Déjà vu

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Grammarist

Déjà vu is an interesting term that has been used in the English language since the turn of the twentieth century. We will examine the meaning of the phrase déjà vu, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.

jà vu is a phrase that means the feeling of having experienced a situation before, the feeling of having already experienced something that is currently happening, the feeling of already having lived through what one is currently living through. The phrase déjà vu is in fact borrowed from the French, it literally means already seen. Some ascribe the phenomenon of déjà vu to precognition, but others believe that déjà vu is a malfunction of memory or a sign of a mental or physical disorder. The causes of jà vu are still up for debate, the scientific term for déjà vu is promnesia. Note that the accent marks are properly retained from the French in the spelling of  déjà vu, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. However, it is often seen without the accent marks.

Examples

“Until then, we learn to live and accept our shadows, our Déjà vu’s, our dreams, our intuition that takes us to places that our minds never conceived, our bodies only perceived and our souls gladly remembered.” (The Huffington Post)

There is a sense of deja-vu at Ossett Town as, for consecutive Saturdays, the Reds prepare to travel to Bamber Bridge in the Evo-Stik First Division North. (The Wakefield Express)

And Deutch — James Franco’s girlfriend in “Why Him?” — she runs the gamut of emotions of being trapped in an endless deja vu with impressive poise. (The New York Daily News)

To say watching Idaho’s 2017 legislative session feels like déjà vu may be nicer than saying I told you so. (The Twin Falls Times-News)