This is one of the main reasons I push people to pull out the thesaurus. You had an idea. You tried to put it into words, and either in your excitement or at a moment of frustration your brain latched onto one and it stuck, even if it’s not quite right, or only an archaic definition means what you meant.

Often enough the thesaurus has a word that is closer to your notion, or several options that go different ways and you have to decide which you meant. As you say, once the word is picked it starts to influence the thing. If you pick a better word you get a better influence.