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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 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet

August 30, 2024 The Allusionist

Next episode is the 200th, therefore this is the 199th. I raid the 66-page documents of ideas for episodes, that I have been keeping for nearly a decade, and present to you 199 ideas that I have not yet made into podcasts (except for this one).

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In episodes Tags words, language, history, etymology, vocabulary, Juliet Club, Romeo and Juliet, Verona, lost positives, desperate, prefixes, suffixes, Mc-, -core, -tron, -opoli, photography, smiles, animals, cows, cattle, Samuel Maverick, Maury Maverick, gobbledegook, legal, law, punctuation, Ancient Romans, trousers, clothing, clothes, pubs, bears, translation, fencing, kaput, caput, head, hats, hoods, medicine, trademarks, eponyms, popsicles, portmanteau, spiders, Hawaii, Hawaiian, protest, Kaleikoa Kaʻeo, Mele Kalikimaka, capes, Ludo, Parcheesi, Richard Kimble, cowboys, courtroom, oaths, DMV, vanity plates, Joe Lycett, knots, Kevin, Karen, saints, pastry, food, copaganda, police, humour, fine, idioms, rain, Sarah, names, euphemisms, place names, comedians, comedy, apartheid, sign language, Yolgnu, Australia, pandanus, nuts, posthumous, death, calendar, time, distance, measurement, emoji, pizza, X, K, H, dogs, France, French, master bedroom, master, technology, masterpiece, problematic, Scouts, Embers, renaming, spinsters, single, censorship, pregnancy, charcuterie, mushrooms, fly agaric, volcanoes, doula, gender inclusive language, gender inclusivity, chestfeeding, queerness, queer, LGBTQIA+, IKEA, products, product names, branding, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, printing, craft, cross stitch, bad decisions, problematic eponyms, Miranda rights, viruses, lost letters, heroin, aspirin, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Johann Fust, Johannes Gutenberg, smells, granola, vampires, shoes, werewolf, bums, acme, acne, acumen, aftermath, album, amateur, attercop, average, beret, bespoke, biceps, bloomers, boudoir, bracatus, brochure, candletwist, capsize, chaperone, chord, cliche, cobweb, concrete, crestfallen, croupier, culottes, cynosure, delete, dessert, dutto, dwell, elixir, escape, extravagant, fathom, faux pas, foible, forte, furlong, germane, gimbal, glucose, Grape Nuts, grenade, habit, halcyon, harlot, jade, Kensington gore, limousine, loom, lower case, magenta, malaria, maverick, menu, miasma, migraine, negative, noon, nurse, Oprah Winfrey, overwhelm, pageant, patio, pecuniary, pedigree, petition, pluck, pomegranate, popsicle, positive, puce, retina, riposte, rival, rosemary, sabotage, salty, scavenger, schwa, scruple, slogan, sperate, stereotype, stillicide, stiricide, tabloid, taint, thornback, toady, travesty, treadmill, tutu, twist, tyre, upper case, valid, vamp, vindication, volcano, weregild, whelm, Winterfylleth

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 Schrƶdinger’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, Schrƶdinger’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 124. Nightmare

October 25, 2020 The Allusionist
Allusionist 124 nightmare logo

This is the Alloooooooooosionist, in which we learn about the etymology of some scary words for Halloween, with the help of Paul Bae of The Black Tapes and The Big Loop podcasts, and Chelsey Weber-Smith of the podcast American Hysteria. Beware of demons! Satan! The bogeyman! Lemurs!

Wait - lemurs??

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Paul Bae, Chelsey Weber-Smith, sex, demons, sleep, bogeyman, boggart, bugaboo, bugbear, cobalt, devil, demon, haunt, horror, incubus, jack-o’-lantern lemur, nickel, nightmare, satan, succubus, bristling, hair, scary, adjectives, adverbs, Korea, Korean, myths, legends, folklore, hell, heaven, spirits, bears, fear, mining, miners, goblins, animals, elements, satanic, satanic panic, bible, Ancient Greek, slander, gods, turnips, kobold, copper, kupfernickel, Hebrew, adversary, Old Testament

Allusionist 92. To Err is Human

January 23, 2019 The Allusionist
A92 logo To Err is Human.jpg

If you wince when you hear someone say ā€œa whole nother levelā€, ā€œhone in onā€ or ā€œright from the geckoā€, here’s some bad news: you might have to get used to it. The English language is full of words and expressions that were mistakes that stuck around. Countdown’s Susie Dent holds our hands and takes us on a tour of misspellings, mishearings, scrambled letters, and bear cubs.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, Susie Dent, Countdown, history, lexicographers, anagrams, mistakes, jerusalem artichokes, curry favour, favor, expressions, sayings, malaphors, eggcorns, bears, swearing, swears, cusses, euphemisms, zounds, gadzooks, jeepers creepers, Jiminy Cricket, arse ropes, English, errors, debt, doubt, dord, plumber, umpire, nickname, cherries, jerusalem artichoke, freelance, lick into shape, secretary, hangnail, buttonholing, shamefaced, Latin, Old English, Middle English, profanity, liripipe, liripoop

Allusionist 41: Getting Toasty

August 21, 2016 The Allusionist

When you choose to spend the winter in Antarctica, you'll be prepared for it to be cold. You know that nobody will be leaving or arriving until springtime. And you're braced for months of darkness. But a few weeks after the last sunset, you might find you can't even string a sentence together.

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In episodes Tags words, language, slang, Antarctica, Arctic, polar, South Pole, North Pole, bears, thyroid, Polar T3 Syndrome, exploration, explorers, McMurdo, darkness, forgetfulness, getting toasty, toastiness, cabin fever, birds, skua, ice
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Featured
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Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 221. Scribe
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Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
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Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
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Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
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Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
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Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
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Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.