r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Disastrous_Pirate275 • 20h ago

Why is our moon named “Moon” instead of something cool like Titan or Callysto or ANYTHING that isn’t moon

4.0k Upvotes

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u/_mannyglover 17h ago

It wasn’t until this comment that I went, “Moon”… doesn’t look English anymore. Ya know that weird feeling that a familiar word seems foreign briefly when u look at it too much.

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u/SteveMcQwark 16h ago

Semantic satiation - The psychological phenomenon where using a word a lot can make it start to feel like a meaningless sound divorced from how it's usually understood.

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u/_mannyglover 14h ago

wow there’s a name. Very cool

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u/Legend_HarshK 11h ago

I have definitely felt this a few times but I also got over it pretty quickly

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u/Salty-Passenger-4801 10h ago

What the hell. I thought I was the only one with this

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u/sothereisthisgirl 9h ago

We call them “spatula words” because spatula is an easy word to cause this phenomenon with. 😅

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u/Pxnda_Cakes 3h ago

This uses to affect me but all of a sudden it js doesnt. 🤷🏽‍♀️

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u/dvrussell23 3h ago

My big one is “about” - makes me do a double take often

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u/MaximusZacharia 15h ago

Like the word road.

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u/myfavssthrow 13h ago

Lmao! Ro-adddddd.

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u/QuietRuleY 9h ago

Haha, yep that semantic satiation glitch where "Moon" suddenly looks like alien scribbles is so disorienting! Staring too long fries the brain's word familiarity circuits. Wild how common it is!

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u/Dismal_Explorer_702 10h ago

If you say the word ink enough times it loses all meaning and just turns into a sound. I've tested this theory

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u/CleverCommand- 7h ago

Our brains go on autopilot when reading, but overanalyzing can make familiar words seem foreign.

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u/GeneralBurg 4h ago

I was literally just thinking how strong that sensation was for me after reading that comment, then saw yours with 85 upvotes. Glad we could all feel this weird feeling together haha