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?
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.
To be fair, that was on purpose. One of my best friends in high school used to call each other that when we finished the book lol
Not a word wasted in that book. Fitzgerald knew what he was doing with that repetition.
You don’t like that, old sport? Funny, it’s one of my favorite things about Fitz’ creation. Gatsby’s magnetism extends into his quirky communication
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.
Is that the author overusing a word though? That seems like a character overusing a phrase, possibly to show how shallow he is or something along those lines.
that was on purpose old sport
So phony