: I don't know of any well established method for doing this, and after a little searching I've come to suspect that there probably isn't one (though somebody else is free to correct me if

@Pierce369

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I don't know of any well established method for doing this, and after a little searching I've come to suspect that there probably isn't one (though somebody else is free to correct me if I'm wrong).

With this in mind, I think what you need to do is to try to exploit the reactions you expect people to have to the examples you suggested, and play these off against each other. Ultimately, I think, this is what all grammar is about: using the relationship between people's responses to things to convey meaning.

Italics, then, as in "I was expecting the president to be a middle aged man and then this boy comes in", gives the impression that the word is important and that it stands alone, but can also come off as somewhat forceful and confident, and therefore doesn't suggest the hesitation that you're hoping to convey.

Using ellipsis, as in "I was expecting the president to be a middle aged man and then this... boy... comes in" could suggest hesitation, but it can also suggest (as you say) that something has been omitted.

Play them off against each other, however - "I was expecting the president to be a middle aged man and then this... boy... comes in", and these two effects seem to cancel each other out. It no longer looks (to my eye, at least) as if "boy" is part of a larger, truncated phrase, because the italics flag it up as of unique, standalone importance. The ellipsis, in turn, makes it clear that this the speaker didn't stride confidently into the word either. I think this is the effect you're after.

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