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Is there a term/words to describe that you lost intrest in doing something because you have repeated it so many times? Examples for these scenarios:

  • You liked hamburgers a lot, but because you have eaten them throughout the years so many times, you dislike them now
  • That song you once listened to the first time sounded really good, but after listening to it for many hours, it becomes a pain in the ears or just a boring song
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  • I use the verb saturate for this, and it sounds natural to my ear, but that sense isn't listed in any dictionary and may be limited to my family. ("It's saturated for me now, I've seen it too many times") Commented Jun 30, 2023 at 22:31
  • An example sentence with the word you want left blank would be helpful.
    – Dan
    Commented Apr 13 at 16:20

5 Answers 5

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The word jaded, with the second meaning of "Dulled by surfeit; sated" on Wordnik, may have the meaning you want.

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To be satisfied to the point of disinterest = to be "sated".

sate [verb] [transitive]

1: to cloy with overabundance: glut

2: to appease by indulging to the full

  • sate one's thirst

Sate (and satiate) may sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire [... as reflected in the above ordering of senses].

  • years of globe-trotting had satiated their interest in travel
  • readers were sated with sensationalistic stories

[Merriam-Webster]

As a noun, satiety appears in Moby Dick, where the Sicilian sailor describes his ideal of dancing:

SICILIAN SAILOR. (Reclining.) Tell me not of it! Hark ye, lad—fleet interlacings of the limbs—lithe swayings—coyings—flutterings! lip! heart! hip! all graze: unceasing touch and go! not taste, observe ye, else come satiety. Eh, Pagan? (Nudging.)

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  • Is the apparent quote actually given at the TFD reference? Commented Jul 1, 2023 at 11:37
  • @EdwinAshworth - I fixed the link. Thanks
    – user22542
    Commented Jul 1, 2023 at 16:19
  • I still can't find 'They were "sated" by too much of a good thing. The very thought of more turned them away.' But you seem to give the sentence as a bona fide rather than homespun example. / There are other dictionaries giving the relevant sense. Commented Jul 1, 2023 at 16:41
  • Sorry if something is confusing for you. The example is a bit labored. I was thinking about the quail (in the Bible) as an example of being "sated" by the very food the Israelites requested... I hope that helps.
    – user22542
    Commented Jul 2, 2023 at 9:30
  • I'm concerned about possible misrepresentation. Showing 'They were "sated" by too much of a good thing. The very thought of more turned them away.' in a block quote followed by a linked reference indicates it's a genuine quote, adding support. But is it? / Other dictionaries clearly include the 'over' in 'over-fill'; the usage note at Merriam-Webster is spot on. Commented Jul 2, 2023 at 9:51
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Though the root meaning of overexposed is simply 'given, or subjected to too much exposure [to something or someone]', there are also broadened usages – but one has to venture further than the more respected online dictionaries for the general 'turned off as a result of of overexposure' sense:

Overexposed:

Something that has been played, listened to, or talked about so much to the point where the object becomes unbearable and the general public begins to build a collective hatred for the poor thing. This usually happens to really good YouTube videos, Vines, or songs that go viral; however this can happen to many other things ranging from memes to people.

[Urban Dictionary]

[Oxford Languages Dictionary comes close to defining this broader sense of the noun:

Overexposure: excessive media coverage, especially to the point that people lose interest.

  • at certain times, a celebrity may suffer from overexposure
  • Just a case of overexposure, I'd say.
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You could say that you are sick of the food or song in question. MW defines this as "having a strong distaste from surfeit: satiated."

(Often this is used to express frustration with some repeated annoyance, as in "I'm sick of you complaining," but I've also heard it used in the context you describe.)

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When you stop feeling a sensation after repeated exposure, you have been inured, (which can carry a negative connotation, like inured against the world’s suffering), or developed tolerance for that thing (in the language of addiction).

When you no longer feel pleasure doing the same thing, in psychology, they call that hedonic adaptation, meaning, pleasure is sometimes like a finite currency which gets spent and then exhausted (for food, sex, and so on). The chronic condition of no longer feeling any pleasure is called anhedonia.

Doing the same thing too many times in a short period might cause it to become displeasurable, because you have exceeded past homeostasis, or, the organisms’s need to maintain equilibria of various sorts, such as hunger, temperature, energy, salt levels, and so on.

In common language, you can say “you’ve had enough”, you’re “full”, “done”, or just that you “don’t want anymore”.

I can brainstorm more ways to express this, like that “your will has been appetized.”

Walt Whitman greatly said about school, “I liked it so much, I didn’t feel any need to go on,” implying that he dropped out, not because he didn’t like it (more likely), but tongue-in-cheekily, claiming that it was he liked it so much, he was contented.

In Swedish, the word lagom means “just right” - we can compare that to something which is not “just right”, but has been stuffed, or is engorged, like geese which are force fed with tubes to fatten their livers, making foie gras. Shakespeare wrote, “this overflows the measure” (the measuring cup), to mean, “this is excessive, beyond the point of indulgence.”

And there are many ways and directions I could go on. I think ennui, or boredom, comes close to what you describe - the casual, vacant feeling of “same-old”, “day-in, day-out”.

But as a speaker of English, I’m not sure we have a set phrase we truly use, but get by with circumlocution, since it’s such a well-known concept - many times I have heard people say, “I listened to it so many times I can’t listen to it anymore.” That really is the most natural way to say it.

The words apathy and indifference also come to mind.

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