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Examples
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Like neurosis, polysemania afflicts us all to some degree; the occasional registering of an unintended pun might almost be taken as a proof, or at least a condition, of our semantic competence (just as various mild neuroses are the lot, and the proof, of our Western humanness, Freud suggested).
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The fact is, it seldom generates fully paralyzing polysemania.
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The history of linguistic taboo even reveals a mild kind of mass polysemania: the discontinuation of ādl, ` illness, 'in Old English (to be replaced by the euphemism disease) through a clash with adela, ` dirt,' was not the work of some individual polysemaniac; similarly, the 20th-century decline, noted by Bloomfield, in the use of cock in American English to refer to a male chicken points to a nationwide awareness of and embarrassment at the awkward dual meaning of the word.
donricklin commented on the word polysemania
polysemania pol·y·se·ma·ni·a n POLYSEMY + MANIA ; syncope of polyseimania: compare mineralogy (1985) an abnormal awareness of possible ambiguity; an uncontrollable tendency to bring to mind the inappropriate or unintended sense of a word in any context.
From an article Polysemania, Semantic Taint, and Related Conditions by John Ellison Kahn, appearing in Verbatim®, The Language Quarterly, Vol. XII, No. 3 Winter 1986.
My Favorite Word!
August 3, 2008
whichbe commented on the word polysemania
This is both a curse and a skill. I am often described this way by my friends... I blame the Hypnotherapy training.
August 3, 2008
donricklin commented on the word polysemania
Let it be noted that of the twelve resource icons listed above only Google Book Search lists anything with three book citings of the word polysemania. One is a compilation of articles from Verbatim® Quarterly!
Thank you whichbe for a first comment on one of my word postings!
August 3, 2008