It seems like every mystery book I read contains each of these words exactly once:
tumbled - When …, I tumbled onto his scheme …
twigged - I twigged what was up and …
shrugged - She shrugged off [or shrugged on] her coat
None of those are current expressions in real life or in other fiction books I read.
I just have wonder where that comes from. I suppose they just think it’s required, but it sounds like they are parodying Sam Spade or The Thin Man movies.
Have you run into other such cliché words that seem out of time or place?
“Twigged” is a fairly common slang term in British English. It’s possible that the only place that you’ve come across it is in British mystery novels. “Tumbled to” (but not just “tumbled”) is also a fairly common British slang term. Both “twigged” and “tumbled to” mean “catch on to (a fact)” or “suddenly understand (a fact).” I don’t know why you’re seeing “shrugged off” only in mystery novels. It’s not a British expression, so it’s not like “twigged” and “tumbled to.” I’ve never seen anyone use the expression “shrugged on.” Are you quite certain you’ve seen it somewhere?
<shrugs after she stumbles onto thread and reads it>
For me, it depends on if I’m reading Brit fic or not. I do tend to notice Brit expressions more, because they are not as familiar to me. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any right now…
I don’t think that those posited in the OP are all that rare, though. Even reading contemporary British mysteries, I don’t see these as cliches.
As long as he doesn’t put a fag in his mouth, I can follow it pretty well. Then I start to get confused. Then some frail asks the dick to knock her up, and I become totally lost.
In one of Sue Grafton’s books (can’t remember which one), she had Kinsey ‘snag’ her bag more than a dozen times in the story. I can’t say I’ve ever seen it used anywhere else. I understand it’s mean but it definitely became a cliche within that particular book.
“While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag, smile, boys, that’s the style…”
But to the OP: twigged I’ll use in everyday speech… shrugged possibly… tumbled, maybe not. But then Kiwi English borrows a lot of British uses (at least for us older folk)… the youngsters are probably more US influenced.
Raymond Chandler* The Big Sleep *
He likes the word shrug, used it ten times, mostly just the gesture.
p.16
The butler came along the red path with smooth light steps and his back as straight as an ironing
board. I shrugged into my coat and watched him come.
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: a centennial celebration By Raymond Chandler, Byron Preiss
This collection of short stories has:
“Merry Christmas,” he said and jingled the bell clapper again, in case I hadn’t tumbled.
I found twigged in Agatha Christie’s first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles p.117
“Tuppence? I was afraid she might get a bit rattled. Did she go to the police?”
Mr. Carter shook his head.
“Then I wonder how they twigged me.”
Although she didn’t seem to use it again (per Google book search), being in her first book
undoubtedly makes it “sound like a mystery term” to mystery writers.
“Twigged” and “tumbled to” are most certainly British expressions. They’re listed in British English A to Zed by Norman W. Schur and Eugene Ehrlich, the standard dictionary of British expressions for Americans. I also know from having lived in England that they are common there, whereas I’ve never heard them used in the U.S. Raymond Chandler lived in the U.K. between the ages of 7 and 24.
What’s the origin of “then the penny dropped”? I’ve only heard this in British shows, and I can’t make out why a penny dropping is metaphorical for having a realization.
According to Schur and Ehrlich, “then the penny dropped” is also a British English expression. It comes from a penny being dropped into a vending machine, back in the day when some things could be bought for only a penny.
