God Bless You, Trump, Love You: WTF is Semantic Satiation?
Sometimes, society shares a word or phrase among itself so frequently that it can lose significance from its original meaning. When words…
Sometimes, society shares a word or phrase among itself so frequently that it can lose significance from its original meaning. When words lose meaning through repetition, this is known as semantic satiation. Semantic satiation happens with any term that gets recited too often.
God Bless You
For example, saying “bless you” after a person sneezes. “Bless you” originated from “God bless you.” “Bless you” has ancient origin stories of those once thought to lose their soul during a sneeze. Additionally, “Bless you” was once a farewell phrase to those suffering from the Bubonic plague in the 14th century. As we utter the same thing repeatedly, the sentiment can sometimes transform into a babbling formality.
Trump
Another example of semantic satiation is the word “trump” before Donald Trump became President. “Trump” was a phrase commonly known as: “beat” or “outperform” another. Trump originates from a card game of the 1520s called Triumph. A trump card was said to beat all other hands.
Likewise, if you play a trump card in a modern game of Spades, you get to pick up all the cards on the table. However, today, whenever someone says “trump,” it becomes immediately associated with the former President, who ironically lost his last election.
Don’t believe me? Just try and listen to these Spades instructions for 30 seconds and comment on this article if you heard card rules or the former President’s name.
Love You
Overusing a common word or phrase can also shift and divide meanings in their evolutionary process. Case in point, upon parting ways with a loved one. “Love you” is regularly exchanged between individuals within the American culture. Although unknown when this started, it appears more widely used post-9/11.
Increasingly, people continue to experience the sudden and unjustified loss of loved ones. So reassuring our closest family and friends that they’re special to us at parting became engrained in the culture. “Love you” is now simply a way of saying “goodbye” yet in a heartfelt manner.
“Love you” is not always the same as the more intimate phrase “I love you.” Instead, “I love you” stays reserved for that special person and our immediate family members. Nevertheless, “Love you” blends with society as a simple farewell or even a goodnight expression. Just in case we don’t see each other again. In essence, “Love you” is not that different from the 14th-century phrase “Bless you” during the Bubonic plague.
So God bless you, Trump, Love you, is not so much a single expression — they are instead three separate lost or evolved phrases. Regardless, “bless you” if you are allergic to articles like this and it makes you sneeze. Nonetheless, I hope it “trumps” the other articles about semantic satiation. Thanks for taking the time to read this; “love you.”
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