# What is your threshold tolerance for unusual or oft repeated words in books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 28, 2023, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327 "2023-04-28T22:15:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 29, 2023, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/21 "2023-04-29T11:31:34Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > _The Catcher in the Rye_ is narrated by Holden and he’s a moron, so it rings true that his narration would have a limited vocabulary. I think I could have forgiven him his “goddamns” if only he had known how to spell “crummy.” Every time I encountered it, I had a momentary hiccup where I had to remind myself that he wasn’t saying “crumbly.” ---
**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:** [April 29, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/22 "2023-04-29T11:39:22Z")
And Steven R. Donaldson! I got so sick of the words _chthonic_ and _preternatural_ that by the third book I was rooting for Lord Foul. I simply refused to pick up the Second Chronicles. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/23 "2023-04-29T11:52:19Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Didn’t we just do this? Ha, when I saw this thread, I thought, didn’t I start a thread like this? I was going to look it up when I saw this post. Thanks for doing the homework for me, AHunter3! ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/24 "2023-04-29T11:59:49Z")
And _coruscating_… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/25 "2023-04-29T12:02:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > So it goes. Shout out to Kurt Vonnegut? I actually thing he makes it work. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/26 "2023-04-29T12:34:45Z")
I reread Foundation recently and I’m hard-pressed to think of a character that Asimov didn’t have sardonically smiling every couple of pages. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/27 "2023-04-29T13:21:30Z")
I’ve had Peter F. Hamilton’s work recommended to me many times, and I’ve tried to read Pandora’s Star a couple times, but in the opening chapter, he uses the word “sniggered” far too many times for me to get through. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2023, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/28 "2023-04-29T18:19:25Z")
Vonnegut used it in _Slaughterhouse-Five_ whenever someone died. A lot of people died in the book, appropriately since the book was about war and death, so the phrase appeared often. Using a mild phrase of acceptance to indicate the death of a character in a world where so many die that the sorrow is bleed from the action is probably the best literary device of all time. “So it goes” is not mere repetition; it is distilled brilliance. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/29 "2023-04-29T19:25:41Z")
Yes, Kurt Vonnegut repeated that phrase deliberately, and made it work. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/30 "2023-04-29T22:17:00Z")
On the flip side, Richard Adams in, “Watership Down,” didn’t repeat a plant name once and I think he named 200+ plants. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/31 "2023-04-29T22:38:22Z")
I tried to read “Watership Down” and thought it was gibberish. The movie was, however, in plain English, and very good. Tom Wolfe was also fond of the phrase “loamy loins”, in reference to hot young women. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/32 "2023-04-30T01:57:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Huh, it would have to be a weird weird repeated a whole lot for me to notice. ISWYDT ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/33 "2023-04-30T02:51:23Z")
Stan Lee was overly fond of the word “distaff” to describe female superheroes. If I ever met him face to face I was determined to ask him how the distaff member of his marriage was doing. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/34 "2023-04-30T03:01:42Z")
Well, in all fairness he’s not the only person to repeat stuff… > [@Authors with particular linguistic habits or tics, like often repeated or misused words or phrases](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-with-particular-linguistic-habits-or-tics-like-often-repeated-or-misused-words-or-phrases/973332/2): > > I used to notice this in comic books a lot. Some time in the early months of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee must have picked “distaff” (highfalutin adjective for “female”) as his word for the day. He used it all over the place for a few years. Another one I noticed was Man-Thing writer Steve Gerber’s over use of the exclamation, “Oh, spit!”. It’s a cute way to get around the comics code, but it’s such an odd phrase that it might serve as an individual character’s catch phrase, but how come everyb… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/35 "2023-04-30T03:17:08Z")
I’m going to need to be careful in my own writing to avoid certain phrases that I use when I’m speaking that my friends keep informing me are not phrases they hear from anyone else. Like “have ever”. I use that a lot. For example someone asks me “Do you put horseradish in any of your vegetables as a seasoning?” and I answer “Well, I _have ever_ put horseradish in my butternut squash, but it was awful so I never did that again”. My friends say nobody else has that speech pattern. They’d say "I _haven’t ever_ — where applicable — but not the other way around. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/36 "2023-04-30T13:01:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yes, Kurt Vonnegut repeated that phrase deliberately, and made it work. Which was exactly my point in using it. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/37 "2023-04-30T16:30:49Z")
Of late, I’ve been reading trashy bodice-rippers set in early 19th century England. One of the authors (don’t recall which one) LOVES the word _rusticate_. Also she, or one of the other authors, used the word _fisting_ to refer to grabbing a fistful of something - hair, silk, crinolines… I found that disturbing for a number of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/38 "2023-04-30T16:44:08Z")
For the use you’re describing, dictionaries define “ever” as “at _any_ time,” and the way you’re using the word (correct me if I’m wrong), the definition would be “at _some_ time” or “on one occasion.” ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/39 "2023-04-30T16:51:26Z")
I’m a fan of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series, but in the later books she’s guilty of unnecessarily repeating phrases. I had to grit my teeth to get to the end of _W is for Wasted_, where many times she described a particular character as “the good doctor”. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327/40 "2023-04-30T17:09:57Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > For the use you’re describing, dictionaries define “ever” as “at _any_ time,” and the way you’re using the word (correct me if I’m wrong), the definition would be “at _some_ time” or “on one occasion.” In this kind of construction, I’m not seeing a distinction. If I have ever done something, the doing of that thing took place within the range of all time. I considered whether, at any time, I had done that thing and replied in the affirmative, “yes, I have ever”. But whenever it was that it turns out that I did so, it was of course on a specific occasion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-threshold-tolerance-for-unusual-or-oft-repeated-words-in-books/983327.md?page=3)