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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
a subscriber is looking for a word that describes the sensation one feels that a word loses all meaning when it's repeated over and over, or pondered deeply for a while.
any ideas?
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
I have heard or read the expression "exhaustion of meaning" -- perhaps in social psychology.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Sounds like plain old over-familiarity to me.
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
dalehileman
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
The way I see it repeated over and over, or pondered deeply for a while are two different treatments. While in the first case, loss of meaning seems likely, in the second, I rather expect the opposite.
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203 |
Semantic satiation is a loosely related term, on the individual level of language perception. There might be a collective equivalent.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Hi tsuwm I tried to sit it out, but the itch from your subjunctive form veniat refuses to go away 
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Time for a paradigm metamorphisis.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
The controversial and groundbreaking US comedian, Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), introduced "obscenities" into his act under his theory that if you repeat a word like the F-word often enough, it loses its punch, people get used to it, and, so, in effect, you eventually strip the obscenity away and it becomes inert, just another word.
Not quite the theory presented in the Alpha-post, but close.
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