• Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    There are words and phrases in English that get used sarcastically so often they lose their original meaning. There is a word for this and I swear I’ve seen a whole list somewhere but my google fu is weak today.

    • CubbyTustard@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      related but different there’s the “euphemism treadmill” where scientific terms get turned into slurs over time; lame, retarded, sped etc.

      • Firefly7@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        No - semantic satiation is when you read or hear a word so much in a short timeframe that it stops feeling like a real word, and briefly feels like just a jumble of letters/sounds.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          I hate semantic satiation. It happens all the time while programming for me. I’ll have a variable name with some common word and, after typing it a few times my brain just stops recognizing it as a real word. This sometimes sends me into etymology dives to figure out why the word “jump” (or whatever) looks so strange.