History Main / AuthorVocabularyCalendar

** Creator/JKRowling is probably the last writer in the English language to use "[[HaveAGayOldTime ejaculated]]" as an innocuous [[SaidBookism synonym for "said"]]. She only did it a couple times, but it was memorable enough that the fandom has [[MemeticMutation taken the mickey out of it ever since]]. (She also uses "ejaculated" in ''Literature/TheSilkworm'', the second novel in her [[Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels Cormoran Strike]] series.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs describes Literature/{{Tarzan}} as having a "smooth brown hide" a lot. He also has a fondness for the word “spoor” when describing animal scents.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs says describes Literature/{{Tarzan}} as having a "smooth brown hide" a lot.

** "[[CatchPhrase Right on!]]" (6 times)

* [[CatchPhrase ACTUAL QUOTE TIME]] ''"I try to use at least one obscure word or neologism for every ten or so "fuck"'s. Keeps me intellectually honest."'' - '''Bryan Lambert''', ''[[http://www.youaredumb.net/ You Are Dumb]]''

* Worlds in the ''Franchise/{{Myst}}'' games are often named using using obscure but descriptive words like Selenitic ("resembling the moon", or "made of gypsum"), Rime ("a layer of ice formed when fog freezes"), or VideoGame/Riven ("split into multiple parts") - Myst itself is named for the root of "mystic" and "mystery". Later games named worlds in the [[{{Conlang}} invented language of the D'ni]], but the practice would be revived in the series' spiritual successors ''VideoGame/{{Obduction}}'' ("the act of pulling a cover over something") and ''VideoGame/{{Firmament}}'' ("a strong support, foundation, or structure", or "the heavens, portrayed as divine architecture in religious poetry").

* The developers of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' / ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' really, REALLY like the word "azure" as a synonym for blue, often in reference to the Blue Dragonflight.
** ''Mists of Pandaria's'' writers seem to be really interested in using "nutriment" as often as possible.
* ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' was localized by long-time ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' translator Alexander O. Smith. How can you tell? He is pretty much the only game translator active today that uses the word "moreover" more than once per script.

* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'''s devs seemed to have something for the term "outskirts". Also present, though less so, in the sequel.

** Eminem's habit of making celebrity {{Take That}}s is, by WordOfGod, because he just disses anyone whose name rhymes with something funny. This eventually led to a running joke of Slim's [[SitcomArchNemesis beef with]] "[[Creator/ChristopherReeve Christopher]] [[MaliciousMisnaming Reeves]]", in which Slim often pleads with the [[UnacceptableTargets furious audience]] that it's not ''his'' fault Christopher's name rhymes with everything.

* The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series contains many of these, which is understandable since Creator/StephenieMeyer is an English major and her narrator strives to seem sophisticated. Stephenie Meyer's favorite words are "Adonis," "incredulous" and "chuckle." Seriously, characters sometimes "chuckle" (insert adverb here) several times on a single page.

* The self-published "tribute novel"-slash-sequel to ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' book ''Breaking Dawn'' got the unfortunate title ''Russet Noon''. Russet is a PerfectlyCromulentWord, but since it's most commonly associated with a breed of potatoes (or apples in the UK), this became a source of great mocking.

* Creator/HPLovecraft had a reputation for this. Word associated with him include: "cyclopean" (though that does refer to a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopean_masonry specific type of architecture]]), "eldritch", "gambrel" (used to describe a two-sided roof with two slopes on each side), "squamous" (scaly), "rugose" (ridged), "gibbous" (humped), "chthonic" (subterranean), "charnel" (relating to interned bodies), "non-Euclidean", "Paleogean", "ululation" (a drawn-out, high-pitched, warbling moan or howl), and "demoniac", though how much he actually used such words [[http://cthulhuchick.com/wordcount-lovecraft-favorite-words/ is exaggerated]]. Lovecraft was also attached to the noun "vigintillion," which appears in both "Literature/TheDunwichHorror" and "The Call of Cthulhu", and means either 10^63 or 10^120.

* Creator/TimothyZahn likes to refer to conversations as " 'words' Character said to ''the other''".

[[folder:Film]]

%%* The climax of the Oscar-nominated Israeli film ''Footnote'' is built around this trope.

* In a fan translation of ''Manga/TheGuySheWasInterestedInWasntAGuyAtAll'', Mitsuki, a music lover who seems to be of average intelligence, describes her uncle's record store as "moribund" in Chapter 15.

* The authors of ''FanFic/UndocumentedFeatures'' are overly fond of the word "sardonic", which they seem to use to describe every third facial expression.
* Several characters in the Literature/TheLordOfTheRings fanfic ''FanFic/TheCaptainAndTheKing'' are extremely concerned about Gondor's "weal."
* ''[[FanficRecs/{{Warhammer40000}} Rise Of The Tau]]'' uses the various tenses of "thunder" and "coruscate" way too much. One sentence even had 'two' occurrences of "thundered" in it.

* The English translation of ''FanFic/KnightOfLolicon'' ''really'' likes the word "fulminating". Possibly {{Justified| Trope}} in that the translation, while readable, is mediocre at best, so it may sound more natural in the original Spanish.
* Parodied in the ''Manga/DeathNote'' fic ''FanFic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'':

* Almost every time the sky comes up in ''FanFic/FrigidWindsAndBurningHearts'', it's described with the word "welkin".
* Possible example in ''Super FanFic/PaperMarioX'': Child found the word "rigmarole" hilarious and she got Link to bring it up without making it seem awkward.

--> '''Foxy Glove:''' So what hassle or ripoff has brought you into the gritty inner city, my main man?

-->'''Bruce:''' ''[grinning]'' Meeeeow, girl! Most kitties have sandpaper tongues, but can’t say I ever met one with a mouth full of fishhooks before. You’re a true cat mutation, for sure. A regular… a regular… um, a regular "anemone," gotta say.
-->'''Wayne:''' ''[laughing]'' What? I see whiskers on her face, not tentacles! You mean "homily," don’t you?
-->'''Petey:''' ''[shaking his head]'' Always thinking about food, aren’t you? That’s "hominy."
-->'''Alastair:''' ''[groaning]'' Geez! If you’re gonna use that word-a-day calendar your human has on his writing desk, you might wanna at least, you know, get it right? I’m pretty sure you meant "anomaly."

* Creator/StephenDonaldson, as a Doctor of English, uses some pretty arcane words frequently. The narrator's use of "argent" and "lambent" come to mind. It might be possible to identify a specific year of a specific Word-of-the-Day Calendar with each of Donaldson's books. Good-naturedly covered at ''[[http://www.gdiproductions.net/srdamd/ Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary.]]'' Notoriously, at one point in ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' he describes some creatures as being "featureless and telic, like lambent gangrene."

* Given Music/BadReligion [[SignatureStyle runs on]] SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, just about every song of theirs. An example from the album ''Suffer'':
--> I heard them say that the meek shall reign on earth\\
'''Phantasmal myriads''' of sane '''bucolic''' birth
--> I see the rapture in a starving baby's eyes
--> '''Inchoate beatitude''', the lord of the flies

* Depending on the translation, [[Literature/TheBible St. Mark's]] favorite word is "immediately." The Greek is "εὐθύς" or "εὐθέως" (euthys/eutheos) which appear over forty times in a work roughly the length of a modern short story.

* TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons

** Creator/DavidEddings had an obscurely peculiar fascination with the words "obscure," "peculiar," and "fascination." Also "prosaic", and don't even get me started on how many times a character will say something "blandly".

* Creator/HarryTurtledove
** ''Literature/{{Timeline 191}}'' does this with a made-up word ("flabble", roughly synonymous with "whine") that was eventually invented and popularized in the alternate America of the series.

* Terry Brooks loves to use "dissemble" for lie in the Literature/{{Shannara}} series.

* As an Oxford-trained English professor and lifelong philologist, Creator/JRRTolkien had an exceptionally strong command of the English language, and his use of words like ''fulminate'', ''habergeon'', ''confusticate'' and ''puissant'' certainly help establish the grandness (and comedy) of his masterpieces, ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. This kind of language shows up just as much in the texts that became ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', and in ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth The Lost Tales]]'' and ''Lays of Beleriand''; [[AntiquatedLinguistics it gets so archaic]] that the editor provided an anachronistic-and-obscure-English-words glossary for each volume. In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Tolkien uses “doom” to mean “destiny” all the frickin' time.
* Creator/RobinHobb uses the word "fellow" a LOT in the ''Literature/TawnyMan'' Trilogy. With different meanings.

* Creator/ChinaMieville uses the word "concatenate" and variants on the word often in ''Literature/IronCouncil''. It only comes up a few times, but it's an unusual word, so it stands out. There's also his frequent use of "puissant". His entire brain appears to be an Author Vocabulary Calendar, to the extent that it requires a large dictionary to tell which words are obscure technical terms, which ones are Anglicisms, and which ones he has invented. If there aren't a dozen five-dollar words on the page, you're probably looking at the title page.

** Creator/CharlesStross mocked this in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'', where "squamous and rugose" is apparently a RunningGag in the house Bob Howard shares with Pinky and the Brain.
** Also referenced in the ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'' card game, where the words are Monster Enhancement cards, featuring a creature described by the card's adjective and a munchkin looking the word up in a dictionary.

** It comes up within ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' as well. Turnips and the use of "jape" (occasionally "jest") instead of "joke" stands out. It's not always clear whether they are deliberate attempts to get a more old-fashioned feeling for his medieval-esque world, or this trope.
** "Half a hundred" is clearly his favorite number, "half a heartbeat" his favorite length of time, and "half a groat" his favorite amount of money. (It starts out with "in a heartbeat" simply being overused; then "in/for half a heartbeat" is introduced and takes over in a big way. By ''A Dance with Dragons'' time is being measured in integers-greater-than-one of heartbeats.) He also uses "raper" instead of "rapist" for some reason,[[labelnote:note]]It seems to be an attempt to get a more Anglo-Saxon style to his prose, which he demonstrates with terminology, such as "holdfast" instead of "fortress" and "words" rather than "motto".[[/labelnote]] and "craven" as a noun much more often than "coward." Vomiting is only ever "retching" (which is confusing, since that usually means to gag without actually puking).
** In ''A Dance with Dragons'' the word 'leal' for 'loyal' seemed to be on every other page.
** A ridiculous situation is always a "mummers' farce." Actors and non-musical performers are only called "mummers."

** He also likes to use the phrase "must needs" instead of just must or need.

** And, of course, his love of switching around the words of phrases to make them more obtuse and sound fanciful. No one is "twenty one" years old, they are one and twenty. There aren't 45 somethings, there are five and forty. You're not a grown man, you're a man grown. And so on.
*** However, the switched around number thing isn't just made up--it was actually done frequently in older English, and is still a feature retained in modern day German.[[note]]''Zweiundzwanzig'', literally "two and twenty" is the standard way of saying twenty-two, and so on.[[/note]]
** In Literature/ADanceWithDragons, the phrase "Ramsay in his wroth" is used frequently in the Reek/Theon chapters. Actually quite funny since "wroth" is being used to replace "wrath" and "wroth" means "angry" rather than "anger."

* There used to be a sample from some unknown fanfic from before May 2010 -- not the legendary ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon''; this one is even worse -- being circulated and mocked on the Net which had prose so purple that it was practically unreadable; unfortunately, all the pages containing it seem to have disappeared. To give an inkling of what it was like: it referred to someone's eyes with the word "syndicates:" "syndicate" -> "circle" -> "orb" -> "eye."

* ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon''. Nobody ever talks, they ejaculate, eyes are always referred as orbs or something, and there's one mention of a person having a "lithe, opaque nose". Especially special is "posterior," as in "Descending the flight of arced granite slabs to their posterior," because it's obvious that Jim Theis looked up the wrong sense of the word "bottom" in a thesaurus.

* Creator/AlanDeanFoster with book names such as "Phylogenesis".
** Go through Foster's novelization of ''Franchise/StarWars'' some time (the byline says "Creator/GeorgeLucas", but Foster wrote it). Count the number of times gauges -- or something else, but usually gauges -- whine in protest.
* StephenDonaldson, as a Doctor of English, uses some pretty arcane words frequently. The narrator's use of "argent" and "lambent" come to mind. It might be possible to identify a specific year of a specific Word-of-the-Day Calendar with each of Donaldson's books. Good-naturedly covered at ''[[http://www.gdiproductions.net/srdamd/ Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary.]]''
** Notoriously, at one point in ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' he describes some creatures as being "featureless and telic, like lambent gangrene."
** Some passages suggest that this was a deliberate stylistic choice to emphasize the surreal nature of the Land.
** Nick Lowe's essay ''[[http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html The Well-Tempered Plot Device]]'' describes the sport of "Clench Racing" in Donaldson novels.
--->The rules are simple. Each player takes a different volume of ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'', and at the word "go" all open their books at random and start leafing through, scanning the pages. The winner is the first player to find the word "clench". It's a fast, exciting game – sixty seconds is unusually drawn-out – and can be varied, if players get too good, with other favourite Donaldson words like wince, flinch, gag, rasp, exigency, mendacity, articulate, macerate, mien, limn, vertigo, cynosure....

** "Voluptuous" was also a commonly abused word in Victorian Era erotica, for obvious reasons.

Ever suspect that an author has a quirky Word-of-the-Day Calendar? Some really JustForFun/{{Egregious}}, often used for SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, the word appears in the text, perhaps not used in a completely natural way, and perhaps used in a manner egregiously inconsistent with the character's native idiolect. It appears two or three more times in subsequent egregious text, in in-[[SelfDemonstratingArticle egregious]]-creasingly unlikely settings and then is never seen again.

* ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'': Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s propensity for using specific words over and over is discussed in strip #739 "Malamanteau".

* Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}:

** * Wiki/TheOtherWiki seems to like using "characteristic" to describe odourants. A chemical never just has a smell, it has a "characteristic" one, though if the Wiki feels it's overused that word it might use "distinctive" instead.

MagicFranchiseWord is when this is done by the fans. Not to be confused with YouKeepUsingThatWord, when a character points out another character's overuse or misuse of certain words.

* Creator/PiersAnthony can't seem to get through a single book without describing something as "quiescent". He loved using the word "balk" in the earlier Xanth books.

* ''Oceanborn'' by Music/{{Nightwish}}, with "Stargazers" as the most obvious example. Granted, Tuomas Holopainen was barely 19 when he wrote that stuff.

* There used to be a sample from some unknown fanfic -- not the legendary ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon''; this one is even worse -- being circulated and mocked on the Net which had prose so purple that it was practically unreadable; unfortunately, all the pages containing it seem to have disappeared. To give an inkling of what it was like: it referred to someone's eyes with the word "syndicates:" "syndicate" -> "circle" -> "orb" -> "eye."

* There used to be a sample from some unknown fanfic -- not the legendary ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon''; this one is [[UpToEleven even worse]] -- being circulated and mocked on the Net which had prose so purple that it was practically unreadable; unfortunately, all the pages containing it seem to have disappeared. To give an inkling of what it was like: it referred to someone's eyes with the word "syndicates:" "syndicate" -> "circle" -> "orb" -> "eye."