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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 215. Two-Letter Words transcript

August 26, 2025 The Allusionist
a Boggle set spelling out Two Letter Words

This is the Allusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, cheat on my own four-letter word season thanks to this suggestion from listener Erica: “Perhaps an idea for a bonus ep of a 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. For example: aa, oe, and mm are all acceptable words. But ew is not.”

Spoiler, ‘ew’ is now! It was added to the Scrabble dictionary in 2018. So, enjoy that.

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In transcript 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 transcript

August 13, 2025 The Allusionist

HZ: Wolfsbane, fleabane, bugbane, dogbane, leopard’s bane. All these plants are poisonous. 
MARTIN AUSTWICK: Are these poisonous to those specific creatures? 
HZ: It would be amazing to discover that a plant is poisonous only to leopards.
MARTIN AUSTWICK: “I fed it to my dog fine. Pet leopard, no.”
HZ: "I just need something to keep all these leopards out my flowerbeds, but I want the squirrels to be okay."

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In transcript 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

Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations transcript

September 26, 2024 The Allusionist

Let’s hear it for some of the constellations that we used to have but are now ex-constellations. 

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In Tranquillusionist, transcript Tags history, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, etymology, vocabulary, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, Tranquillusionist, relaxation, tranquil, tranquillity, stars, sky, firmament, celestial, Ptolemy, asterism, IAU, International Astronomical Union, Hadrian, dogs, technology, printing press, Gutenberg, Uranus, William Hershel, Johann Bode, Zeus, goats, crabs, myth, Greek myth, Ancient Rome, Romans, Latin, Greek, gods, deities, saints, relics, Saint Veronica, Jesus, Ancient Greece, astronomy, astronomers, Cerberus, John Hill, Henry Fielding, beeves, beef, feuds, Jerome Lalande, cats, sycophancy, royals, monarchy, monarchs, King Charles II, Prussia, King George III, King Charles I, scepters, sceptres, slugs, login, log line, log book, worms, constellations, asterisms, Phaeton, Helios, Hercules, reindeer, Mapertuis, Alessandro Volta, Jacques Cassini, Capra, Titans, telescopes, Maximilian Hell, conception, pregnancy, navigation, pangolin, ventifact

Allusionist 182 Siblings of Chaos transcript

September 22, 2023 The Allusionist

HZ: I thought the etymology of 'gas' was a big surprise as well.
SUSIE DENT: Oh, yes. It is a sibling of chaos.
HZ: In a sense, we're all siblings of chaos.

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In transcript Tags etymology, words, language, lexicography, lexicon, vocabulary, history, dictionaries, dictionary, Susie Dent, nitwit, breathing, respiration, Paracelsus, JB Van Helmont, Dutch, JR Tolkien, reversal, semantic bleaching, maritime, false etymology, sea, sailors, fat, tallow, cows, cattle, meat, animals, organs, mining, mines, may, ruthless, discombobulate, recombobulation, deep dives, emotional granularity, mubblefubbles, belly, bellies, nits, rivers, hibernation, heart, guts, intestines, divination, plagues, religion, Paganism, Christianity, augers, auspex, JRR Tolkien, susurrus, fellow, cheap, Cheapside, trade, market, Romans, Ancient Rome, Egypt, posh, CANOE, dote, auspicious, bellycheer, bonanza, catastrophe, courage, derelict, derive, digs, dismay, eucatastrophe, flotsam, fond, gas, hibernacle, inauguration, inspire, inwit, jetsam, lagan, latibulate, nice, outwit, panning out, perspire, pluck, rival, silly, slush fund, spifflicate, spirit, suspire, taghaelm, vegetable

Allusionist 130 Valentine transcript

February 14, 2021 The Allusionist
A130 Valentine logo.jpeg

ST VALENTINE: I’m actually also the patron saint of beekeepers, epilepsy and plagues, but you don’t see beekeeper-shaped boxes of chocolates in the supermarkets in February, do you?

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, St Valentine, St Agatha, saints, martyrs, sainthood, patron saint, patronage, love, romance, Valentine’s Day, Ancient Rome, Rome, Roman Empire, Roman emperors, February, purification, sacrifice, religion, paganism, Christians, Christianity, plague, epilepsy, birds, Lupercalia, Lupercali, priests, Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, courtly love, rituals, goats, rhyton, mud month

Allusionist 123 Celebrity transcript

October 10, 2020 The Allusionist
A123 Celebrity logo.jpg

GREG JENNER: If we look back at classical sources, where do we get fame from? What does it mean? What's the origin point? The Greeks had a goddess called Pheme, and she is a winged, beautiful goddess, with a trumpet. She parps a trumpet. And that is your name being sung into the heavens through the trumpet. So it's a nice thing. It's good. You get fame and it means people going to hear about you. But when you get to the Romans, and we get one of the most famous Roman writers, Virgil, in his Aeneid, he talks about Fama, where we get our word 'fame' from. That derives from the verb 'fari', meaning to speak or gossip about someone. And Virgil's Fama is not a beautiful goddess with wings and a parping trumpet; she's basically Godzilla. She's a terrifying, massive monster who stalks the land and she's covered with eyes and ears and tongues, and she grows in scale the more people that are gossiping about you. So the more you're being chatted about or gossiped about, the larger this monster becomes until she's vanishing into the clouds and she never sleeps. And she hunts you down. And Virgil's version of fame is predatory. It's terrifying. It's this enormous force of nature that comes for you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Greg Jenner, Hank Green, Who Weekly, Lindsey Weber, Bobby Finger, celebrity, celebrities, fame, famous, notoriety, notorious, renown, respect, bad fame, infamous, infamy, reputation, skimmington, history, Lord Byron, Marilyn Monroe, David Attenborough, David Schwimmer, Schwimfans, Richard Nixon, Brian Austin Green, Angelina Jolie, Ovid, Julius Caesar, Virgil, Chaucer, Godzilla, Aeneid, Metamorphoses, Fama, poetry, religion, attention, stardom, stars, stellified, charisma, kleos, akleos, glory, economics, media, tabloids, magazines, paparazzi, Whos, Thems, Herostratus Syndrome, Herostratus, psychology, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Romans, Greeks, Romantic period, theatre, theater, movies, film, 18th century, 19th century, private lives, gossip, jobs, careers, goddesses, gods, deities, Greek deites, Pheme, infamia, law, legal, King Edward VI, Book of Common Prayer, sinners, Temple of Ephasus, meteorology, comets, celestial, Edmund Kean, Charises, Three Graces, X factor, X, oomph, oomphish, Ann Sheridan

Allusionist 98. Alter Ego - transcript

April 27, 2019 The Allusionist
A98 Alter Ego logo.jpg

Today: three pieces about alter egos, when your name - the words by which the world knows you - is replaced by another for particular purposes.

  • How did John Doe come to be the name for a man, alive or dead, identity unknown or concealed in a legal matter? Strap in for a whirlwind ride into some frankly batshit centuries-old English law.

  • At their first bout of the 2019 season, the London Roller Girls talk about how they chose their roller derby names - or why they chose to get rid of one.

  • The 1930s and 40s were a golden age for detective fiction, which was also very popular and lucrative. Yet writing it was disreputable enough for authors to hide behind pseudonyms.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, alter egos, embouchure, John Doe, Jane Doe, Mary Major, Richard Roe, law, legal, history, legal history, anonymity, anonymous, pseudonyms, names, ejectment, property, tenants, land, placeholder names, court case, courtroom, British law, plaintiffs, defendants, Ancient Rome, Romans, Latin, NN, Numerius Negidius, Aulus Agerius, JK Rowling, dead bodies, corpses, unknown, unidentified, Roe v Wade, Doe v Bolton, skating, roller derby, puns, punning, jokes, wordplay, sports, sport, London Roller Girls, LRG, Beyonce, Sasha Fierce, athletes, fonts, Helvetica, novels, fiction, detective fiction, Caroline Crampton, mystery novels, swears, Cecil Day-Lewis, Agatha Christie, Nicholas Blake, pen names, Robert Galbraith, Shedunnit, Detection Club, snobbery, genres, Elena Ferrante, unmasking, Mary Westmacott, books, married names, Max Mallowan

Allusionist 42+43. Survival: The Key rerun - transcript

May 4, 2018 The Allusionist
The Key logo.jpg

I’ve been working on this mini series of episodes about minority languages and the threats they face and how they survive. Last episode, Welsh speakers took the drastic step of migrating to Argentina. But in researching it all, I keep referring back to a pair of Allusionists from a while ago: The Key. Part one, Rosetta, was about how a language survives in a physical form when its humans die, featuring the smash hit archaeological object the Rosetta Stone, and its namesake the Rosetta Disk, the linguistic key to the future. Part two is about how to decipher a dead language and why it might have died.

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In transcript Tags language, language death, language extinction, Rosetta Project, Rosetta Stone, Rosetta Disk, dead languages, Latin, Romans, Ancient Rome, British Museum, Long Now Foundation, past, future, history, preservation, interpretation, decipher, translate, stele, Egypt, Egyptian, Napoleon, archaeology, multilingual, bilingual, Oscan, ancient, extinction, Italy, graffiti, ancient languages, monolingual, Survival

Allusionist 9. The Space Between - transcript

April 22, 2015 The Allusionist
1464002851063.jpeg

The Allusionist is a show about words, but today’s episode isn’t looking at words themselves, but what’s on either side of them: that is, nothingness. 

If it weren’t for the absence of words, the words themselves would be rather incomprehensible - how do you know where one word ends and the next begins without the space between? 

Since the spaces serve such a crucial function in language, I was pretty astonished to discover they are a lot younger than language itself.

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In transcript Tags spaces, punctuation, Kate Wiles, runes, Ancient Rome, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, writing, script, scribes, typography, Christianity, Irish
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Featured
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
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.