Phrases That Stick

"What is the word I'm looking for?"

RG used this peculiar phrase the other day, and I had never thought about its meaning before, but what does it mean? I know what the person means when they say it, but is there a deeper meaning?

Or am I just jerking off?

What word? How can you look for a word, when the word is in your head? Do you have a catalog of words that display in your brain? I think that's how my brain works, but what about a blind person? If they can't see, how can they see what a word "looks" like? Is it the braille version? Do they see a series of dots? Or do they see a conceptual image of what they think the word for the thing they're looking for looks like? If a blind person is hunting for the word "squirrel", what is the word they see? What is the thing they see?

With me, there's comparison: "looks like a rat, but with a fluffy tail and cuter."

To a blind person, the comparison might be: "looks like an eggplant, only moldy, with the stem still attached."

Yes, I'm making that up, but what would the comparison be? I don't know any blind people, but I'd love to hear what this phrase means to them.