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Joined: Oct 2008
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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when a word is repeated so frequently that it eventually loses its meaning? This may also be a literary device.
This is my first post!
- Lucy
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
one possibility: verbigeration, the senseless repetition of stereotyped phrases
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Joined: Oct 2008
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Oct 2008
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Perhaps.
However, the word I am looking for would define or describe the loss of meaning in the word due to constant repetition more so than the act of repeating the word.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 11,613 |
Hi, Lucy--welcome. I think there is a word for this, but darned if I know what it is. Can you give an example?
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Joined: Oct 2008
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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I think that the most relevant example is the use of the word "maverick" by John McCain and Sarah Palin. (I saw that there was a post about the word specifically at one point.) It seems that the definition of the word has been lost, become meaningless, and is being appropriated by McCain and Palin and thus redefined.
But I am also interested in what happens at a more basic level. Like when you say a word over and over again out loud and it begins to sound different. Eventually it becomes just that- a sound. The meaning dissolves.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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one possibility: verbigeration
which sounds like its related to embiggen.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd call it defdeflation and my goodness, are you so sparsely dressed.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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are you so sparsely dressed. 
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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old hand
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old hand
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Doesn't hackneyed fit in here somewhere? You know, like hacknification? :0)
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