# Authors and the unusual words they like to overuse **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731 "2014-02-07T03:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/61 "2014-02-08T10:44:11Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Regarding Lovecraft, I once compiled a list of “Lovecraftian” words to sprinkle though eldritch missives of my own, so that they could be festooned with his own brand of malignant verity: > [snip] > > - fetid “foetid” would be better, surely? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/62 "2014-02-08T10:51:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > George Bernard Shaw loved to use the spelling “shew” for “show”, for some reason. In my head, his characters always sound like Ed Sullivan in consequence. lol. You bastard, you’ve gone and ruined Shaw for me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/63 "2014-02-08T15:51:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The word is hardly unusual, and his use of it is usually considered good practice, but Raymond Carver was inordinately fond of the word “said.” He used it every time a character spoke, even when it wasn’t necessary to identify the speaker. For example, you might see something like this: > > “Hi,” he said. > "Hello, " she said. > “How are you?” he said. > “Fine,” she said. > "Nice day, " he said. > “A bit too warm for me,” she said. > Etc. A book I almost read recently. I don’t recall the book title but it also contained something like this, identifying the speaker of every sentence they spoke. One of the few books I have abandoned unfinished. Severely irritating. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/65 "2014-02-08T16:35:21Z")
I actually learned something from one of J. K. Rowling’s. She has her characters “traipse” places when they could walk there. I noticed particularly that she had them traipsing during an unpleasant time. Since I always thought “traipse” was kind of a flippant word, like “skip” (“I traipsed down to the ice cream store with my friends to get a cone”), it put me off until I looked up the word and found it means “walk or move wearily or reluctantly.” Good to know! She still overuses the word, though. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/66 "2014-02-08T17:14:53Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Stephen King likes “noisome” and “tenebrous” a little too much. One thing I noticed is that sunlight never reflects or glints or shimmers off a surface in Stephen King books. It _heliographs_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/67 "2014-02-08T20:28:14Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > 1. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.” This is an excellent rule. But you don’t need to use “he said” every time a person speaks. In a conversation, you start leaving it out. For instance. “Hi,” he said. "Hello, " she said. “How are you?” “Fine.” He wondered what to say next. “Nice day.” “A bit too warm for me.” Carver gets away with it because readers just ignore speech tags. When it’s read, though, it really sticks out. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/68 "2014-02-08T20:46:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > “foetid” would be better, surely? Yes. Good catch! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/69 "2014-02-08T22:48:11Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > This is an excellent rule. But you don’t need to use “he said” every time a person speaks. In a conversation, you start leaving it out. Point taken. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/70 "2014-02-09T17:06:24Z")
Terry Pratchett is inordinately fond of “susurration”. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/71 "2014-02-09T17:09:47Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > Oooh. Vertiginous is a word I thought some author was overusing. Damnit but I can’t remember who it was. Now this is going to bug me. Several years ago, I read a book about someone who was considered the first transgendered person to openly live this way, and that word was overused for a bit, although the person was living in a Tibetan monastery at the time. Ann Rule uses “pellucid” a lot to describe the sky in the Seattle area. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/72 "2014-02-10T00:52:41Z")
Steve Martini (author of legal thrillers) almost never describes a character’s expression; instead, he just writes that the person “makes a face.” I always imagine the character crossing his eyes and sticking his tongue out. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/73 "2014-02-10T04:02:23Z")
Dean Koonz-crenellated & charnel. There’s others, like susseration, but can’t think of all of them now. I know they sent me to the dictionary the first time, but now they annoy me ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/74 "2014-02-11T18:30:05Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I will add to the Stephen King comments…when I was a kid, I noticed that he used ‘gaping maw’ an awful lot, and every color red was ‘crimson’. Good one. I’m currently re-reading _From a Buick 8_ and damn if that car doesn’t have a gaping maw. So far I’ve only read one book by Kate Atkinson (“Life After Life”)and while I do like her style quite a bit, I could do with much less “salubrious”. Also, seeing as the story takes place in England, perhaps “endroit” could be limited to the scenes that take place in Paris. Oh that’s right; there aren’t any. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/75 "2014-02-11T19:03:14Z")
Doors, orcs’ heads, backpacks full of hobbit food, and the like _burst asunder_ all the time in Tolkien. ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/76 "2014-02-12T04:11:20Z")
Diana Gabaldon’s characters often do things ‘with alacrity’. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/77 "2014-02-12T04:13:44Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > There’s always Lovecraft and “eldritch”. Don’t see “eldritch” used much anymore. Yeah. Too cyclopean. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/78 "2014-02-12T04:19:15Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > 1. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. > 2. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely. Can someone go back in time and give this rule to **all my writing teachers**? It tapered off by senior year of high school, but for a while we would get deductions if we ever used the word “said” when writing dialogue. It made the prose so damn purple it was edging on escaping the visible spectrum. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/79 "2014-02-12T04:26:41Z")
For my part, I nominate ‘analystic’. I think Donaldson made it up, actually. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/80 "2014-02-12T05:39:49Z")
I love Keith R.A. DeCandido’s Star Trek books, particularly the I.K.S. Gorkon series. But it is just plain ODD to hear the word “anyhow” come out of the mouth of a Klingon, much less every Klingon in the book. And what the hell kinda Klingon _ever_ says, let alone in the heat of battle, “It behooves me to be parsimonious with my [military] intelligence”? ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731/81 "2014-02-12T11:31:40Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Can someone go back in time and give this rule to **all my writing teachers**? It tapered off by senior year of high school, but for a while we would get deductions if we ever used the word “said” when writing dialogue. It made the prose so damn purple it was edging on escaping the visible spectrum. That’s how you end up with unintentional humor such as: _“They’re going to get us!” Spiffins ejaculated._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-and-the-unusual-words-they-like-to-overuse/680731.md?page=5)