Meaning
The uncanny feeling of having already experienced a present situation despite knowing one has not. Beyond that core psychological sense, English has developed a looser figurative use for anything tiresomely familiar or repetitive, as in a recurring public controversy. The term is neutral, instantly understood, and at home everywhere from psychology journals to everyday chat. Neutral register and widely understood; the figurative 'here we go again' sense is now at least as common as the strictly psychological one. Regional use: General English (borrowed from French).
Origin
French déjà vu, literally 'already seen' - déjà 'already' plus vu, the past participle of voir 'to see'. The French philosopher and psychical researcher Émile Boirac is credited with coining the expression in 1876, in a letter to the Revue philosophique, and he analysed the sensation further in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques, framing it as an illusion of memory. English adoption followed within a generation: the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence, from the psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers, slightly predates 1901, and both Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary date first known English use to 1903 for the feeling of having previously experienced a present situation.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- deja vous
Usage Examples
- Halfway through the palace tour she was seized by an eerie déjà vu, certain she had walked that corridor before.
- Watching the two executives trade identical accusations gave shareholders a distinct sense of déjà vu.
- For anyone who lived through the last merger, this rebranding drama is pure déjà vu.