I could not find the answer to this by googling but that is likely because I had to use so many words to describe what I was looking for and there must be a limit ….
What I want to know is what is it called when some ordinary word like, oh, say thumb or ice cube or kangaroo suddenly seems so – what – meaningless? wrong for the item? foreign? an echo? And you find yourself saying it over and over again with a bit of amazement and a bit of amusement at the phenomenon, trying to make sense of it.
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2 responses to “What is the word or phrase ……”
I think this is what you mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
It happens to me all the time.
Thank you for this link. I will give it more serious consideration later. First browse was tangent thoughts, worth exploring, but not sure if this is exactly what I mean. Hmmmm. I am amazed we manage to communicate as well as we do with all the nuances of speech.