# Specific writers who overuse certain words **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944 "2008-10-14T20:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/81 "2012-10-07T04:52:37Z")
Regarding the OP’s example of “incongruously:” I came to this thread to mention the very same word, or a variation thereof, in _The Poseidon Adventure._ (The author’s name escapes me at the moment.) ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/82 "2012-10-07T10:12:04Z")
Neal Stephenson uses the word “Nippon” far too much. It would be OK if he was consistent and called, for example, Germany “Deutschland”, but he doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/83 "2012-10-11T04:47:43Z")
Another Trollope favourite: “cross-questioned”. Many people say something like “I do not choose to be cross-questioned on such a subject”, etc. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/84 "2012-10-11T11:29:47Z")
Jorge Luis Borges is associated with the word “vertiginous,” but he doesn’t _overuse_ it. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/85 "2012-10-11T14:33:21Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Stephen R. Donaldson is the poster child for this thread. Vitriol, carious, febrile, etoliated, there are more but I forgot - somebody gave him a thesaurus for Christmas one year or something. “Excoriate” is my one vocab take-away from his series. ---
**Author:** ![Nuveena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@Nuveena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuveena)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/86 "2012-10-11T16:50:33Z")
> [@Rollo\_Tomasi](#): > > This reminds me of the use of brand names in **The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo** (and possibly the sequels, but I hated the first one, so I stopped reading), especially with the computers. Was Stieg Larsson getting kickbacks from Apple or something? MacBooks are described in loving, gushing detail. I’ve heard wonderful parents talk about their wonderful children in less glowing terms. And this reminds me of the really jarring product placement in Cross by James Patterson. This is Alex Cross going with his family to buy a new car. [QUOTE=Cross] So we stopped at the Mercedes dealer…Jannie and Damon ogled a silver CLK500 Cabriolet convertible, while Ali and I tested out the spacious front seat of an R350. I was thinking family car — safety, beauty, resale value. _Intellect and emotion_. [/QUOTE] And this is him driving the car later. [QUOTE=Cross] I liked the vehicle’s zip and also the dual-dash zone climate control, which would keep everybody happy, even Nana Mama. [/QUOTE] I think this is when I finally gave up on the Alex Cross series. ---
**Author:** ![Nuveena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@Nuveena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuveena)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/87 "2012-10-11T17:31:47Z")
For overused words, I’m going to go with Fifty Shades of Gray. Besides her subconscious peering at her disapprovingly and her “inner goddess” doing various gymnastics and ice skating moves throughout the series (don’t judge me), there’s “crap.” Crap, oh crap, holy crap, double crap, triple crap. She says crap 163 times in the whole series (I said, don’t judge me!) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/88 "2012-10-11T17:52:03Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Every suit of armor in George R. R. Martin’s universe is “lobstered.” . . . I’ve been listening to the audiobooks and, to be fair, it’s mostly the armored gloves. And when you’re wearing armored gloves, the lobstered kind give a lot more protections even though they’re a lot more expensive than the ones with studs or fixed plates. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/89 "2012-10-11T22:55:51Z")
I’m an author, and “suddenly” is in practically every story I write. Suddenly, I realized I had to post this. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/90 "2012-10-12T19:32:50Z")
Kenneth Robeson, “piano wire chest.” I don’t think he ever used it more than once in a novel, but it sure feels like he never used it _less than_ once per-. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/91 "2012-10-12T19:58:18Z")
Shelby Foote uses “However” a lot to begin sentences in his **The Civil War: A Narrative** , though I may have noticed it because I was taking a class from someone with a bugaboo agains the (perfectly fine) usage and was more alert for it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/92 "2012-10-15T15:39:14Z")
Another Anthony Trollope special: exigeant. Just an alternate spelling of exigent, I guess, but it jumps off the page whenever it shows up. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/93 "2012-10-15T15:47:10Z")
The opposite is Tom Swifting the writing with ridiculous variation of ways to modify the phrase ‘Tom said’. Repition would need to be pretty frequent to bother me. ---
**Author:** ![Mattie\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@Mattie\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mattie_Blue)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/94 "2012-10-15T17:16:21Z")
More Dean Koontz. I really enjoyed his earlier stuff like “Lightning”, “Watchers” and even “Intensity”. However, according to him, there are no simple parking lots or roads. Just acres of “macadam” that glisten from the rain under thousands of “sodium vapor lights”. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/95 "2012-10-15T18:05:03Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Stephen Crane repeatedly used the word “ejaculated” as a synonym for “said.” It was giggle-inducing at first, and later got annoying. Ejaculated is NOT a synonym for “said.” It’s a synonym for “exclaimed.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944.md?page=4)