Background on the expression 「寒気を覚えた」

Japanese
#1

This is a bit of a niche question, but I was curious if anyone has come across the phrase 「寒気を覚えた」or [寒気を覚える」 in any Japanese resource books or knows the background behind this choice of words.

When doing reviews, the following example sentence popped up for 寒気 and it got me wondering about why 覚えた was used.

寒気を覚えた時、風邪を引いた事を確信しました。

Interestingly enough, doing a search for it in Japanese, almost every native Japanese article or link that popped up used the phrasing 「寒気がする」and 「寒気を感じる」 and the only result I got for 寒気を覚えた was for some additional JLPT N1 example sentences.

Anyway, if for some reason you happen to know more about this phrase and the background as to why the verb 覚える is used instead of the more standard 感じる or がする please let me know!

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#2

Did you try searching “oboeru” instead of “oboeta”?

I found this collocation dictionary:
https://collocation.hyogen.info/word/寒気

寒気を覚えるばかり
寒気を覚える
Are both listed as collocations

It’s also used as the description for this image
https://www.ac-illust.com/main/detail.php?id=25840153&word=寒気を覚える男性（人物のみ）

And this hotpepper page
生理中、寒気を覚えることはありませんか？

editing to add another example of “oboeru” being used as “to feel”
It simply describes “oboeru” as a synonym of “kanjiru”

違和感を覚える

「感じる」の類語である「覚える」を使って、「違和感を覚える」という表現が使えます。「覚える」という言葉にはさまざまな意味がありますが、「違和感を覚える」と使う場合は「心や体に感じる」という意味になります。「違和感を覚える」のほか、「親近感を覚える」「達成感を覚える」などでも使われる表現です。

【例文】

・いつもとは違う彼の様子に違和感を覚えました。
・彼女の金銭感覚に違和感を覚えた。
・説明された内容に違和感を覚える人が多かった。

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#3

As already mentioned, 覚える can be used with things you “feel” (implying something which leaves a certain distinct impression, more than simple feeling ). It can also be a little bit more stiff or literary sounding than 感じる though.

One big use of 覚える in place of 感じる is with words than end in 感, like 違和感. Natives tend to disagree on if a phrase like 違和感を感じる is acceptable or not, so some will opt for 違和感を覚える (or in conversation probably the more simple 違和感がある). This is an interesting case of natives not fully agreeing on whether this sort of doubled up expression (pleonasm) is acceptable or not.

The typical example of an unacceptable doubling up is 馬から落馬する (“to fall from a horse from a horse” - if you google this phrase you will find a lot of articles on this topic). But interestingly there are many of cases which may feel like unnecessary doubling to a foreign learner but are not considerd so by natives. An example of one I personally find odd is something like 芥川賞を受賞する (to receive the Akutagawa prize / to be awarded the Akutagawa award).

You can read more about this in this NHK article. They do theorise why things may or may not sound okay (repetition of the same yomikata and whether the nuance feels doubled up itself) but as a foreign learner a lot of these will just come down to exposure or checking when speaking with friends.

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