# Mystery genre cliché words **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911 "2009-09-13T14:46:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/1 "2009-09-13T14:46:17Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/2 "2009-09-13T16:08:01Z")
“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? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/3 "2009-09-13T16:18:11Z")
\ 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. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/4 "2009-09-14T02:00:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/5 "2009-09-14T02:31:30Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > 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. Just wait until he pats her on the fanny. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/6 "2009-09-14T02:36:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/7 "2009-09-14T02:59:23Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > As long as he doesn’t put a fag in his mouth, I can follow it pretty well. _“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. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/8 "2009-09-14T03:45:07Z")
Sorry, but I’m one over the eight, so Bob’s your uncle…TRM (Agatha Christie fan) ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@Brainiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/9 "2009-09-14T18:16:14Z")
Those aren’t British expressions at all. They do tend to appear in mystery fiction, especially the loner detective type. I think they were popularized by Raymond Chandler. Sue Grafton’s A Is For Alibi series has the snag purse thing and the others. I remember the shrug thing with her. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@Brainiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/10 "2009-09-14T19:45:37Z")
I found two of them. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@Brainiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/11 "2009-09-14T21:21:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/12 "2009-09-15T00:49:33Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/13 "2009-09-15T01:05:21Z")
“Meddling” As in “And I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.” ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/14 "2009-09-15T01:42:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/15 "2009-09-15T01:58:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/16 "2009-09-15T04:07:14Z")
> [@Brainiac](#): > > Sue Grafton’s A Is For Alibi series has the snag purse thing and the others. I remember the shrug thing with her. You’re probably right. She seems to have fads in words and I can well imagine Kinsey ‘shrugging’ on a jacket or coat. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/17 "2009-09-15T04:08:29Z")
I thought it came from the days when pennies were used in public phones. When the penny dropped, the connection was made. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/18 "2009-09-15T04:09:36Z")
Ooops, my reply above was obviously to #14 and #15. ---
**Author:** ![hobscrk777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@hobscrk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hobscrk777)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/19 "2009-09-15T12:31:59Z")
“Jinkies!” “Zoiks!” Wrong thread? ---
**Author:** ![hobscrk777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@hobscrk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hobscrk777)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911/20 "2009-09-15T12:34:41Z")
“Jinkies!” “Zoiks!” Wrong thread? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-genre-cliche-words/509911.md?page=2)