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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 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee

September 24, 2025 The Allusionist

In their heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, there were more than 200 - possibly more than 400 - feminist restaurants and coffee shops in the USA and Canada. These places were aiming to change ways of working, and upend the hierarchies of restaurants; to provide food that was ethically sourced and affordable to customers, while providing staff with a decent wage; to signal to particular kinds of people that a space was specifically for them. They didn't always succeed, and often they didn't last for more than a couple of years. But they sure did try things.

Dr Alex Ketchum from McGill University, author of the book Ingredients for Revolution, a History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses and cofounder of the Queer Food Conference, explains the ups and downs of how these places used words.

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In episodes Tags society, culture, words, language, history, etymology, vocabulary, Alex Ketchum, 1970s, 1980s, USA, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, spaces, feminists, feminism, lesbians, queer, trans, LGBTQIIA+, female, menu, food, signalling, politics, code words, hierarchy, collectives, waitstaff, cooks, chefs, terminology, social, work, labour, workplace, Bloodroot, ecofeminism, vegetarian, vegan, eating, recipes, dishes, food eponyms, eponyms, alcohol, caffeine, drugs, dieting, diet culture, dele, gourmet

Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk

September 8, 2025 The Allusionist
A Boggle set spelling out the word 'terisk' which isn't a real word

Watching the film Legally Blonde one day with the subtitles on, numerous perfectly innocuous words were partially asterisked out, because of a technological problem I can't name here lest this episode be blocked from search results, thus becoming an example of the problem itself.

Who's to blame? A 900-year-old man from Lincolnshire. Although he didn't ask for this either.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags etymology, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, history, vocabulary, four letter words, England, Old English, Domesday Book, Doomsday Book, census, Skuma, land, Lincolnshire, towns, town names, place names, Martin Austwick, asterisks, subtitles, programming, errors, blocklist, swears, obscenity, AOL, Dominic Cummings, technology, internet, online, cunt, C word, swearing, block, Plymouth, Clitheroe, Penistone, Lightwater, Horniman Museum, Scunthorpe Problem, Clbuttic Problem, euphemisms, Legally Blonde, Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon, payment, rent, eels, king, royals, prosthetic E, Normans, bottoms, donkeys, plays, mores, arse, ass, hachures, Scunthorpe

Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words

August 26, 2025 The Allusionist

Listener Erica commented: "Perhaps an idea for a bonus ep of Four Letter Word season would be one on two-letter words: there’s an established list that Scrabble nerds end up memorizing, and it’s full of weirdness." In fact, there are TWO established lists, NASPA, the North American Scrabble Players Association, which has currently 107 two-letter words, and Collins Scrabble Words, formerly known as SOWPODS, used by the rest of the world and contains at present 127 two-letter words.

And this episode, we're going to hear all those two-letter words. If you don't agree with their Scrabbular validity, don't blame me! Some of the inclusions were a surprise, frankly!

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In episodes Tags words, language, lexicography, etymology, lexicon, history, vocabulary, two letter words, Scrabble, games, board games, CSW, Collins Dictionary, Collins Scrabble Words, North American Scrabble Players Association, NASPA, SOWPODS, dictionaries, Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, souls, asses, coin, pronouns, Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻian, ʻokina, birds, musical notes, scale, solfège, Māori, Odin, animals, yaks, portmanteau, portmantNO, hesitation, ad lib, tracasseries, yattle

Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath

August 13, 2025 The Allusionist

For today’s instalment of Four Letter Word season, we’re hopping from ‘bane’ to ‘bain’ to ‘bath’, via poison gardens, doll’s eyes, alchemists, placentas and waterborne curses.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags etymology, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, history, vocabulary, four letter words, Martin Austwick, Batman, Bath, Somerset, baths, Ancient Rome, Roman Empire, ancient Britain, Celts, Celtic, sacred spring, curse tablets, curses, cursing, deities, gods, water, plants, poison, Ancient Egypt, Egyptian, Cato, recipes, cakes, hollandaise sauce, cooking, cookery, food, medicine, alchemy, wolfsbane, woke, doll’s eyes, leopards, expressions, butterflies, mariposa, marigold, flowers, enemies, dung, grievances, UNESCO, heritage, lead, ancient history, theft, punishment, autobahn, bain marie, bane, manticore, placenta

Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino

July 21, 2025 The Allusionist
A Boggle grid spelling out the word 'dino'. Two small toy dinosaurs are peeking in from the sides

The latest four letter word of Four Letter Word season is dino. 'Dinosaur' is derived from Greek 'terrible lizard', and they could have called it 'whopping great lizard' or 'sublime lizard' or 'hey cool lizard', but no. TERRIBLE.

Professor Hannah McGregor of Material Girls podcast and author of the book Clever Girl: Jurassic Park explains humans' relationship with language for dinosaurs, and why 'terrible' might be a perfect choice.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags etymology, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, history, vocabulary, four letter words, dino, dinosaurs, palaeontology, fossils, Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton, films, movies, 19th century, awe, Crystal Palace, parks, Victorians, museums, Latin, Greek, T-rex, sublime, taxonomy, semantics, terrible, nature, natural history, ancient, extinct, bones, creatures, animals, reptiles, lizards, plesiosaur, geology, zoos, safaris, spectacle, spectacular, discomfort, Richard Owen, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Bone Wars, Othniel Charles Marsh, Edward Drinker Cope, categories, categorising, apatosaurus, athanor, brontosaurus, deinonychus, dinosaur, mastodon, megalosaurus, tyrannosaurus, tyrant, velociraptor, dynamoterror, lizard, naming, names, nipples, teeth, nipple teeth, claws, pentaceratops, triceratops, Oedipus, eugenics, Alberta, Canada, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Princess Louise, vagina dentata
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Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park

July 4, 2025 The Allusionist

Get in, winner: we're going on a field trip.

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In episodes, eponyms, Four Letter Words Tags society, culture, words, language, history, vocabulary, four letter words, Vancouver, Indigenous Canadians, parks, land, public space, Justin McElroy, Canada, British Columbia, BC, trout, leisure, outside, outdoors, play, nature, plants, trees, eponyms, cities, city, urban, CRAB Park, ports, houselessness, Dude Chilling Park, art, sculpture, Guelph Park, John Hendry Park, Trout Lake, Sun Hop Park, Choklit Park, Stanley Park, names, Viktor Briestensky, fipple
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Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate

June 23, 2025 The Allusionist
A boggle grid spelling out the word 'gate'

The other day was the 53rd anniversary of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, which not only caused a lot of political uproar, it had a big linguistic legacy: the suffix -gate to mean a scandal.

Today, as part of Four Letter Word season, we have a list of -gates - royal, sporting, political, food, showbiz - it's a non-exhaustive list because there are so many, and new ones are being spawned all the time. Content warning for all sorts of bad human behaviour.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags society, culture, words, language, arts, history, vocabulary, four letter words, snowclone, libfix, suffixes, scandal, Watergate Hotel, Watergate Complex, Watergate Scandal, Washington DC, Watergate, Richard Nixon, Foggy Bottom, Mr Blobby, Blobbyland, England, Noel Edmonds, theme parks, politics, food, entertainment, sport, sports, wine, football, soccer, corruption, curling, butter, Ariana Grande, Royal Family, monarchy, King Charles III, Princess Diana, Queen Camilla, Prince Charles, Sarah Ferguson, Fergie, meats, tabloids, headlines, newspapers, media, Australia, Tony Abbott, Theresa May, onions, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Mumsnet, biscuits, Mauritius, Macarena, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Argentina, Venezuela, Denmark, mink, Panama Papers, UK Government, Downing Street, prime minister, covid, coronavirus, lockdown, police, doughnuts, donuts, Nutella, Quebec, French, pasta, pasties, chess, blood, rugby, fake, NFL, balls, farts, crime, Gamergate, gaming, baseball, GBBO, Great British Bake Off, Baked Alaska, ice cream, TV, television, Academy Awards, Oscars, Moonlight, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Chicago, Super Bowl, poop, radio, Harry Styles, spit, Chris Pine, politicians, zwitterion, gate, -gate
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Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz

June 7, 2025 The Allusionist

Four Letter Word season continues with a quiz (which is a four-letter word itself) about four letter words. Listen and play along to test your etymological knowledge, and hear about the original nepo baby, John Venn's invention that wasn't the venn diagram, brat, gunk, rube, the time(s) Led Zeppelin changed their name, and plenty more.

Click here to use the interactive score sheet.

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In episodes, quiz, Four Letter Words Tags etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, words, language, arts, history, four letter words, quiz, kombucha, body parts, foot, feet, Bible, euphemisms, metanyms, lead, Led Zeppelin, The Nobs, nepo babies, nepotism, popes, Vatican, cardinals, nephew, John Venn, eponyms, Stigler’s Law, inventions, cricket, quails, collective nouns, collective terms, Muhammad Ali, GOAT, Greatest Of All Time, petri dish, Robert Koch, microbiology, moist chamber, Pliny the Elder, knights, Mariko Aoki phenomenon, bookshops, bowel movements, poop, pooping, square, cube, weights, measures, lengths, units of measurement, Pope Paul III, Pope Innocent XII, slugs, The Yardbirds, lawsuits, soap, sapo, cleaning products, accolade, bevy, brat, G.O.A.T., gunk, lights, limaceous, lungs, onyx, rostellum, rube, SCOBY, venn diagram
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Allusionist 209. Four Letter Words: Serving C-Bomb

May 25, 2025 The Allusionist

Ten years ago, on the fourth ever episode of the show, I investigated why the C-word is considered a worse swear than the others. Since then - well really just in the last three years or so - there has been a huge development: the word has hit the mainstream as a compliment, in the forms of serving it and -y. Linguists Nicole Holliday and Kelly Elizabeth Wright discuss these uses of the word originating in the ballroom culture of New York City in the 1990s, and what it means to turn such a strong swear into praise.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, arts, history, four letter words, swearing, profanity, obscenity, swears, taboo, slang, cursing, curses, insults, slurs, dictionaries, parts of speech, Nicole Holliday, Kelly Elizabeth Wright, cunt, cunty, serving cunt, African American English, AAE, African American Language, AAL, Puerto Rican English, ballroom, NYC, New York City, queer, gender, reclamation, performance, reclaimed words, new use, semantics, internet, online, TikTok, drag, RuPaul Charles, RuPaul’s Drag Race, slay, rizz, Tom Hanks, Chet Hanks, Colin Hanks, bench-hanks, compliments, body parts, genitals, cultural appropriation, speech acts, sentiment, intensity, Beyonce, Kevin Aviance, Cunty The Feeling, sound symbolism, plosives, coulisse

Allusionist 208. Four Letter Words: Ffff

May 11, 2025 The Allusionist
a boggle grid spelling the word fuck

Welcome to four letter word season!

We're kicking off with one of the most versatile words: it can be a noun, verb, punctuation, expostulation, full sentence on its own; it can be an intensifier, an insult and a compliment... and a Category A swear. Thus, of course, content note: this episode contains many category A swears, plus some sexual references.

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In episodes, Four Letter Words Tags etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, history, four letter words, Jesse Sheidlower, F Word, swearing, obscenity, swears, fuck, fucking, infixing, tmesis, dictionaries, taboo, slang, cursing, curses, insults, publishing, Jonathan Lighter, place names, surnames, last names, acronyms, backronyms, fugazi, Allen Walker Read, Horace Walpole, John S Farmer, W E Henley, Bristol, Austria, fugging, parts of speech, AI, sex, sexual, internet, online, Roger, shit, cunt, slurs, FUBAR, katabatic, SNAFU, profanity
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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
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.