oubli

Oubli is the French term for the act or state of forgetting. As a noun, it denotes the act of not recalling information, as well as the condition of something being forgotten. The verb oublier means to forget. The word derives from Old French oubli, ultimately linked to Latin oblivio or obliviscor, reflecting the notion of forgetfulness or oblivion.

In psychology, forgetting is a normal part of memory. It results from processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval, and can be influenced by decay, interference from other information, or retrieval failure. The forgetting curve, described by Hermann Ebbinghaus, shows that memory loss is steepest soon after learning and then tapers with time unless reinforced. Theories of forgetting include decay, interference (proactive and retroactive), and retrieval failure; practical strategies to mitigate forgetting include spaced repetition, testing, and meaningful encoding.

In literature and philosophy, oubli is used to explore themes of oblivion, memory, and identity, including cultural or personal amnesia and the ethics of memory. In contemporary public discourse, the phrase droit à l'oubli, or right to be forgotten, appears in data-protection law, notably within the European Union's GDPR framework, referring to the deletion or suppression of personal data to limit ongoing remembrance by digital services.

See also: memory, amnesia, forgetting curve, droit à l'oubli.