deja dit

(day.zhaw DEE)

n.

The feeling of having said something before; the boredom that results from having said the same thing repeatedly. Also: déjà-dit.

Example Citation:

The current crisis is not a bilateral clash with one country intent on containing U.S. influence in and beyond Europe by organizing an ad hoc coalition of the unwilling for a new multipolar world. This, in other words, had nothing to do with the deja vu of past quarrels between the United States and France, or even the déjà dit of French resistance to a unipolar world.

— Simon Serfaty, "Future of Transatlantic Relations," Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony, June 11, 2003

Earliest Citation:

Since last week's piece on concepts for which no word exists, we have been deluged with neologisms to fit the gaps already identified. Here is a selection: ...

The awful feeling, when telling someone a tale, that you have told them it before: anecdoubt (Mollie Caird), déjà-dit (Davida Charney).

— William Hartston, "Creativity: Crowning glory of the panto," The Independent (London), April 19, 1994

Notes:

This term is based on the well-known phrase déjà vu (1903), the sense that one has seen or experienced something before, or the boredom that comes from having seen or experienced something repeatedly. Its literal French translation is "already seen," and déjà dit has a similar translation: "already said."

Other plays on déjà vu that have entered the language over the years are déjà entendu (1965), the feeling that one has heard something before, and déjà lu (1960), the feeling that one has read something before.

Related Words:

frequency illusion

jamais vu

memory prosthesis

senior moment

Categories:

Culture (General)

Language (General)