[PKFFW]

Sometimes I see a word that seems just so out of place that it screams "wrong word choice, just plain wrong".

Recent example: She roared in terror.

Now the way I think of it you can scream in terror, you can cry in terror, you can squeal in terror......you can do lots of things in terror but I can't get my head around roaring in terror.

Why: Because, to me, roaring has an expansive, aggressive, forthright, open, confident etc etc feel to it. Terror on the other hand has a shrinking, withdrawing, cringing, closed, etc etc feel to it.

So I just can't fathom someone roaring in terror. It seemed so out of place to me that I was jolted out of the story, snorted in disgust, griped about authors who don't put any thought into word choice and felt compelled to to turn to my wife and read her the entire paragraph containing that sentence to see if she would pick it.

She didn't.

So that got me to thinking......is it totally subjective or can there really be words that are just plain wrong for the chosen purpose or context?