Semantic satiation
Etymology
The term was coined by the psychologist Leon Jakobovits James in his 1962 doctoral dissertation: "semantic" (from Greek "sēmantikos," significant, from "sēma," a sign) plus "satiation" (from Latin "satiare," to fill). It names a measurable perceptual effect.
noun phrase · /sih-MAN-tik say-shee-AY-shun/
The temporary loss of a word’s meaning after it is repeated many times.
What it names
The eerie moment when a word repeated over and over dissolves into pure sound — a handle for the brief short-circuit between a word and its sense.
Example
Say "spoon" forty times and semantic satiation sets in — the word curdles into a strange, meaningless noise.
Related idea
This is a momentary perceptual glitch, quite unlike semantic drift, the slow historical process by which a word’s meaning permanently changes over generations.