Words/phrases you have seen in books that you have never heard a real life person say

[OneUmberJoker]

Little high little low - stuart little

‘Exclaimed’ no one says that word in real life!

People do exclaim though.
I see you have just done so yourself.
They just don’t describe it as such, usually.

To clarify, I mean it’s fairly common that words we use to express tone of voice or manner of speaking are used in descriptive passages in books, but are rarely used in day-to-day speech.
Exclaimed is one example, but there are many others.

No, but it’s often used in fiction to indicate surprise/anger/some strong emotion while avoiding using exclamation marks, which apprentice writers are often advised to do. (Though the other frequent advice is only to use ‘said’ as a speech marker, avoiding ‘’she whispered’, ’he shrieked’, ’he hissed’, and especially ‘the double-whammy of ‘“Don’t kill me!” he shrieked in fear’ or ‘“I’m going to kill you very slowly”, he hissed menacingly’ etc.)

I suspect the preponderance of ‘padding’ stems from the same ‘show, don’t tell’ Writing 101 source eg ‘Tell us how Jane moves around her apartment — is she dashing, tiptoeing, staggering?.’

ETA X-posted with you, @Weedingtodo! Agreeing that it’s a ‘written’ not a ‘speech’ term.

They both are used to convey a very similar meaning.
Don't let's = do not let us
Let's not = let us not

"Let's not fall out over this" has essentially the same meaning as "don't let's fall out over this", the first being slightly more positive and the second somewhat more negative, ie "let's not" is suggesting an action to be taken, whereas "don't let's" is suggesting an action to be avoided or not taken.

Oops, cross-posted 😅

Except you just did 🤣

And you lot you've never heard of a good ride or a jersey IRL need to get out and meet more people outside of your own region!

I exclaimed! I didn’t say ‘exclaimed’. The thread title is-words in books we have never heard a real life person ‘say’.

Very much agree with this post.

Grateful to earlier posters for the education on jerry rigged versus jury rigged though.

She is always "padding"

It is true Jane seems to pad more than she prances, tiptoes or trudges. In a certain type of novel, anyway.

But that would be descriptive writing by the author rather than dialogue from the characters, which is what the thread is really about.

The chin has been defiantly raised twice since I last posted!

Have we had "palpable" yet? Things are often palpable in novels, usually fear and tension. I think that IRL the only things described as palpable are "masses" investigated by doctors.

Crikey i say fizzog, I'm 54 but will have got it from books or my parents. I didn't know it was posh, I am very much not from posh stock.

Yes agree, the book isn't saying someone said the word exclaimed is it!

but those words are literary devices to describe things. Although having said that I have described the tension as being palpable.

In nice words I have heard - heard someone use the word febrile in a meeting this week. Egregious is also popular where I work. Purview is another one that I approve of, infra dig (only heard once that was on the radio) and thin end of the wedge which is lovely to say.

I think all words are "literary devices used to describe things", aren't they?

The OP didn't restrict us to the dialogue in novels. So the words used in the author's narrative voice are fair game.

A friend used ‘batrachian” in a WhatsApp the other day, which I was very pleased by.

They're very fond of nugatory at work, which I have not really heard in use elsewhere.

Oh, god. I've said, heard, done and seen almost everything in this thread! Rather than admitting that I and everyone I know are pretentious, over-demonstrative twats, I prefer to think this is what happens when you've been reading a lot of things for a very long time, and have seen many films.

I clicked on the OP in hopes of "WE'RE BEING PULLED INTO THE EVENT HORIZON!" or "I confess that I have engaged regularly in sexual congress with agents of Satan". Or even "She was accosted on the Darlington road by a footpad".

That said, I'd quite like muggers to be called footpads again 😏

I use egregious a lot, but only in honour of the League of Gentlemen sketch in which it features.

Now, could footpads legitimately pad around their houses?

I thought footpads padded around the streets ĺooking to mug someone, rather than in houses.

😂 Great point! They'd have to slip their boots off - something no-one's ever done in the real world, boots having to be yanked, pulled, heaved or wriggled to remove.