You read a word repeatedly, then it starts to look “unfamiliar”.
I was going to pose a question on religious “science” groups, then decided to look them up on Wikipedia first. The word science just looked “odd” after a while, because I was searching for it so much I guess.
Anyone else get that?
Yep, definitely. I don’t know what you’d call it though.
How about we call it “Disrememberization”?
What I find is that a word you see over and over again loses meaning. It just becomes a random jumble of letters. Is that the sort of effect you’re thinking of?
I don’t know if there’s a word for it either. However, it may be the origin of the convention that you don’t repeat a word too often in a sentence or paragraph.
I once - as a recent transplant to New Mexico - had a horrible job at work which for various reasons resulted in me needing to hand-address several dozen postcards to different addresses in Albuquerque.
It only takes a couple times for Albuquerque to start looking totally nonsensical. Then I started doubting I was spelling it right. Then it just gave me a headache.
Pretty much, I ended up looking at the word “science” and thinking, “that means all those guys in white coats doesn’t it?” (or thoughts to that effect).
Elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow elbow.
Elbow.
Mushroom mushroom mushroom mushroom…
people, people, people
Semantic saturation, among others:
It may also have relevance to music:
Also annoying is then looking up the word for the correct spelling, check the spelling, then closing the dictionary and realizing you have already immediately forgotten how it is spelled and have to look it up yet again.
There is a word for doing that but, of course, I have forgotten what that word is.
El bow? I don’t think it works in Spanish.
Forgot to mention, I call it “the elbow effect”.
It’s much catchier than the equally alliterative “semantic saturation” which, let’s be frank, sounds a bit rude.
Yeees! It is incredibly obnoxious. I find that the threshold is at about 10 repetitions for an ordinary 2 syllable word, less if the word sounds unusual, or is longer, or both.
I get this, now and then…I thought it just meant I had a rotten brain!
I’ve heard it called “semantic disassociation”, FWIW.
It sometimes happens to me now, but happened quite often when I was a kid.
I was just thinking the same thing: “Yep, I know that, happens to me all the…wait, I can’t remember it happening for years.”
Maybe it’s something you grow out of eventually. I can remember it a lot in my high school/college years, but never in the last decade or so. I can’t even do it with “elbow” or “hello” now.
I have a background in typesetting and proofreading, and I can’t tell you how many times someone shows a coworker a common word, and asks whether it’s misspelled.
"nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense’
Instead of looking at the two syllables “non” and “sense”, you start looking at “nonse” and “nse” or “no” and “nsense” or “nons” and “ense”. Once the word starts breaking up randomly, it no longer has any meaning.
I ddissagree, jjimm. I think’s nice sounding. It’s alliteration. It’s iambic pentameter. It doesn’t imply self-serving discrepancy. se-MAN-tic SAY-SHE-AY shun.
I’m glad you thought of this topic, OP. So now I have a name for one of the cracks in my brain. Not much, but it means something.