# Authors with particular linguistic habits or tics, like often repeated or misused words or phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 16, 2022, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332 "2022-10-16T13:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/41 "2022-10-16T19:45:45Z")
There was a regency romance author that I enjoyed reading until I realized she had the same same anecdote word for word in nearly every book she wrote. It was about a person named Tom Collins inventing the first mixed drink. (Looking at wiki now, that happened well before the regency period, too) Nothing relevant to the story, just here’s some trivia I like. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/42 "2022-10-16T19:50:00Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Huh. I’ve never heard of “blow-by”. I have heard of “by-blow”. I suspect Mr. Asher is committing malapropism, as “blow-by” means No, I just remembered it wrong. It is a term that I have probably never seen outside of his books. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/43 "2022-10-16T19:51:53Z")
Ann Rule liked the words “ebullient” and “pellucid.” Her daughter wrote a very good true crime book a few years ago, and while she copied her mother’s writing style quite well, the book did not contain either word. Yeah, I BOLO’ed for them. > **[A Tangled Web: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to...](https://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Web-Cyberstalker-Obsession-Twisting/dp/0806539984)** > > A Tangled Web: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to Justice. \[Rule, Leslie\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. A Tangled Web: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to Justice. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/44 "2022-10-16T20:13:08Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Morgyn](#): > > > > Huh. I’ve never heard of “blow-by”. I have heard of “by-blow”. I suspect Mr. Asher is committing malapropism, as “blow-by” means > > No, I just remembered it wrong. It is a term that I have probably never seen outside of his books. Just did a word search and “by-blow” is used 29 times in his books. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/45 "2022-10-16T22:00:24Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > So he uses “myriad” myriad times? Actually just once or twice in every book. But once I noticed it (I tend to notice “myriad” because I prefer “myriad” to “a myriad of”), it came up in EVERY book. And I probably read 10 of his novels. Seemed an odd practice. I wonder if he - or his editor - is aware of it. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/46 "2022-10-16T23:16:35Z")
> [@Tell us something you hate about an author you love.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-something-you-hate-about-an-author-you-love/680167/50): > > like a tongue that keeps going back to a broken tooth, Nice phrase! I know King has used that one more than once. Too many of his books have extended chase scenes. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/47 "2022-10-16T23:56:08Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > I recall Stephen R. Donaldson having a few words that I never remembered encountering anywhere else but that he liked to use the hell out of, like “puissance” and “brisance.” > > I was so grateful to get Donaldson’s works on my Kindle, so I could just touch the word to get the definition. Reading his stuff was an exercise in expanding my vocabulary, albeit enjoyable. “Chiaroscuro” sent me to the dictionary. Sometimes it seemed like he was writing as if to say hey, look how big my vocabulary is, but I have been accused of that as well. The boss chewed me out once for using “exacerbated” in a production report – it just seemed like the right word to use, and it never occurred to me that it would be too obscure. I was reading Shackleton’s South, developing a keen grasp of all the different ways to describe ice, and it was a particularly clean and easy read until I was halfway across Antarctica, where lay “sastrugi” and “finneskoe”, words that I was entirely unequipped to suss from context. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/48 "2022-10-17T00:04:34Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > The boss chewed me out once for using “exacerbated” in a production report Well, Shaun is no help: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Hj_dbS3PEH0/maxresdefault.jpg "Shaun Of The Dead - opening pub scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj_dbS3PEH0&t=52) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/49 "2022-10-17T00:48:19Z")
> [@solost](#): > > It also reminded me of how Dean Koontz, the poor man’s Stephen King, constantly uses the word “crepuscular” instead of just saying “dark”. Koontz had lots of literary tics. One book I recall he was really infatuated with the word _preternatural_ and its variants, using it more than several times. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/50 "2022-10-17T01:57:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I recall Stephen R. Donaldson having a few words that I never remembered encountering anywhere else but that he liked to use the hell out of, like “puissance” and “brisance.” I opened this thread to mention his use of “limned”. _SO_ many times a character was _limned with a verdant eldritch corona._ . > [@LSLGuy](#): > > But if several characters, or worse yet the omniscient narrator, is using that phrase repeatedly, yeah… I keep thinking “Hey, aren’t there grammar checkers that could flag an author’s tenth use of the same adjective or phrase?” . > [@Stanislaus](#): > > Reacher said nothing. THIS! We should have a “When does your guilty pleasure let you down?” thread. I just downloaded a Reacher book and he’s getting grilled by a local sheriff, and later by the standard Mysterious Tough-But-Broken Woman. And after each question, or just an ordinary sentence, I had to listen to “Reacher said nothing.” Maybe forty times… And it was an audiobook, so I couldn’t just skim past that phrase; I had to listen to it. Each.Time. Until Reacher’s nothing was really something. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/51 "2022-10-17T01:58:30Z")
_Crepuscular_ always reminds me of an Italian edition of Wagner I encountered that included the title, _Il crepusculo degli dei_. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/52 "2022-10-17T02:33:24Z")
I think of Thelonius Monk’s “Crepuscle With Nellie”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/53 "2022-10-17T02:38:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I recall Stephen R. Donaldson having a few words that I never remembered encountering anywhere else but that he liked to use the hell out of, like “puissance” and “brisance.” And “roynish.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/54 "2022-10-17T02:57:16Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I keep thinking “Hey, aren’t there grammar checkers that could flag an author’s tenth use of the same adjective or phrase?” Not a grammar checker, but the simple find command in Word. Whenever I feel like I’ve used a word too often I search for it. If it’s overused I rewrite. Most words can be reused, of course. Most words are invisible. How many times has the word “word” been used in this thread? Yet good writers develop a feel for word use and learn to distinguish between invisible words and those that protrude sufficiently to trip up a reader. Sometimes even good writers get it wrong, as seen above. Caveat: Note that almost everybody mentioned is merely a popular writer, not a literary giant. Literary giants have to be above hackwork; it’s part of the contract. Oscar Wilde once put down a boor who thought he didn’t work hard by saying “This morning, I took out a comma, and this afternoon—I put it in again.” And before you check me on that, [he said something similar that’s gotten simplified over the years](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/10/25/comma/). All hail the Quote Investigator. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/55 "2022-10-17T03:01:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It may have been overused, but “crepuscular” does not mean “dark.” Its specific meaning is “at dawn or at dusk”. > Originally posted by E.B. White > > “Pop,” said Sam, “What does ‘crepuscular’ mean?..It says here that a rabbit is a crepuscular animal.” > > “Probably means timid,” said Mr. Beaver. “Or maybe it means that it can run like the dickens. Or maybe it means stupid. A rabbit will sit right in the middle of the road at night and stare into your headlights and never get out of the way, and that’s how a lot of rabbits get run over. They’re stupid.” Or they’re blinded by those headlights, genius. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/56 "2022-10-17T03:08:02Z")
Apparently E.L. James (_50 Shades_ series and other bad romance fiction) really loves the word “murmured,” to the point that people who read it to riff on it wind up thinking of her every time they see that word in other works. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/57 "2022-10-17T03:10:47Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Louis Lamour would say things twice. “He liked to keep his coffee hot. Squinting into the desert sunlight, he place the pot on the fire to keep his coffee hot” from The Haunted Mesa comes to mind. There’s also, whenever a woman served a man a cup of coffee, she’d apologize that she could only offer honey to sweeten it. If he was a protagonist, he’d always respond that he preferred his coffee with honey. I haven’t read any Louis L’Amour villains who preferred honey in their coffee (otoh, I can’t remember a lady character in a LL book offering coffee to a villain). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/58 "2022-10-17T03:18:11Z")
> [@solost](#): > > It’s like a bit of writing advice I heard or read somewhere— new writers sometimes try to get creative with their dialog, and instead of using the word “said” after a line of dialog, they say “…he uttered” or “…she exclaimed”. The advice was that even though that’s not wrong grammatically, it tends to take the reader out of the story flow, so just use “said”, which is more or less invisible to the reader. Jim Theis could have profited from that advice, although I venture to speculate that doing so would have made _The Eye of Argon_ a teensy bit less entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/59 "2022-10-17T03:21:30Z")
Re 50 shades, there’s this: [https://me.me/i/semicoloncommaperiod-so-tried-to-read-50-shades-of-grey-this-10282035](https://me.me/i/semicoloncommaperiod-so-tried-to-read-50-shades-of-grey-this-10282035) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/60 "2022-10-17T03:22:59Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I recall Stephen R. Donaldson having a few words that I never remembered encountering anywhere else but that he liked to use the hell out of, like “puissance” and “brisance.” He turned me off from the words “chthonic” and “preternatural” for life (not that I was particularly likely to use or encounter either one often enough to make a difference). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332.md?page=4)