Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <single-word-requests><phrase-requests><linguistics><psychology>
Title: Is there a word or phrase for the feeling you get after looking at a word for too long?
Question: Sometimes after looking at a word for a while, I become convinced that it can't possibly be spelled correctly.  Even after looking it up, sounding it out, and realizing that there's simply no other way to spell the word, it still looks wrong.     Is there a shorthand way to describe this feeling so that people will know what I mean without the long explanation?

Answers:
sents: text: Eureka!
text: Ok, so it's not a single word, but it's what I was trying to think of: Semantic Satiation : Semantic satiation (also semantic saturation) is a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.
text: I also found a languagehat discussion on this topic.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/1547/Marthaª
score: 221
sents: text: Based on this NGram... ...I'm tempted to suggest semantic satiation is a 'failed coinage'.
text: Personally I think it's misleading to imply the phenomenon is restricted to the issue of semantics in the first place.
text: In my experience it's not so much that the word 'loses its meaning'.
text: It's more a matter of saying that almost any word tends to become 'unusual' if you concentrate on it too long, even while you remain perfectly well aware of what the word actually means .
text: So given that Leon Jakobovits James's 1962 coinage doesn't exactly seem to have taken off (many of the later usages being simply references to his anyway), I think it would be better to call it lexical fatigue (or saturation , as used in olfactory/auditory/visual contexts).
text: This at least has the benefit of making it clear that it's caused by form of the word itself, not the meaning (which may not even be particularly involved).
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/2637/FumbleFingers
score: 55
sents: text: The article on semantic satiation led me to the French term jamais vu , which I think I like better for a couple reasons.
text: It seems to apply better to the written form as described in the original question, and also I find it more fun to say.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/8275/Matt
score: 29
sents: text: Based on Martha's accepted answer, I offer: Orthographic Incredulity
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/3800/oosterwal
score: 26
sents: text: This is a fantastic question.
text: I have often experienced that feeling.
text: I doubt that there is a succinct word or phrase to describe it.
text: I suggest you coin your own word and use it all over the place until it finds its way into a dictionary.
text: In general, when you say or look at a word too many times /too long the word loses the affiliation it has with its meaning.
text: It starts to be nothing more than a group of noises coming out of your voice-box or a collection of alphabets arranged on a page.
text: I had someone once describe the feeling to me as word-dissolution because to him the word simply dissolved.
text: The brain has already understood and processed the word.
text: Now it knows everything there is to know about the word, and has moved on.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/2578/S Red
score: 11
sents: text: This is probably a self-induced form of aphasia or dysphasia.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/2303/Robusto
score: 10
sents: text: "Orthographic cognitive dissonance" might work.
text: The conflicting ideas held simultaneously being that the word you're looking at is spelled correctly and that it's spelled incorrectly.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/13426/ang
score: 8
sents: text: I looked at the Wikipedia link that was in @Martha's post and it happened to list many names for this phenomenon besides the most popular one, "semantic satiation": "cortical inhibition" "reactive inhibition" "verbal transformation" "refractory phase and mental fatigue" The link also describes essays and dissertations in which these terms are used.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/22869/pasawaya
score: 8
sents: text: What do you think of "lexical overexposure"?
text: I'm pretty sure that no such word already exists in English.
text: You'll probably have to coin a phrase. "
text: Lexical [something]" to be sure. :)
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/21504/Zahhar
score: 7
sents: text: Note: <Semantic Satiation> is a different concept from what you're saying.
text: It's saying that you use a word simply because you are used to using it, without any other purpose and without any reference to its meaning—words like <timestamp> (thinking of "stamp"'s meaning when saying it?
text: likely no),
text: <general>, <convention>, <convene>, <registry>, <register>, <working example>, <due>, <duly>.
text: But what you're saying is that there are words that are written in a way that simply looks out-of-place, at least to the parsing system of the beholder.
text: This might be words like: <thorough> (<through> may look proper) <trial>
text: (<trail> may look proper) <corporeality> (<corporality> may look proper) <weird> (<wired>
text: may look proper) <ministerial> <heist> <naive>
text: (<naïve may look proper) <reincarnate> (<reïncarnate> may look proper) <adjourned> <diaeresis> <Nietzsche> <doceng> [ § ] <Lloyd> You can refer to such words as <weiosr> (which itself looks out-of-place to the untrained eye).
text: Re: Is there a shorthand way to describe this feeling so that people will know what I mean without the long explanation? .By
text: a phrase, <have a weiosr situation>: Just then, I had a weiosr situation with the word <weiosr>.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/8278/Pacerier
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
It is doubtful that there is a succinct word or phrase to describe this. However, some terms that might be applicable include "semantic satiation", "aphasia" or "orthographic cognitive dissonance".
A number of people sugges terms for this phenomenon,  including "Failed coinage" is a suggestion, means more that the word has become "unusual" if one focusses to much on it. "Orthographic incrdedulity" is another suggestion or  "Orthographic cognitive dissonance" might be an option."Lexical overexposure" is another option, but the concept is not "semantic satiation".  The words seem to look out of place. The cause is suggested to be due to medical conditions of asphasia or dysphasia. Others believe there is no succint word or phrase to describe it. The option is to coin one's own term.
It is doubtful that there is a succinct word or phrase to describe this. However, some terms that might be applicable include "semantic satiation", "aphasia" or "orthographic cognitive dissonance".
Not a single word comes to mind but possibly: Semantic Satiation.   There is also a French term ' jamais vu'. Several other options include: Orthographic incredulity, aphasia  or dysphasia, "orthographic cognitive dissonance" or "lexical overexposure".
Although there may not be a succinct word or phrase for this phenomenon, this can be described as "Semantic satiation", whereby repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener. "Orthographic cognitive dissonance" or "self-induced dysphasia" are alternative suggestions.
It is doubtful that there is a shorthand way to describe this sensation. However, some terms that might be applicable include "semantic satiation", "aphasia" or "orthographic cognitive dissonance".