gestalt houkai

ゲシュタルト崩壊 (Gestalt Collapse) is a term in Japanese which describes the phenomenon of a complex character breaking down into its component parts in one's mind and losing its meaning if one stares at it for a short while. It's said to happen most easily with the characters 借, 粉, and 若. I wonder if this effect is limited to Chinese characters or if it applies to other languages as well. In English, if I look at certain words for a while, sometimes I start to wonder if the spelling is really correct... I wonder if this is the same effect.

I once had the feeling that, when speaking a certain word, then its meaning fades leaving only the now meaningless sounds. Thank you for your post, guest!

Here's an English word that has sorta adopted its own meaning seperate from its original one:

Crucial - a crossroads; a turning point (orig. latin "crux"). People use it to mean essential.