgetful" is that it can convey the sense of absent-mindedness or an inability to recall. Whereas the act of not remembering was deliberate. It is a question of precision.
I am sorry if I have offended Maria. The difficulty I have is that she took as good coin James's throwaway remark.
To me the task is to initially provide a literal translation, taking account of figures of speech and the like, then amend for readability.
World Blitz.
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Simon Spivack
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Maria Yurenok
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Re: World Blitz.
By itself, "not remembering" certainly doesn't imply it's a deliberate act. It only has that meaning with the attached historical explanation. We were not having a scientific discussion here about origins of surnames where precision would be important. "Forgetful" is just as good as (or better than) "not remembering" for the purposes of the earlier discussion.
And there's no reason for me to carefully check others' posts for accuracy before posting my reply - this is not a research project but an informal forum, similar to having a conversation. If someone made a mistake recollecting what was said to him - so what! Not a big deal as long as it doesn't cause offence.
And there's no reason for me to carefully check others' posts for accuracy before posting my reply - this is not a research project but an informal forum, similar to having a conversation. If someone made a mistake recollecting what was said to him - so what! Not a big deal as long as it doesn't cause offence.