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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist: Apple Fest!

October 22, 2023 The Allusionist

All aboard, we're off to the 2023 Apple Festival at the University of British Columbia, to taste some apples and, most importantly, enjoy some apple names. And before that, we return to the classic Sporklusionist applesode to refresh our memory about how apple names are chosen - eponyms, portmanteaus, geography, or corporate R&D, just like how our ancestors named apples.

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In episodes Tags vocabulary, words, language, Sporklusionist, Sporkful, Dan Pashman, apples, Cosmic Crisp, apple names, history, apple history, fruit, trees, fruit trees, cultivars, varietals, cultivation, Washington, WA, WSU, Washington State University, Kathryn Grandy, Kate Evans, Joanna Crosby, pomology, pomologists, Bloody Ploughman, pippin, Victorians, Britain, National Apple Congress, names, eponyms, applenyms, cappletalism, euphemisms, congress, swears, bloody, risque, Honeycrisp, Enterprise, The Jetsons, marketing, Jazz apple, jazz, trademarks, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Snapdragon, Strawberry apple, Jonathan apple, Granny Smith, food, Cats Head, Casthead, Court Pendu Plat, Medlar, Orleans Reinette, France, French, food history, Bramley, pome fruit, breeding, fruit breeding, plants, Victorian Britain, brands, branding, brand names, products, product names, focus groups, consumer testing, accessions, fruiterers, Scorpion apple, British Columbia, BC, UBC, festivals, events, Apple Festival, kenning, McIntosh, Grimes Golden, Oaken Pin, Hannah McGregor, Martin Austwick, Canada, Canadian, Apple Macintosh

Allusionist 128. Bonus 2020

December 24, 2020 The Allusionist
A128 Bonus 2020 logo.JPG

To round off the year, here are some choice cuts from the Allusionist vault of interesting things that guests said that there wasn’t room for in the original episodes. Brace yourself for a vivid name for dust bunnies, the scary side of glamour, another reason to be grateful for bears, and Schrödinger’s Fart.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Victorians, Victorian Britain, 19th century, dysfunction, sex, sexuality, John Ruskin, JMW Turner, paintings, erotica, slut, slut holes, slut wool, apples, Avalon, bears, portmanteau, glamour, fan, fandom, fanatic, celebrity, celebrities, fame, seduction, charisma, James Rush, orators, oratory, stanning, Eminem, Stan, religion, divine, Britney Spears, Schrödinger’s fart, Australia, First Nations, Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal Australians, gubba, gubs, gender neutral, email, etiquette, dear, letters, pleasantries, Hamilton, formality, resumes, CVs, French, protest, slogans, Yiddish, Sholem Aleichem, translation, chickens, bagels, patulous, Rudi Bremer, Greg Jenner, MiMi Aye, Joanna Crosby, Kate Lister, Jonah Boyarin, Arun Viswanath, Anthony Russell, Gretchen McCulloch, bonus episode, bonus

Allusionist 107. Apples

October 8, 2019 The Allusionist
A107 Apples logo.jpg

Late 2019 will see the biggest apple launch of our lifetimes. 22 years in the making, ripening on millions of trees into picture-perfect redness, here comes the WA38, more snazzily known as the Cosmic Crisp. The name was the result of a year of focus groups, taste tests and word associations - a far cry from when apples were named after whichever end of a cat they resembled.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Sporklusionist, Dan Pashman, apples, Cosmic Crisp, apple names, history, apple history, fruit, trees, fruit trees, cultivars, varietals, cultivation, Washington, WA, WSU, Washington State University, Kathryn Grandy, Kate Evans, Joanna Crosby, pomology, pomologists, Bloody Ploughman, pippin, Victorians, Britain, National Apple Congress, names, eponyms, applenyms, cappletalism, euphemisms, congress, swears, bloody, risque, Honeycrisp, Enterprise, The Jetsons, marketing, Jazz apple, jazz, trademarks, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Snapdragon, Strawberry apple, Jonathan apple, Granny Smith, food, Cats Head, Casthead, Court Pendu Plat, Medlar, Orleans Reinette, France, French, food history, Bramley, pome fruit, breeding, fruit breeding, plants, Victorian Britain, brands, branding, brand names, products, product names, focus groups, consumer testing, accessions, fruiterers, Scorpion apple, Food Season, food names, foodstuffs
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
queer playlist
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.