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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 224. Cosmic Hairball

February 5, 2026 The Allusionist
A boggle grid spelling out the words 'cosmic hairball'

Pack your oxygen tank, we're going up to space. There’s a lot of etymology up there.

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In episodes Tags lexicon, etymology, society, culture, words, language, space, celestial, sky, heavens, planets, stars, celebrity, stardom, ill-starred, atmosphere, astronomy, astrology, month, moon, menstruation, moonstruck, health, mental health, lunar, Norse mythology, Jupiter, Jove, Saturn, aether, volcanoes, Ancient Greece, gods, deities, wine, symposiarch, omens, weather, meteorology, meteoroids, iron, milk, comet, crater, depression, disaster, eccentric, ether, galaxy, jovial, meniscus, meteor, meteorite, Milky Way, nadir, orbit, saturnine, starstruck, symposium, zenith, scuncheon, scrunchions
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Featured
Allusionist 224. Cosmic Hairball
Allusionist 224. Cosmic Hairball
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
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
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.