Harlan Ellison loved Scintilla.

Yes. And I hate it. Then of course I notice it more.

Dean Koontz uses “and half again as much” too often. It bothered me one time. Seeing it in several books bothers me even more.

I’ll still strive to read all of his books though.

Stephen King went through a taffy stage in IT. Stuff was stretching like taffy waaaay too often.

Nora Roberts/JD Robb has many, many characters ‘draw in a breath’ while thinking before they speak. Many.

Lois Bujold, in her science fiction and fantasy, uses ‘suffused’ an average of once per book. Which isn’t much over all, but it’s about once per book more than most authors would use it.

They’re called “Echoes” or “Echo words”.

It’s an editor’s job to remove them from the final manuscript. Writers tend not to write many chapters at once, or read through cover to cover so get “tunnel vision” when self editing. They might go back to an unfinished chapter and repeat words or phrases, forgetting they have just used that the day before. It’s incredibly common. Just like a musician playing their favourite lick, or drum fill.

Source: wife is an editor

Lisa Kleypas uses sardonic for almost every expression her male leads have.

Everything burst “asunder” in The Lord of the Rings :^)

Elizabeth George has Zimmer frames in EVERY book. (For Americans, that’s a walker, as in a mobility aid.)

Authors definitely have crutch words. Sometimes it doesn’t bother me too much if it’s a really common word. But seeing acerbic often would drive me nuts.

Kawaguchi says “vegetative state” like 10 times in 10 pages in the new Before the Coffee Gets Cold. But he’s notorious for repeating himself anyway

Enzyme bonded concrete

Issac Asimov writes a lot of characters that do things “sardonically.”

I remember having this same experience with Faulkner and the word “inexorable”.

“Barbarism” appeared way too much in Foundation for me.