Howard Phillips Lovecraft in 1915 [image source]
In 2011, blogger Cthulhu Chick [1] counted American author H. P. Lovecraft‘s favorite words:
One of the things any fan of Lovecraft discovers early on is that Lovecraft was very attached to certain words. We either laugh or groan every time we hear something described as “indescribable” or called “unnamable” or “antiquarian” or “cyclopean.” And sometimes we wonder how many times he actually used the words.
This is the list:
Abnormal – 94, Accursed – 76, Amorphous – 19, Antediluvian – 10, Antiqu (e/arian) – 128, Blasphem (y/ous) – 92, Cat – 46, Charnel – 20,Comprehension – 9, Cyclopean – 47, Dank – 19, Decadent – 32, Daemoniac – 55, Effulgence – 4, Eldritch – 23, Faint (ed/ing) – 189, Foetid – 22,Fungus/Fungoid/Fungous – 54, Furtive – 60, Gambrel – 21, Gibbous – 9, Gibber (ed/ing) – 10, Hideous – 260, Immemorial – 25, Indescribable – 25, Iridescence – 2,Loath (ing/some) – 71, Lurk – 15, Madness – 115, Manuscript – 35, Mortal – 27, Nameless – 157, Noisome – 33, Non-Euclidean – 2, Proportion/Disproportionate – 53,Shunned – 54, Singular (ly) – 115, Spectral – 60, Squamous – 1, Stench – 59, Stygian – 6, Swarthy – 14, Tenebrous – 9, Tentacle(s) – 28, Ululat (e/ing) – 4,Unmentionable – 16, Unnamable – 22, Unutterable – 13
See also: frequency list
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