Said-Bookism
Said-Bookism, a term used in book reviews, derides the studious avoidance, in writing dialogue, of the word "said," substituting verbs such as "interjected", "huffed," "retorted" or "uttered" — and, especially, to the use of inappropriate words such as “ejaculated,” "snorted" or "giggled." It is a type of Roget's Disease.
An example of this taken to ludicrous extremes, well-loved in fandom, comes from Ring Lardner’s satirical 1920 novella “The Young Immigrunts”:
Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly. Shut up he explained.
James Blish, writing under the penname William Atheling, Jr., for Redd Boggs' fanzine Sky Hook during the mid-1950s, coined the term after The Said Book, the title of a booklet for aspiring writers listing countless alternatives to the word "said."
It has since crept into mundane literary criticism.
| Fanspeak | 1950s— |
| This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc. |
