Mannerism (n)

“Mannerism (noun): An author’s marked or habitual peculiarity of style; characteristically individual locution or stylistic idiosyncrasy; artificiality. Adjective: mannered; manneristic.

‘Much of what struck foreign observers as bizarre in American description was the new linguistic confusion of present and future, fact and hope. This became a mannerism, or even a mode of American speech. Statements which foreigners took for lies or braggadocio, American speakers intended to be vaguely clairvoyant.’”

Daniel Boorstin, The Americans

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.