A word for this meaning

[flashpig]

Looking or thinking about a word so long that it doesn't make sense.

I have just been reading Wikipedia about BBC News, and after reading the word 'news' so many times it just looks wrong, like a made-up word.

It's not just this word though, I remember once thinking about the word 'kept' so much that I thought firstly that I didn't know how to spell it (and that it was spelt 'kepped') and then secondly that I had made the whole word up.

I also remember some childhood game where you repeat a word until it seems nonsense.

Is there a term for this? I imagine it might be a psychology term.

[snook]

Don't know if there's a name for it, but I've thought the same, that certain words seem so odd they can't be real. I think it's because we attach significance and meaning to a word in so many subtle ways that once we concentrate on the word itself (the actual sound or spelling) in isolation, it seems to lose the meanings we've endowed it with. That last word I used (with) is one that, for some reason, stuck in my mind years and years ago and ended up meaning nothing. It just always sounded wrong and I found myself spelling it wrongly (whith, wiht, etc.). Brains are strange and wonderful creatures, aren't they... but easily confused.

Oh, and I remember a teacher at school picking on a boy because he'd spelt palm p-l-a-m. He kept making him try to spell it right, though he obviously had a mental block about that particular word. Of course it went on and on, to the amusement of everyone concerned... except of course the lad himself, who was embarrassed and mortified. He was very bright too - probably a consultant surgeon now, I shouldn't wonder, that's if the teacher's dubious methods didn't permanently squash any confidence and ambition he might have had.

[rojash]

I've no idea what the process is called, but a good word to try it with is "sausages".

[Playbill]

A few weeks ago my son mentioned that this often happened to him, and I admitted it also happened to me.

I just went and told him a question has been posted on the subject. He said, that's funny because he was talking to his sister on the internet earlier this evening and she said the same thing often happened to her. She now cannot believe the word 'egg' is a real word!

Now, we all like reading and writing (my daughter is a journalist) so I wonder if that has any relevance or is it a genetic thing?

[lankeela]

Could news have come from the initials N (north) E (east) W (west)....I think you know where I'm going with this!

Seem to remember a local news programme with this as the logo, withthe letters n e w s revolving.