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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.

In working on the Lovecraft ebook project (which is nearly complete and is in final proofreading), I compiled all of Lovecraft's original works in one file. So I took suggestions for words to count on the H.P. Podcraft forums and on Twitter.

The list is below. The only big surprises were “squamous,” which only appears once in an original story—“The Dunwich Horror”—, and “unutterable,” which only appeared 13 times.

Abnormal – 94 Accursed – 76 Amorphous – 19 Antediluvian – 10 Antiqu (e/arian) – 128 Blasphem (y/ous) – 92 Cat – 46 (whole word search) 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

At a commenter's request, I ran the names of some of the god/great old ones/other eldritch beings:

Gods, Great Old Olds, and other Eldritch Beings

Azathoth – 22 Cthulhu – 42 Dagon – 16 Nodens – 8 Nyarlathotep – 47 Shoggoth – 22 Shub-Niggurath – 8 Yog-Sothoth – 28

And in answer to another request:

Eldritch Tomes, Things and Locations

Tomes Necronomicon – 49 Pnakotic Manuscripts – 16 De Vermis Mysteriis – 2 Book of Eibon – 3 Eltdown Shards – 1 Nameless Cults (Unaussprechlichen Kulten) – 4 Things Elder Sign – 2 Locations Arkham – 159 Dunwich – 41 Innsmouth – 104 Kadath – 67 Kingsport – 43 Leng – 158 Miskatonic – 62 R'lyeh – 16 Yuggoth – 21 Irem – 12

Ok, so, someone very crudely asked about his use of the N-word. I've deleted the comment because I felt it was inappropriate. The answer however is 20 times in stories, 19 of which refer to the abominably-named cat and the other is in “The Picture in the House” if you want to avoid it. He did use the term of the time, “negro/es,” 25 times to refer to characters and inhabitants of regions and he certainly used that term in derogatory fashion. There is then his disgusting poem “On the Creation of N—,". To my knowledge, those are the instances. This is not an argument against his racism, just a note that he wasn't throwing around the N-word except when he was, in “The Rats in the Walls” and in the awful poem. His racism was of the type more likely to use “swarthy” as a perjorative.