I’m currently reading The Duke and I and the author is constantly using the word “acerbic”. I had never heard of the word before now and had to google the definition. The word has shown up so much that I’m tempted to go through the book and count its appearances lol.
Have you noticed any authors having favorite words that they use page after page?
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In The Great Gatsby I got so annoyed I started a tally on the back page of the book every time Gatsby says “old sport.” It totalled to 40, plus a bonus two from Tom.
I think this is a little different because it’s part of the character and done on purpose. It wasn’t like Fitzgerald was obsessed with calling people old sport and had everyone call each other that like he was trying to make fetch happen.
Recently read “Something New Under the Sun” by Alexandra Kleeman- it’s amazing BTW- and I swear she used the word indelible 15 times. I read her short story collection Intimations right afterward and kept my eyes peeled for any instances of the word, but it didn’t make an appearance lol.
Shoutout to Tolkien for having his characters spring back a lot!
I write for fun and I have a vocabulary list of words I enjoy coming across while reading. I bet others do something similar.
Arthur Conan Doyle uses ejaculated in a way that will seem odd to modern audiences.
I’m reading the Pretty Little Liars series (I know, I’m 12 years late to the party) but Sara Shepard LOVES to use the word writhing when describing people dancing. “There were bodies writhing all over the dance floor”. I just find it so hilarious. She says it EVERY time someone’s dancing, which is surprisingly a lot throughout the books
Breasts - pick an author.
Lovecraft. Eldritch.
Reading a Warhammer book ATM and the author uses the word ochre like every other paragraph.
Pneumatic. Forgot the dude’s name but I think we all know who it is.
Penultimate. So annoying
Dostoevsky and magnanimous but that could just be the translation
Mark Dawson used the word “scree” in a book. I had to look it up as I’d never heard it before. He then used it over and over in the same scene until it grated on me. I don’t know if it’s a more British term, since he’s British, but I was to the point of thinking, mix it up some with rocks, gravel, whatever! Other than that that, I like his books.
Bro, you haven’t read Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Try it. It’s not just a word.