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Possible Duplicate:
Is there a word or phrase for the feeling you get after looking at a word for too long?

If you say a certain word enough times, it starts to sound/feel different. I had this today with the word patio, and in the end I felt like I barely know the word anymore.

I am not sure how else to describe this, but that’s pretty much the reason I’m asking – what is this phenomenon called?

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tenfour
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    possible duplicate of Is there a word or phrase for the feeling you get after looking at a word for too long? – Daniel Oct 25 '11 at 19:44
  • not a duplicate at all. The questions are related and someone wrongly answered "semantic satiation" there, but the question there refers to uncertainty in spelling and here it's about uncertainty in meaning and/or speech. – Mark Oct 25 '11 at 20:13
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    I do think it's a duplicate; according to the wikipedia page it definitely covers meaning, which is what I experienced. – tenfour Oct 25 '11 at 20:16
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    Aha! This would explain the sudden influx of upvotes on my semantic satiation answer. :D – Marthaª Oct 26 '11 at 01:23
  • No, tenfour, you must have misunderstood me. Semantic satiation is the right term here, for your question, but not for the other one. Semantic satiation has to do with meaning, precisely as you mentioned, but the other question is about the spelling looking funny. I don't get why you guys all think it's the same thing. – Mark Oct 26 '11 at 08:21
  • @Mark: if you read the LanguageHat discussion (linked in my answer), you'll see that the inventor of the phrase intended it to cover spelling as well as sound and meaning. It's a bit of a misnomer, yes, but so far nobody has come up with an alternative. – Marthaª Nov 06 '11 at 03:14

2 Answers2

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The term you are looking for is semantic satiation.

MetaEd
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Perhaps the name of this is mantra, a sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer or incantation.

If I rightly recall, James Randi offered the following as a mantra that everyone should invoke from time to time...

owah tanah siam

Brian Hooper
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