Does Stephen R. Donaldson's vocabulary bother you?

Phantasm · **Posted:** Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:56 pm

Not really, I love learning new stuff, and dictionaries are great for just browsing through.

FarmUrTed · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:09 pm **Posts:** 194

Word or typo? You be the judge:

"Here in Andelain, the effects of that dire fug were muted."

That's in AATE (not sure the page, but it's 17% of the way through according to BN Ereader). Is fug a word? Or did he make it up? Or is it just a typo (should've been fog)? Normally, I'd go with typo, but with Donaldson, you never know.

danlo · **Posted:** Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:59 pm

Merriam-Webster's definition of FUG
: the stuffy atmosphere of a poorly ventilated space; also : a stuffy or malodorous emanation

No I love his use of words, I looked them up all the time in the first two trilogies--though I think he uses pussiance and percipience, especially percipience way too much in the FR and AATE. It's almost like Bakker's use of "preternatural" in the Prince of Nothing books-I almost, almost got to the point of screaming...

Duchess of Malfi · **Posted:** Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:41 pm

The one I noticed him overusing in the three books of the last chrons is "formication". A word that sounds like it might have a fun meaning, but does not. :wink:

The only word that has ever truly bothered me was "roynish". When I first read the first chrons as a teenager, on-line dictionaries were not yet available. And the word was in no dictionary in the house or at my high school. To this day I have a mental vision of the ur-viles being tall and stately and royal looking because of that obscure word. :lol:

danlo · **Posted:** Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:09 pm

So far, up to p. 250 in AATE, formication doesn't bother me at all (believe me it did in the first 2 books). A lot of words seem to fit right into what's happening, so you can, somewhat, figure out what they're driving at. Oddly enough I never looked up roynish, back in the day, I was convinced it meant small, gnarly black things-so until 6 years ago I never really realized that ur-viles were as tall as they are... :shock:

FarmUrTed · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:09 pm **Posts:** 194

Lol, thanks Danlo. I've only used the adverb form of 'fug' before. Didn't know you could use it as a noun. Now I'm seeing it every other page.

aliantha · **Joined:** Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:23 pm **Posts:** 775

I based a dictionary purchase, back in the day, on whether it had a definition for "roynish". :lol:

I really like his use of unusual words.

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Does Stephen R. Donaldson's vocabulary bother you?

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