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I happen to love the English language, so I notice things like this:
SE really gets into one word, and uses it over and over. In most of the books I've read so far, that word is "convergence". For a couple of books, "dissolution" upstages "convergence", but then it switches back.
Mind you, I've only gotten to the Bonehunters so far, so I don't know if he adopts any more pet words, but I thought it was interesting.
The I got to thinking, what's my favorite word from the series? Personally, it would have to be "rannalled". Any thoughts?
SEs Favorite Words, and What are Yours?
#2
Defiance 
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Posted 24 March 2012 - 06:47 AM
Potsherds, gelid, and ocher all really stood out to me on my first time through the series. On subsequent reads, though, I really don't notice them as much. I think part of it just came from learning what those words actually were.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
uhm, that should be 'stuff.' My stiff is never nihilistic.
~Steven Erikson
Mythwood: Play-by-post RP board.
~Steven Erikson
Mythwood: Play-by-post RP board.
#3
worry
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Posted 24 March 2012 - 06:58 AM
I believe he used the word "concatenation" a bunch of times, and it's a pretty good word. Likewise the word "coruscating" and its variants.
They came with white hands and left with red hands.
#4
HoosierDaddy
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Posted 24 March 2012 - 07:01 AM
"Fucking dragons."
Unique combination of common words.
Unique combination of common words.
Trouble arrives when the opponents to such a system institute its extreme opposite, where individualism becomes godlike and sacrosanct, and no greater service to any other ideal (including community) is possible. In such a system rapacious greed thrives behind the guise of freedom, and the worst aspects of human nature come to the fore....
#6
HoosierDaddy
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Posted 24 March 2012 - 09:32 AM
Wittywort!
Trouble arrives when the opponents to such a system institute its extreme opposite, where individualism becomes godlike and sacrosanct, and no greater service to any other ideal (including community) is possible. In such a system rapacious greed thrives behind the guise of freedom, and the worst aspects of human nature come to the fore....
#8
BlackMoranthofDoom
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Posted 25 March 2012 - 03:58 AM
Defiance, on 24 March 2012 - 06:47 AM, said:
Potsherds, gelid, and ocher all really stood out to me on my first time through the series. On subsequent reads, though, I really don't notice them as much. I think part of it just came from learning what those words actually were.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
When did he use the term Achilles heel? Its been a while sice I read.
#9
Salt-Man Z
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Posted 29 March 2012 - 07:45 PM
He uses the phrase "Achilles tendon", which felt a little weird, but then I thought: what else is he going to say? ("Adam's apple" in fantasy is another, shall we say, troublesome, anatomical term.)
"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
#11
TheLastAwl
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Posted 03 June 2012 - 02:02 AM
Just finished book ten and I've been noticing this the whole time: Susurration, gelid, surcease, rictus, ochre, febrile, and mentions of hoods genitalia.
#12
Toraneko
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Posted 03 June 2012 - 06:36 AM
'Efficacy'. 'Hood's x'.
~ toranekostudios.tumblr.com ~
Stress causes baldness but if you pay too much attention to keeping your stress levels down
it'll stress you out even more so there's really nothing we can do about it after all.
Stress causes baldness but if you pay too much attention to keeping your stress levels down
it'll stress you out even more so there's really nothing we can do about it after all.
#14
Baaljagg
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Posted 04 July 2012 - 03:04 PM
Vaddon Ra, on 02 July 2012 - 05:09 PM, said:
Yes but if any must be mentioned they must be Hoods....I mean come on...He bit off a F'kassails Face :DDDDD
Concerning the malazans indeed! Toggs tits and Hood's balls do tend to pop into conversation quite frequently! To the point that on occasion I have found myself uttering those very same curses!
"Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself."
#15
Vaddon Ra
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Posted 07 July 2012 - 10:18 PM
Concerning the malazans indeed! Toggs tits and Hood's balls do tend to pop into conversation quite frequently! To the point that on occasion I have found myself uttering those very same curses!
That's actually awesome. See if we use them enough perhaps one day the dictionary will pick em up as slang XD
'Hoods Copper Balls on an Anvil'
TY Whiskeyjack
Feners Holy Crotch XD from DOD best part of the entire book for me
My favourite part of any malazan books is actually when ICE uses phantasmagoric in ROTCG
my girlfriend had told me this word and I never thought id ever see it used in a book XD Thank you malaz
That's actually awesome. See if we use them enough perhaps one day the dictionary will pick em up as slang XD
'Hoods Copper Balls on an Anvil'
TY Whiskeyjack
Feners Holy Crotch XD from DOD best part of the entire book for me
My favourite part of any malazan books is actually when ICE uses phantasmagoric in ROTCG
my girlfriend had told me this word and I never thought id ever see it used in a book XD Thank you malaz
#16
Duncan
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Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:02 AM
Defiance, on 24 March 2012 - 06:47 AM, said:
Potsherds, gelid, and ocher all really stood out to me on my first time through the series. On subsequent reads, though, I really don't notice them as much. I think part of it just came from learning what those words actually were.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
Convergence is definitely used a lot, but for good reason. It's not just a word SE likes to use, it's a fundamental part of the Malazan universe. More often than not, it's actually characters talking about convergence, rather than him describing something and using that word.
SE's word usage is nearly flawless in the series. The only time I can ever remember it jarring me out of the reading was in The Crippled God, when he used the phrase Achilles' heel, which obviously doesn't make sense in the Malazan universe.
Rannalled is great.
he uses Conceit alot.
#17
D'iversify
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Posted 03 December 2012 - 02:59 PM
Ones I found notable were: Reciprocity; Calcretions; Propitiations; Gelid (noted above by TheLastAwl); Nictating; Epicanthic; Synaphortropic (OK, I made that last one up). Not so much the repetition as much as their lexicality.
I am the Onyx Wizards
#18
ShantyKing
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Posted 28 January 2013 - 05:49 AM
This reminds me of my favorite passage from the series so far, one that I found to be particularly moving:
Whiskeyjack surveyed the potsherds, the grinning Barghast beside him. The warrior's pate, laden with grease, was anathema to the white-hot sun. Beyond, the gelid sea billowed, burgeoning with a coruscation of virulent scorcery, a constant susurration.
He grimaced. "Alas, the efficacy of those who brought this place asunder must needs be heeded. A turgid force, indeed."
The Barghast, never loquacious, bared his filed teeth and padded over to the ochre potsherds. "Just so" he growled, his motions jerking, febrile. He shrugged.
"Hood's balls!" shrieked the dessicated woman twenty paces behind them... a Bonecaster in truth, her skills singular. The sergeant scowled. A banal curse.
Beside him, the Barghast swung around, reguarded her for a long moment. "Aye, Lass."
Whiskeyjack grunted, hissed through his teeth, his grin broadening. "Thus."
Gets me every time.
Quote
Whiskeyjack surveyed the potsherds, the grinning Barghast beside him. The warrior's pate, laden with grease, was anathema to the white-hot sun. Beyond, the gelid sea billowed, burgeoning with a coruscation of virulent scorcery, a constant susurration.
He grimaced. "Alas, the efficacy of those who brought this place asunder must needs be heeded. A turgid force, indeed."
The Barghast, never loquacious, bared his filed teeth and padded over to the ochre potsherds. "Just so" he growled, his motions jerking, febrile. He shrugged.
"Hood's balls!" shrieked the dessicated woman twenty paces behind them... a Bonecaster in truth, her skills singular. The sergeant scowled. A banal curse.
Beside him, the Barghast swung around, reguarded her for a long moment. "Aye, Lass."
Whiskeyjack grunted, hissed through his teeth, his grin broadening. "Thus."
Gets me every time.
This post has been edited by ShantyKing: 28 January 2013 - 09:12 AM
#19
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Posted 28 January 2013 - 06:21 PM
SE used "crepuscular" a few times, and for that he has earned my eternal devotion and unceasing admiration.
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#20
White candle
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Posted 27 February 2013 - 05:28 AM
One word that I always notice when dealing with kruppe is magnanimous.
