We're all "glancing" around

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

"Illumined" sounds fancier, I guess. I personally never cared for the term because it trips up more than "illuminated."


But personal preference. I do agree with TDZ on the numbers game. Television ads tend to be annoying enough as it is, but when they use a phrase like "up to XX off and more!" it's like...um...okay? So that XX amount isn't the maximum and yet it's UP TO that much off? The phrase is an oxymoron and a horrible one; often an oxymoron can be effective where that one just grates one's ears like garlic. And I suspect that the "five times less than" kind of scenario is an author's attempt to tongue-twist the brain into obscurity to hide inadequacies. I dislike it a lot, and for the same reason as TDZ.


And to be honest, it's been a few years since I've read Thomas Covenant, quite a few actually, and when I did I guess I wasn't fully absorbing it. I do know that my eyes glossed over some sections, but no words ever actually stood out at me beyond names.

 

[Lucky_Lola]

As far as laughter goes, I snort a lot. Not the laugh-so-hard-you-make-a-pig-noise snort, the single, short burst of noise when something falls between funny-smile or silent laugh and full-on belly stuff. Come to think of it, my characters do it a lot, too. And I don't know about the rest of you, but The Husband giggles. Usually when he's making *ahem* inappropriate jokes. That's about the only time I've ever heard a man giggle.

Words I hate reading? Wizard and witch, I dislike. Unless we're talking Merlin or the like. I kind of feel like the words get glued on top of humans who have 'powers'.

Oh-oh and another one... not read but heard (on the NZ TV news!). "Mitt Romney has yet to concede defeat..." *shudders* Gawd I hate it.

Oh - and flaccid. I had a theatre lecturer at uni that insisted on pronouncing it 'flax-id'. That may very well be the proper pronunciation, but for some reason it makes my skin crawl. Now I can't use it, ever.

 

[JoanDrake]

Decimated when used as annihilated. The Romans used decimation as a punishment for their soldiers and one in ten were killed. Nowadays people use it instead of annihilated and it gets on my wick.

Me too, I've seen them use it in the NEWS fer crissake. My equivalent is "awesome", both because it makes me feel old when I remember it was once used properly and there's no really good substitute

It was only in one book, but it was "taciturn." Ooh, get you, Mr Writer, with the one big word in your book, used repeatedly to describe the same character over and over and over again.

(I'm cool with glancing. It's a specific action, and it saves longer description of it)

If you think taciturn is bad, you would just LOVE Jack Vance's villains. However he does it as deliberate affectation and never repeats, (that I've noticed)