Otherlusionists: hear more about misdivision with Susie Dent in To Err Is Human, ‘nice’ in the Hundredth, ‘glamour’ with Greg Jenner in Bonus 2020, and state mottos such as ‘Excelsior’ in The State of It.
And in last year’s Nightmare, with Paul Bae and Chelsey Weber-Smith, we covered the etymology of a lot of scary words, like ‘horror’, ‘haunt’, ‘satan’, ‘devil’ and ‘lemur’. Yes, lemur!
About those wood-chip-filled menstrual products.
Nice guy studies 1/2/3.
How to get into being a hedge witch.
The largest recorded mass execution for witchcraft in English history.
“Thirty women were brought into the town hall and stript [sic], and then openly had pins thrust into their bodies.” If the unfortunate women did not bleed, it meant they were witches. Almost certainly using a retractable pin, ‘the witchpricker’ - who was paid 20 shillings for each one he picked out - identified 28 witches.”
Elf-tymology, from Haggard Hawks: “Hiccups, for instance, were once elf-chokes. A tangle or knot of hair was an elf-lock. An elf-shot was a painful sore in the leg of a farm animal, supposed to have been caused by an elf’s arrow. “
Spanish X/J.
Excelsior!!
“Whenever you want to hear an Excelsior stuffer crying, you only have to give him fir wood excelsior.”

CREDITS:

This episode was written and produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with questions from you, the listeners! Thank you!
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
The Allusionist is an independent podcast. If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist.