Semantic Satiation

When you repeat a word over and over, it becomes devoid of semantic qualities, or it looses meaning. I'm sure most of us have come across this concept before, it's called semantic satiation and applies to any symbol that can be associated with meaning. Personally I think this is a misnomer, because there is no satisfaction involved. Semantic deficit or something like that might be more appropriate.

There's another term I would like to coin at this time- I'll call it semantic rediscovery. This is when you perceive a word or symbol that you are very familiar with, and realize it is composed of other aspects with which you are also familar but never perceived as part of the orginal concept.

For example, the word "toadstool". I instantly think of a stout mushroom and end there. Breaking apart the word we see "toad" and "stool"- a stool for a toad. Duh. So simple yet I never thought of a toadstool as a stool for toad, even though that obviously what I was saying.

Next example- the word "news". It's plural, and refers to the many new things that are occuring, but I think of a newspaper or someone sitting behind a newsdesk. The word "news" refers to all the different types of a single new- one new is that the city counsel is voting, another new is that someone got shot downtown, another new is that housing prices are rising. So yet again, I've been referring to something that I never knew I was.