Language fun + odd fixations = this blog post

So I have a tend of picking up and overusing little phrases or words for periods of time. Sometimes I'm conscious of where these come from, sometimes I'm not. I recently became aware of someone I've spent a lot of time speaking with using a word that I had often been aware of myself using but had not observed from others, in this case "eep." I suspected that I had passed the usage of the word along, but I did not know where I had picked it up from, or who else I may have spread it to.

This interested me, so, as you do, I did some research into the usage of the word on our forums. I was very interested in what I found and welp now here's this

Most uses were for the spelling "eep" notes have been made where there are extra Es

• @Stella Blue 6/25/16, Writers Journals
• @Veritaserum27 7/4/16, Reviewing Talk (*eeeep - only use of 4 Es)
• @dreamgazer220 8/4/16, Monthly Awards & Actvities
• @MuggleMaybe 8/7/16, Hufflepuff Basement (*eeep)
• pointlessproclamations 8/21/16, Monthly Awards & Activities (this usage was actually edited into the post by Stella Blue)
• dreamgazer220 8/22/16, Site Announcements, Resources, & Help
• dreamgazer220 8/27/16, Monthly Awards & Activities
• @esmeraude 1/10/17, Hufflepuff basement (*eeep)
• Veritaserum27 4/1/17, Monthly Awards & Activities
• MuggleMaybe 8/11/17, status post on a Hufflepuff's page
• @forever_dreaming 9/21/17, status post on a Ravenclaw’s page (*eeeeep - only use of 5 Es)
• @danicasyer 10/25/17, Other Fandoms
• @Renacerá 10/29/17, Writers Journals
• dreamgazer220 12/9/17, Story Challenges
• Stella Blue 1/15/18, Writers Journals
• Stella Blue 1/15/18, Hufflepuff Basement (*eeep)
• @victoria_anne 3/3/18, Hufflepuff Basement
• Dojh167 3/4/18, Hufflepuff Basement
• dreamgazer220 4/7/18, Novel Nests
• Dojh167 4/8/18, Hufflepuff Basement
• MuggleMaybe 4/15/18, Hufflepuff Basement (*eeep)

Ten users have used some variation of the word a total of 21 times. Of those, 8 of the users and 18 of the times were by Hufflepuffs, with the remaining to users and 3 times being Ravenclaws.

My data is naturally limited by the fact that I do not have access to other house common rooms or staff/prefect areas of the site, which may reveal that the usage of this word is not as predominantly Hufflepuff as this data implies. I welcome any additional contribution of data.

The use of four and five Es as unique to Ravenclaw users suggests there may be a distinct house culture associated with accepted spellings

I was surprised that my own uses of the word were fairly limited and appeared late in the pattern. While I believe I have been using this word for at least two years, it is possible that my use has been limited to deleted house cup event threads or twitter chat messages (both of which would be primarily Hufflepuff exchanges)

Occurrences of the word seems to have natural peaks and valleys. It would be interesting to research if these periods follow house cup events, during which time these users have higher exposure to each other’s enthusiastic outbursts.

The word seems to be most often be used to convey flattered gratitude at receiving an honor, an expression of excitement, or embarrassment for a transgression

While occurrences are often in the same subforum, the spelling "eep" was never used twice in the same thread, though in one case "eeep" was used twice in the same thread (though on different pages), in both cases apologizing for a double post

A quick search of TDA returned 200 results since 2013, with only one usage appearing during 2017

The subforum most likely to contain the word is the Hufflepuff Basement, with 7 out of 21 uses found there,

Dreamgazer220 has used the word the most, with 5 recorded instances

Stella Blue has the distinction of being the one person to use the word twice in a single day, though she varied the spelling on that day, from "eep" to "eeep" an hour and a half later. The only other user to have fluctuated spellings is Veritaserum27.

MuggleMaybe seems to be the most consistent in her use of the word, which she has used once for each calendar year, each time with the less common spelling of “eeep”