Bitchin' Blog Posts
Say it with me now: Bitchosphere!
by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | June 21, 2007 | Thursday at 9:22 pm | 59 CommentsCheck this out: according to this wee bit o’news forwarded to me by many a reader there are now internet words that inspire the ire. No kidding.
According to the article, the internet words people hate the most:
1. folksonomy
2. blogosphere
3. blog
4. netiquette
5. blook (aka Blog-to-book)
I agree. I hate the world “blog.” And “Blogosphere” makes me want to commit crime. If I could wear normal tshirts, I’d be wearing this one. All the time.
But I was thinking yesterday that a LOT - as in more than three of the last 5 books I’ve read - have used the word “scudded” to describe clouds moving across the sky. What happened, was it the “writer’s word of the day” while manuscripts were being composed? I’ve seen it in a few contemporaries and a few historicals, too. It’s like the new version of “pelisse-” remember when every historical heroine had to put on a pelisse at some point and it was never sufficient protection from the elements?
Has anyone else noticed certain words in romance fiction becoming “trendy” for a time, to the point where you get incredibly tired of them? Not just sexual terms, either, though we’ve talked about that. More like words that seem to spread like viral videos from one set of books to the next. Anyone else notice this or am I just nuts?
Filed: Random Musings
EmelineGreen said on 06.21.07 at 10:25 PM • [link]
Maybe it’s just me, but for a while there, it seemed like every heroine was performing a task “with alacrity.” I kind of hate “alacrity.” It feels like broken concrete in the mouth, and it’s the aural equivalent of asaparagus.
Poison Ivy said on 06.21.07 at 10:42 PM • [link]
Hey, remember “camp”? It was everywhere, and now it is nowhere but in our nostalgic memories. If we are older than dirt.
Yes, genre writers tend to employ whatever the latest words are, thus making themselves very much of the moment. And dead as a doornail once the moment is over.
“Dead as a doornail” being at least a 16th century English term, as you may know. Perhaps older. But still lots of fun to use.
SarahLynn said on 06.21.07 at 10:52 PM • [link]
A trend that I have noticed in the past couple weeks is everybody putting “i” (as in iPod) in front of a word as the title of their website or application. So far I have seen iPredict, iRead, and iListen. That needs to be on a list of emerging annoying internet trends.
kpsr. said on 06.21.07 at 10:58 PM • [link]
iAgree.
(sorry, i couldn’t help myself)
Sherry Thomas said on 06.21.07 at 11:03 PM • [link]
I think Rosemary Rogers pioneered the use of the word “pinion”, as in “He pinioned her wrists behind her and kissed her savagely on her trembling lips.”
I haven’t seen that word used in ages, not since the bodice-rippers went out of style.
carolyn said on 06.21.07 at 11:06 PM • [link]
Google is trying to co-opt i to function like My. I wish they would stop.
iGoogle = still sorta lame version of MyYahoo
Myriantha Fatalis said on 06.21.07 at 11:32 PM • [link]
There seem to be a large number of Regency heroines that are currently busy “crunching their toast” at breakfast. Crunching? It sounds so…unladylike. Won’t someone please tell these girls to chew with their mouths closed?
cara said on 06.21.07 at 11:40 PM • [link]
Padded v.
“She padded to the refrigerator”
It makes me think of fat feet. eewww!
Charlene said on 06.21.07 at 11:45 PM • [link]
Peripatetic was common a few years back. Every wanderer, every loner was “peripatetic”.
iffygenia said on 06.22.07 at 12:01 AM • [link]
I like “peripatetic”. Too bad it’s been overused.
“Padded”... maybe you could think cushy slippers.
Overuse is one thing. But Cheryl Holt has single-handedly ruined a lot of good words for me. She misuses them so badly. Er, I mean she has ruinously maltreated those terminologies of romantic purport. Egregiously, at that.
Jeanna said on 06.22.07 at 12:07 AM • [link]
Padded just annoys me, you’d think they’d have a thesaurus around somewhere.. there are other words to us. Though I think using “scurry” is just as bad and reminds me of mice.. as a matter of fact they both do..
cara said on 06.22.07 at 12:20 AM • [link]
Sometimes, just using the word WALK would get the point across.
Some of those other words make me want to throw a thesaurus at the author too. Some I’m gonna have to look up dammit.
Jepad said on 06.22.07 at 12:34 AM • [link]
I tried to think of word overuse and couldn’t really think of one, at least across multiple authors. I know some authors have serious problems with recycling terms over and over, especially in series.
I’m clearly not reading the same books because I haven’t come across peripatetic in years. Great word.
I think worse is authors that toss in a “big word” and clearly don’t know what the word means or how to use it. I’m still shocked at the author that misused ambivalent.
iffygenia said on 06.22.07 at 12:42 AM • [link]
I like “scudded” where its specific meaning adds to the description. Scudding means moving swiftly, especially as if driven forward by strong wind. Scudding clouds add to the motion in the scene, or even show a storm building. Using it every time there’s a cloud is lazy at best, inaccurate at worst. But substituting a word like “drift” can change the meaning.
OpenChannel said on 06.22.07 at 01:01 AM • [link]
Padded sounds like a large cat walking. The tiger padded across the jungle floor…
Blog used to bug me until I became a blogwhore myself. Netiquette doesn’t bug me, but “blook” and “folksonomy” are just wrong.
What can one do once the words have become common use? Why isn’t there a poll on these words first, a public multiple choice of some sort?
I’m fascinated by the invention of new words and how long they take to invade our speech. When I taught high school, I used to have one of my classes invent a new slang word and start using it to see if it would catch on. Sometimes we’d overhear other students using the word.
Hey - we should come up with a new word and swear to secercy while we see how long it takes to catch on!
iffygenia said on 06.22.07 at 01:10 AM • [link]
Entirely too often.Oh, and I snorted inappropriately when someone said “What what” last night.
Qadesh said on 06.22.07 at 01:27 AM • [link]
Am I the only one who had never heard of folksonomy? Had to read the article to learn the definition. I’m probably betraying my ignorance, but what the hey. I don’t mind the internet words all that much. Yes, they can get rather annoying but I would much prefer them to the rise of internet spelling. The “kewl’s” of the world annoy me to no end. I can take the occasional usage here or there, but when they florish with abandon in a post or blog I tune out and wander somewhere else.
kathie said on 06.22.07 at 01:49 AM • [link]
Nora Roberts, much as I love her, uses “scoops” constantly. She scoops her hair, she scoops up her kid, she scoops up the mail, etc., etc.
Ann Bruce said on 06.22.07 at 01:51 AM • [link]
Spilled.
*cough*LKH*cough*
NTE said on 06.22.07 at 02:43 AM • [link]
Recently I read a book where the hero calls the heroine minx. Repeatedly. As in, at least once every three pages. I could not finish the book. Even though I generally don’t mind the word, I just couldn’t handle the overkill.
SB Sarah said on 06.22.07 at 02:46 AM • [link]
Words like “minx” bug the heck out of me because I don’t ever hear people using them out loud. “Minx” just doesn’t roll off the tongue easily and if I’ve heard someone say it, it was a joke or just smarmy, or both.
Lynne said on 06.22.07 at 03:57 AM • [link]
I remember “pinion” from old Harlequins, and I agree that it’s annoying. Those books always had one piece of clothing “teamed” with another. Heh. You could almost come up with a lexicon of weird Harlequinese.
Emily said on 06.22.07 at 04:13 AM • [link]
Maybe we’re still in the “cock” phase, I don’t know. I’ve yet to find a phallic euphemism that I like, but even the very literal cock sounds very unromantic, to me. Like, cockslapping. Sounds painful. A cock is something that slaps you. You wouldn’t date a cock. A cock wouldn’t take you out to dinner and talk about shared interests with you. You call the cops on a cock. You get a restraining order for the cock and wish you never had his baby and now the cock’s on Jerry Springer because the tramp he dated behind your back is actually lesbian lovers with his sister.
Plus, cock is very high school lexicon, for me. Slightly stronger comrade of “dick”. Dick is for middle school, cock is for high school/college.
Has anyone used dick in a novel, yet? In a love scene? Please? Just for kicks?
Lynne said on 06.22.07 at 04:23 AM • [link]
I think Robin McKinley’s Sunshine used “dick” in a quasi-love scene, but that book wasn’t quite a romance.
Janetm said on 06.22.07 at 05:11 AM • [link]
Juncture, or even, strangely, junction of thighs—well, I guess a big choo-choo might come thundering into the junction, so it’s a metaphor that works altho possibly not in the way the writer intended.
Laving. All that damn laving. From, I believe, the Latin ‘to wash’ so it’s less an erotic caress than an enthusiastic young Labrador expressing how glad he is to see you.
And the nubs, My god, it was the pebbled nubs, to paraphrase Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
jocelynnesimone said on 06.22.07 at 05:37 AM • [link]
OpenChannel,
It would be nice if there were a formal poll, wouldn’t it? Then we could stomp out this nasty, clinging little words who don’t know their places from moving up in the world. Alas, all we get is the informal poll of usage by the great unwashed masses. And so many of them are teenagers these days!
Qadesh, I admit I didn’t know folksonomy either. After reading the definition, I’m still rather curious about the etimology of the darn thing. Ah well.
che said on 06.22.07 at 05:44 AM • [link]
One of those Internet words that annoy me is the intentional typo of “teh” for the. I can tolerate it for an occasional phrase as in “teh cute!” or in a snarky blog entry, but when it’s sprinkled throughout a rather serious blog entry, it is rather jarring.
OpenChannel said on 06.22.07 at 06:02 AM • [link]
At least “kewl” I know what that means. I’ve gotten a few e-mails from some of my younger students and I can’t even interpret them. I asked one student if she could send me a glossary of terms so I could read her e-mail messages.
Emily, clearly you haven’t been to:
http://www.starma.com/penis/penis.html
Jenyfer Matthews said on 06.22.07 at 06:44 AM • [link]
I don’t mind the internet terms…on the internet. Not used in normal everyday speech (unless perhaps you’re talking about the internet) I admit I still use REAL words in my SMS messages as well (am I showing my age??)
The one word that no one has yet mentioned that always jumps out at me is “glowered” - why is everyone always glowering across the room?
I haven’t read a Jayne Ann Krentz book in years now, but why were all her heroines red-headed chicks who had lived a “near cloistered” existence. Just once say she was inexperienced!!
Celina Summers said on 06.22.07 at 10:00 AM • [link]
While we’re on the subject, pretty much all hacker-wannabe terminology drives me bonkers. like wOOt. What in the hell is a wOOt? I have no clue. At all.
But then again, I had an editor tell me not too long ago that I shouldn’t use big words like incongruous.(she had to look it up, apparently) So, perhaps I should be wOOting more frequently than I am….whatever the hell wOOting is.
And yes, just out of revenge I whipped out *defenestration* in my next ms. She REALLY loved that one.
anadaslu said on 06.22.07 at 11:45 AM • [link]
Oooh I was gonna say spilled.
I hate it when Regency ladies ‘snort’, yet I see it in almost every book. Even nowadays snorting is still considered quite unseemly, so I can’t help thinking how rude and unladylike it would’ve been back then.
I think J.R Ward used the word ‘dick’ in Lover’s Awakened, when the hero was masturbating.
Caroline said on 06.22.07 at 12:05 PM • [link]
“Masculine”, almost always paired with “utterly.” And frequently with “scent.”
I cringe every time I read “his utterly masculine scent.” (And since I read slush, I read it pretty damned often.)
What is an utterly masculine scent, anyway? Sweat and motor oil? Ugh.
Bella said on 06.22.07 at 07:50 PM • [link]
NTE: i’m with you on “minx”; i remember when i was watching American Idol and Simon-of-the-man-boobs used the word, describing a female contestant. that was… well, a little icky.
(wordver: shown54. i don’t need to be shown Simon’s chest hairs.)
anadaslu said on 06.22.07 at 09:59 PM • [link]
Caroline,
for Western novels, ‘utterly masculine scent’ would mean the hero would smell like a combination of sweat, hay and horse. I’m not sure if that includes the smell of horse manure, but I always think it does.
Kate said on 06.22.07 at 10:38 PM • [link]
I have a LONG commute to work and have started listening to Books on Tape to make the drive bearable. My latest was Johanna Lindsey’s Scandalous. I probably should have know better, but…
Anyway, she used the word “dratted” twenty-five times (I counted, whcih turned out to be vastly more entertaining than the book itself). It usually preceeded the word “man”, as in “You shouldn’t have kissed me you dratted man” or “Of course I love you, you dratted man.” This was made all the more awful by the fact that it was being uttered out loud.
I know it probably wouldn’t have been historically accurate to have the heroine call the hero “A Goddamn Friggin’ Bastard”, but MY (dratted) GOD, buy a (dratted) thesaurus.
darlynne said on 06.22.07 at 11:37 PM • [link]
I second scud, lave and nubs.
I’ll add, with full knowledge that this is completely picky on my part, any form of “chuckle.” NO ONE chuckles. Go on, try it. We laugh quietly, we smile, we grin, we snort derisively. In the context of romance novels, the chuckle-er is the big, manly man, the chuckle-ee is the ignor ... innocent female. To these ears, “chuckle” always sounds pejorative, no matter who does it.
And how many times do we have to see “small” in the same story to describe female hands or bodies, as in “her small hands couldn’t encircle his bulging love muscle” or “his superior strength could have crushed her small frame.” I’m small, but I got it the first five times a character was so described: she’s small, he’s big and utterly masculine. Next?
Nicole said on 06.23.07 at 01:10 AM • [link]
I’ve started using man-titty in conversations. Even used it last night. It so described one of the guys on Cathouse last night.
Emily said on 06.23.07 at 02:31 AM • [link]
Emily, clearly you haven’t been to:
http://www.starma.com/penis/penis.html
Wow, and only yesterday I was at:
http://www.starma.com/penis/auntflow/auntflow.html
I must add any form of pebbles/pebbling (it’s a VERB now, what?) in relation to the nipples, because that just sounds painful and brings back memories of my first job stacking boxes in a warehouse, and you do not know pain until you have gotten your nips caught between two boxes, each containing eight (8) 2L jugs (har) of cranberry juice. Or until you give birth. One of the two.
I was struggling through Kat Martin’s Gypsy Lord a few days ago and if there’s such a thing as female bonerdeath, that is what the pebbles-ing did to any sense of romantic fantasy I was able to summon during the love scenes.
Jenny Crusie said on 06.23.07 at 03:11 AM • [link]
“Has anyone used dick in a novel, yet? In a love scene? Please? Just for kicks?”
I use “dickhead” a lot. Because it’s descriptive.
I also do not know what folksonomy, but it sounds dirty and I’m a lady so I’m not looking it up.
I hate chuckling, too.
Thank you for not mentioning whatever word it is that I’m abusing.
Danielle said on 06.23.07 at 04:57 AM • [link]
Folksonomy is an adaptation of “taxonomy” that was invented to describe the way users classify online material (blog posts, links, etc) with tags and other labels.
Taxonomies are centrally-created, vocabulary-restricted & usually hierarchical classification systems; folksonomies are individual & informal. The Dewey Decimal system is a taxonomy; the labels you put on your LibraryThing books are a folksonomy.
(And there’s absolutely no reason to know this, unless you’re a librarian or a programmer.)
ginmar said on 06.23.07 at 04:58 AM • [link]
What happened to ‘ministrations’? Jesus, I hate that word. Talk about drawing you up short and thinking…It’s just such an awful, clumsy ghastly word. It makes me think he’s wrapping a bandage or maybe popping a boil. It’s a fussy word, too, like they’re being all prim and proper.
Ahem. No strong feelings there at all. Yeah, that one’s old.
Joyce said on 06.23.07 at 06:01 PM • [link]
I’d have to go with “mewled”. It seems like every time I’ve read a book with a sex scene in it lately, the heroine always freaking mewls. It’s just… ew. It makes me think of baby animals, and from there it’s just a short hop to baby animal rape. And it just doesn’t seem very accurately descriptive.
I mean really, have you ever freaking mewled? I sure as hell haven’t.
OpenChannel said on 06.23.07 at 08:19 PM • [link]
Emily, now look what you’ve done! I’ve got euphemisms coming out my ass (or “chocolate starfish” as my husband calls it).
http://www.starma.com/penis/
This is the main page, she’s got euphemisms for female parts, male parts, and the things you do with those parts. So no writer will be without options from now on.
Never heard of pebbling, but it sounds suspicious to me.
Joyce, Mewling? Are you serious?
And oh, yeah, I’ve heard a chuckle. It’s always from the fat uncle with the long beard at Thanksgiving.
Emily said on 06.23.07 at 09:46 PM • [link]
I think I mewled once during an episode of sleep paralysis, but that was only because I couldn’t scream.
Qadesh said on 06.24.07 at 12:51 AM • [link]
Danielle: Thanks for the information, although I find I’m perplexed. If librarians and programmers are the only ones who know what folksonomy is, or for that matter really care, how did it top the list of internet words we love to hate? I’m just saying, if they are the only ones who use the term it would seem the survey couldn’t have been all that scientific.
I’m terribly glad I wasn’t the only one on the folksonomy ignorance front, thanks to Jocelynne Simone and Jenny Crusie for coming out of the closet with me. Now if I can only find an excuse to use it in a sentence… hmmm, I’m thinking.
As for repetitive word usage, I have a habit of finding a new author I like and then reading their entire backlist back-to-back. When you do that the words they love to use, over and over, become quite apparent. Such as Christine Feehan’s use of velvet, every vagina is described as being velvety in some way or another, LKH loves to describe the pulse point at the neck as being “like candy”, and Stephanie Laurens has every damn hero laving the breasts of their heroines. Sometimes I want to send them a heads-up email and say for once can we please have a book without that word or phrase?
Kelly said on 06.24.07 at 05:24 AM • [link]
An author I’ve been reading a lot of recently and who I like great deal always, always uses the word “oubliette” at least once. I mean, every single book. Does anyone even use this word? I have a pretty extensive vocabulary and I didn’t know what it meant until I looked up how to spell it just now. It sounds like a medieval torture device.
Amy "Fuckheady Bitchipants" E said on 06.24.07 at 06:30 AM • [link]
I’ve known what oubliette meant since high school… because that’s when I watched Labyrinth. I don’t care what you say, David Bowie was hot in that movie. (But not hawt or HOTT. Shudder.)
Overused words? Blinked and nodded. I read one book where the heroine was always nodding and blinking, or blinking and nodding. Okay, sit at your desk and do that for a minute. Now do it again. And again. And again. Are your coworkers looking at you funny yet? No? Blink and nod, nod and blink. Bet they are now. Has anyone asked you how long you’ve been off your meds? Nod and blink. Blink and nod. Do it long enough and I bet you’ll get sent home for the rest of the day because your boss thinks you’re on the verge of some sort of mental breakdown, or expects you to bust out in Tourette’s-style torrents of profanity at any moment.
Blinkblinkynodnodnodblinkitynod…
Amy "Fuckheady Bitchipants" E said on 06.24.07 at 06:35 AM • [link]
Oh, that adult euphemism site is just… just… words fail me. One thing’s certain, however. In some upcoming erotic romance, I’ve gotta use some of these. Truly.
He thrust hard, his ba-donk-a-donk sinking deep into her winkin’ pink brownie cake…
Oh yeah, baby. Sexxxxxx-ayyy!
Jenyfer Matthews said on 06.24.07 at 09:28 AM • [link]
Re: the word “dick” - from what I’ve heard from authors with Ellora’s Cave they do not like that word. Why “cock” is any more acceptable I’m not sure…
I like to read my own writing out loud as I edit - lots of clunky / overused phrases jump out at you then!
Trixtah said on 06.24.07 at 02:06 PM • [link]
I personally can’t stand “blook” or “folksonomy” either. So, do they have “blarticles” these days as well, or “blessays”? Give me a fucking break.
“Folksonomy"is a tacky coining by Clay Shirky, I think. While I love the idea of informal categorisation and the trends that emerge with it, could they have come up with any more patronising expression? I have to say that “folks” is one of those American terms that makes me think of Appalachian hill farmers at the best of times - it’s not a happy juxtaposition with the concept they’re trying to describe.
One of the things that drives me nuts at present is the mashing together of two names to talk about a couple. If I hear “Brangelina” once more, I’ll kill something.
Elysa said on 06.24.07 at 03:43 PM • [link]
I just read an Anne Rivers Siddons where she used “sullen” 3 times in two pages.
The blurb also promised a big scandalous finish. Said scandal would have been noteworthy in, oh, 1957 or thereabouts. But that’s an entirely different topic.
Jessica Russell said on 06.25.07 at 06:25 AM • [link]
Okay all…WOOT: We Own the Other Team
This refers, but is not limited to, online mass multiplayer games. It originated in Online First Person Shooter servers when team members wanted to cheer each other on. “To be owned” means to have your ass whipped, be annihilated, or
. Now w00t or WOOT or wooT is an expression of exuberance.
My husband reads over my shoulder every time I come to smart bitches. He won’t go there himself…not sure why. :-) But, he wanted to say CONGRATS on the book deal. :-)
Lia said on 06.25.07 at 08:28 AM • [link]
It isn’t just romance - have you noticed how the talking heads on news & weather stations can’t say “moving” or “going” anymore? Everyone and everything is “making its way.” A storm system is making its way across the Midwest, commuters are making their way around the outerbelt, party-goers are making their way to the buffet table.. just go, already!
My favorite romance love-to-hate is ‘feisty.’ Especially when it is used to describe someone with the tact and sensitivity of a chainsaw, apparently in the hope of making her obnoxious behavior somehow appealing.
Kerry Allen said on 06.25.07 at 06:01 PM • [link]
I just read some utterly forgettable piece of garbage in which the author indulged her obession with “as well as.” I don’t think the word “and” appeared once in the entire book (I’m thinking search-and-replace had to be involved to achieve this level of and-ocide). It will be months before I can look upon those words, even sparingly used, without developing a twitch.
*placed96* As in, “Placed 96 occurrences of ‘as well as’ in the first 10 pages.”
Danielle said on 06.25.07 at 07:36 PM • [link]
Glad to be helpful, Qadesh. And Jessica, thanks for the etymology of “woot”—I always thought it was an onomatopeiac expression. Like zipper, which is my spam capture word for this comment.
Joanna said on 06.25.07 at 10:13 PM • [link]
Bone-deep.
As an adjective.
e.g. “..with a bone deep certainty”
I’ve come across at least three authors using it a lot recently.
‘S too much.
Yvonne said on 06.26.07 at 02:04 AM • [link]
I recently read a book where the author used ‘denude’ to describe the removal of clothing. It was used accurately, but I associate this word with erosion and weathering. It created an unpleasant visual for me.
Sandra Cormier said on 06.26.07 at 11:43 PM • [link]
Oh, crap… I used ‘scudded’, too.
Verification: still47 - hey, that’s my age!
iffygenia said on 06.27.07 at 12:56 AM • [link]
I mewled when the doctor popped my shoulder back into its socket.
I’m almost ashamed to admit, I’ve never mewled with pleasure. Maybe I’ve mewled without knowing it? Maybe while I was insensate with pleasure… flung, gasping, upon the farthest shores of sensation… shattered into a million points of light… merged soul-deep in the greatest sharing of all…. Yeah, then I might not have noticed the mewling.
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