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Do you ever notice an author using a word over and over again? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by PastaConsumer@alien.top to c/books@metacritics.zone

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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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[–] TheStoryTruthMine@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

As in "acerbic wit"?

And yes, some words stand out. In several of his books including the Imager series, the Corean Chronicles, and his latest Councillor series, LE Modesitt Jr uses the word "eased" a lot.

When I first noticed it, he was doing it in the context of a horse being ridden. Eg. "Alucius eased the gray around the quarasote." It felt pretty natural to me. When I read his latest series and the same thing was used to describe a steam powered car being driven, it caught my attention. And then on a re-read of Imager, I noticed it was being applied to people's movement too.

Obviously, I don't have that big of a problem with it since I keep reading his books.