When the Europeans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as guns, stoats and Christianity, they brought ideas of cisgender monogamous heterosexuality that were imposed upon the Māori people as if there had never been anything else. But one word, takatāpui, proved otherwise.
Read moreAllusionist 65. Eponyms III: Who's That Guy?
Roman Mars returns for our annual dose of eponyms - words that derive from people's names. This year: explosive revelations about the origins of the word 'guy'.
Read moreAllusionist 57: AD/BC
There’s a small matter I trip over regularly in the Allusionist:
Dates.
Not the fruit.
BC and AD, Before Christ and Anno Domini ('the year of the Lord' ('the Lord' also being Christ)).
How did Jesus Christ get to be all up in our system of counting the years?
Read moreAllusionist 52: Sanctuary
The term 'sanctuary cities' has been in the news a lot in the past few weeks, as places in the USA declare themselves to be havens for undocumented immigrants. Though 'sanctuary' has a history of meaning safety for the persecuted, it has an even longer history of meaning something quite different: refuge for criminals.
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