Names, not words, but Michael Crichton puts a token Levine in nearly every book. Errm…in enough books to irk me.
Now if the Levines were a badass family like the Shaftoes or the Waterhouses, I could understand. But these guys were all irritating minor characters.
“preternatural” Anne Rice. It’s ridiculous!
It’s not egregious, but I’ve started to notice ‘consider’ in Larry Niven, especially used as an imperative before a character starts explaining a line of logic. (Usually to someone of a different species.) Once you’re aware of it, it’s a speech pattern that gets old quick.
While I’d hardly call it “overuse,” but Edgar Rice Burroughs had some favorite phrases that are not common nowadays:
Vouchsafe: People did a lof of vouchsafing in his stories, much more than in stories by other authors.
Must needs: (“must out of necessity”) People “must needs” stuff all the time.
No mean: (“above average”) Lots of opponents were no mean swordsmen.
You forgot: “eldritch” 
I mentioned this one in this thread from a month ago, but in her book Hellspark, author Janet Kagan seriously overuses the word “serendipity”.
In that thread, winterhawk11 calls this fondness for overusing some oddball word “Niffleheim syndrome”.
I’m surprised that someone called thelurkinghorror only came up with two. In addition to Otakuloki’s “eldritch”, there’s
**Squamous
Nauseous
Batrachian
Labyrinthine
** and a host of others. But especially Batrachian.
Shit, not only do their stomachs twist, their sardonic stomachs twist sardonically.
-Joe
Yeah, I forgot eldritch. I don’t remember those other ones much, it’s honestly been awhile since I’ve read him.
I would also like to add ichor, which I recall came up a bit.
And gibbous. The moon is always gibbous.
Does anyone remember reading Gaiman’s short story, Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar? I think it was in Smoke and Mirrors. It was something of a send-up of Lovecraft and it played with some of the words he used.
Don’t forget “anile”, “argent”, and “verdant”. Without those, you don’t have a complete set.
Yeah. that was funny: it was done in a Pete and Dud style, with them complaining about being called “batrachian”. Neil Gaiman also picked out a great sentence from Stephen Donaldson: “They were featureless and telic, like lambent gangrene. They looked horribly like children.”
Oh, and Angela Carter for ineffable, inchoate, porphyry and lapis lazuli: reading Angela Carter is like being beaten to death with a box of Turkish Delights.
I don’t know that it necessarily counts as overuse, but in every P.D. James novel I’ve ever read, there is some form of susurration, whether it be the wind susurrating through long grass, or the faint susurration of the sea in the distance. It amuses me to find the word in each novel of hers; it’s almost become a little bit of a (sad and pathetic) game for me. It is a great word, though.
Haven’t read Lovecraft, but I always thought of “inchoate” and “coruscating” as very Lovecraftian words, as well.
Re: Rand, I think of her over-used word as “Brusque/ly”.
As in, the inchoate, eldritch labryrinth coruscated brusquely.
ETA: a quick Google tells me he did use both at least once: possibly the “inchoate” several times!
Really? Must say I never noticed this, and the Song of Ice and Fire is one of my favorite fantasy series. Anyway, just imagine taking like clay (or play-doh, hehe) and making a nose, and then pinching it, that’s the general feel. It’s kinda squished together.
as for the boiled leather thing… what, you don’t wear boiled leather?!
I have no cite, but I remember hearing that Piper’s editors told him to remove shocking words like “hell” from his “kids book”. So he substituted “Niffleheim”, among other bowlderizations. I think the reprints had the real words - nothing you won’t hear in a Disney movie these days between fart jokes. 
I’m “astonished” that you could come up with such a “florid” example. Rice is a very good plot writer, but her prose is purple.
We seem to be going with a speculative fiction theme, but I have one that I just discovered this week. My grandmother lent me 4 books written by Todd Borg, the Owen McKenna ‘Tahoe’ mysteries. First of all, he incessantly uses the street names when Owen drives anywhere around the lake (probably because he is a local to Tahoe writer). Secondly, nobody just drinks beer or wine. They exclusively drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Or a Pinot Grigio or Pinot Noir or Zinfandel from Such-and-such a vineyard. It sounds like he has corporate sponsors! Once per book I could understand, to establish that they drink poshish beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), but every time they drink (a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) or offer a guest refreshment (Would you like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?)? Four times per book? Gahhh!
(Thirdly, Hi Opal.)
This is more of a fanfic complaint than anything else, but what happened to using good old fashioned colors like red, blue, and yellow? No, everything has to be crimson, cerulean, or amber. All the time, too!
It’s NOT poetic to say that something is “alazarin” if you use it every chance you have! :mad: