| User | Comment |
|---|
| daver | | posted 3-Dec-1998 11:31am |
This happens to me all the time, both with spoken and written words. |
| phi | | posted 3-Dec-1998 11:42am |
All the time, and the word doesn't have to be long or hard to spell either. Repetition drives the meaning out of words for me. |
romkey  | | posted 3-Dec-1998 11:49am |
It happened to me with "itch" actually
|
| lisashea | | posted 3-Dec-1998 11:51am |
Every once in a while. "Off" looks strange if I look at it too much. |
dab  |
Not written but it's happened to me for a spoken word. |
| dpolicar |
I never have the "this must be spelled wrong" reaction, but I frequently have the "I have seen/heard this word so many times that it is now meaningless" reaction. |
| cpierson |
I write a lot (a _lot_), so I get very sensitive to this. Also to starting several sentences or paragraphs in a row with the same word, using the same bit of specialized punctuation (semicolons, em-dashes) in consecutive sentences, and not varying sentence length/rhythm. |
| lelle |
Happens all the time, in writing and speaking (and hearing). Once, I spent almost a whole day trying to find out how to spell "post" -- anything I tried looked all wrong, and looking in a dictionary didn't help. :) |
| elijahblue |
Yes, this happens to me, though I can't think of an example at the moment of a single word. A while ago, the common phrase "used to" started bothering me, and the more I thought about it the less sense it made. What does it mean to be "used" to something? Something else word-related that just happened to me is that I was typing a personal email, and mistyped the word "relationship" as "elationship," and thought how cool and fitting that was in this particular case. |
| steve |
Given the elaboration, not too often. It happens more if I say a word too much; it becomes increasingly odd to me that this arbitrary collection of sounds is associated with a concept. When I read the question without the elaboration, I thought you meant the more common (at least when you often read bad writing, which, as a scientist, I do) phenomenon of finding a word used too many times in too-rapid succession, creating an awkward sentence or paragraph. |
jettles  |
except it usually happens to me with words like "was" or "the" |
bill  |
This happened to me with the word weird itself once. I used it a couple times in a paragraph, and then it started to look weird, which was especially weird because it was the word weird and it was looking weird. It was so weird! |
| hillbilly |
I was reading the book "CIA cult of information" and the word clandestine shows up about 3 times a page. It becomes irritating. I became so irritated that I let the goats eat the book. |
| Resy |
This happens more often when I'm talking than when I'm writing. Trying saying "milk" have a dozen times ... now do you wonder what it is and why everyone wants to know if you "got" it? That's what happens to me. |
| pandora | | posted 4-Dec-1998 10:52pm |
Just happened with the ain't survey. See, that doesn't look right at all, and I can't picture anyone saying it, ever. I don't like the feeling. |
| mikex103 | | posted 5-Dec-1998 11:29pm |
Toy Boat, when repeated becomes toiboit, and there are others, as well. Interestingly, this only happens when speaking, not when reading |
| gilly | | posted 6-Dec-1998 11:49pm |
I find it most disturbing when it happens with my own name. |
| seanhuxter | | posted 7-Dec-1998 11:05am |
There is actually a term to describe this phenomenon. Phenomenon... is that right? Doesn't look right... anyway, there is, but I forget it now. You can lose all connection with a word for a period of time, but it always comes back. |
| romkey | | posted 8-Dec-1998 12:17am |
seanhuxter - do you mean aphasia?
|
| anonymous |
aphasia n.
Partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease. |
| jonathan |
I can definitely make a word into meaningless gibberish by writing it enough enough enough enough. I also sometimes catch myself reusing the same word or phrase in a document - the latest one was "me and mine" and "you and yours" the other day. |
| they | | posted 17-Jan-1999 6:54pm |
That just happened to me with 'ain't' in the last survey... It also happens to me when I say a word too much. |
