The word "venerable"

[ironscythe]

Dear Battletech writers;

It seems to me that at least one person in your writing staff is absolutely in love with the word "venerable", because it appears in vast quantities in almost every single TRO you've published. Now, I wouldn't raise a fuss if it was a word commonly used in the English language (I wouldn't notice it, if it were), but the truth of the matter is, it's not. I had never read it in print until I started reading Battletech, and it's absolutely strewn across your books like spent casings on a battlefield.

So, while I may be the ONLY person on the planet who actually cares about this, I have nevertheless taken the 5-or-so minutes to do a word search through my PDFs, counting how many times the word "venerable" is used in each of the recent "major" TROs (the Experimentals have two or three instances of it in each, so I'm not going to bother you with a longer list).

TRO Vehicle Annex: 5 times
TRO 3039: 6 times
TRO 3050 Upgrades: 24 times, a few pages with more than one.
TRO 3055 Upgrades: 8 times
TRO 3058 Upgrades: 10 times
TRO 3075: 8 times
TRO 3085: 9 times
TRO 3085 Supplemental: 3 times
TRO Prototypes: 15 times

Maybe this is just me being my usual obsessive-compulsive self, but seeing this word so many times really bugs me. It's the sign of a lazy writer to cling to a word like that. My advice is to invest in a really good thesaurus, because this is like how romance novels are with the word "manhood" (not to be vulgar, it's just an example).

So yeah, I'm not really trying to be offensive, but hey, you made an "ask the writers" forum for this kind of thing, right?

EDIT: It just now occurs to me that this could all be some kind of inside joke. If that is the case, I take back the comment about lazy writers...

[97jedi]

Ooh, I guess I'm guilty. I have one of those instances in TRO: Prototypes. However, finding none in my XTR: Kurita, I take exception that all the XTRs have two or three uses of the word. ;) Also, none of my entries in TRO: 3085 use the word in question. I cannot speak for the others, as I had no part in their writing. So maybe I'm just on the fringe of being lazy? :)

Since TRO: Prototypes has somewhere around 70000 words, and the hated word is used 15 times, that's 0.02%. Since (as you say) it's not a common word, then the fact it's used sparingly in the book should not be so distasteful?

I will also point out that a thesaurus is often used to replace a common word with one less common, no? So perhaps it's not that the writers are lazy after all, using as they do a word not in common parlance? Would not the entries get boring if the same common words were used to generate them all? (Note: I have been told that my entries are easy to spot because I apparently never miss a chance to use a ten-dollar word when a 5-cent one will do.)

However, if it's a conspiracy, I'm out of the loop. With multiple writers creating the entries for the print TROs, I doubt it's anything systemic. :)

[Paul]

I'm probably guilty of adding 'venerable' to the odd design or two. However, it's not by design.
Yeah, I'm kidding around there. As Geoff mentioned, most TROs are written by several writers in tandem. Rarely is there much communication about word usage overlap between entries, usually the focus is on creating an interesting story.


I'm curious though, I'm not inclined to associate admirable, aged, august, dignified, estimable, experienced, grave, honorable, honored, matriarchal, noble, patriarchal, philosophical, reverenced, reverend, sacred, sage, sedate, serious, stately, venerated, wise, worshipful, worshipped with robots.

I suppose that still leaves esteemed, grand, imposing, and revered, most (all?) of which are used with some frequency as well.

The problem is, if you're trying to describe something a few dozen times, you inevitable get some overlap in word usage. Multiply that with the number of writers, and the amount you counted is arguably low.

Paul

[ironscythe]

...using as they do a word not in common parlance?

You're just showing off now, aren't you?

I'm curious though, I'm not inclined to associate admirable, aged, august, dignified, estimable, experienced, grave, honorable, honored, matriarchal, noble, patriarchal, philosophical, reverenced, reverend, sacred, sage, sedate, serious, stately, venerated, wise, worshipful, worshipped with robots.

Aren't we all here because we worship robots, though?

I'm really glad to see from your responses that I'm not offending you (unless you're really restraining yourselves). Since my initial post, I've found myself unable to take myself very seriously. It must have taken the act of putting my frustration in type for me to realize the puerility (I can do it too, see?) of it all.

Then again, the evidence speaks for itself....

[Kit deSummersville]

I contributed to the list, once in TRO 3039 and once in TRO Prototypes. I think the Thunderbolt and Orion are old enough to merit the usage of the word. Did you compare the usage of "ancient" and "antique" as well?

[97jedi]

You're just showing off now, aren't you?

I don't think I was. I often get strange looks from people at work because I use words they've never heard. Anathema, empirical, thixotropic, anisotropy, adiabatic, and liquidus are some of those that stand out as making people's heads start to glow. (Oddly enough, though, pretty much everyone at work knows "eutectic", even the non-engineers/scientists; that comes from being a battery company, though.)

I'm really glad to see from your responses that I'm not offending you (unless you're really restraining yourselves).

Not at all. Read some of the truly venomous posts around here and you'll see that your post was a pleasant diversion. :)

Since my initial post, I've found myself unable to take myself very seriously.

Welcome to the club.  ;D