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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.
Content note: this episode contains SWEARS. Category A swears! Educational though!
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EXTRA INFO:
Escumetorp AKA Scunthorpe in the Domesday Book.
“Scunthorpe was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Manley and the county of Lincolnshire. It had a recorded population of 21 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 40% of settlements recorded in Domesday, and is listed under 2 owners in Domesday Book.”
The name Skuma.
Newspaper report of the Scunthorpe Problem appearing, 9 April 1996.
iTunes having the Scunthorpe Problem early on.
An impressively ample amount of information about eel rents, thanks to the Surprised Eel Historian.
“How does a word denoting an innocent animal come to be used to refer to something as hideously ridiculous as a backside?”
Read the 1684 play Sodom, if you must.
The Clbuttic Problem replaces the problem words with ‘less naughty’ ones, like Buttbuttin’s Creed.
Otherlusionists: well, the C-word has been addressed from various different angles now, check out Detonating the C-Bomb which discusses the word appearing in place names deliberately; and there was the Serving C-Bomb episode earlier in Four Letter Word Season about recent developments with the word. Find the rest of Four Letter Word Season here. And in Apples, medlars’ appearance came up.
I’m performing a new piece about mystery-laden Dracula translations on Wednesday 10 September at Nerd Nite in Vancouver. There will also be people talking about Coast Salish art and sea otters! It’ll be good. Tickets are here.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
hachures, plural noun:
parallel lines used in hill shading on maps,
their closeness indicating steepness of gradient.
Derivaties: hachured, adjective.
Origin 19th century: from French from hacher (see ‘hatch').
CREDITS:
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Martin Austwick is a singer, musician and podcast maker. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and Bandcamp, and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch - and the podcast we have both been in since 2007, Answer Me This.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social… Essentially: if I’m there, I’m there as @allusionistshow.
Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.
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