Allusionist 79. Queer
Strange or obtuse; a stinging homophobic slur; a radical political rejection of normativity; a broad term encompassing every and any variation on sexual orientation and gender identity: the word 'queer' has a multifarious past and complicated present. This is just a fraction of it.
Tracing the word's movements are Kathy Tu and Tobin Low from Nancy podcast, Eric Marcus from Making Gay History, and historian and author Amy Sueyoshi, with Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye.
Read moreAllusionist 76. Across the Pond
Pavement/sidewalk; football/soccer; bum bag/fanny pack: we know that the English language is different in the UK and the USA. But why? Linguist Lynne Murphy points out the geographical, cultural and social influences that separate the common language.
Read moreAllusionist 71. Triumph/Trumpet/Top/Fart
It's a year since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. And in that year, he's caused a lot of changes in the job of constitutional law professor Elizabeth Joh of What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law podcast - in particular, one verb is now off limits.
Plus, Paul Anthony Jones, aka etymologist extraordinaire Haggard Hawks, describes how politicians' names work their way into our vocabularies.
CONTENT NOTE: this episode contains references to the 45th president of the USA. I know a lot of you listen to The Allusionist for a little escape from politics and current affairs, so let me reassure you that there is not much modern politics in the episode; it’s mostly about history and interesting word facts.
Read moreAllusionist 55: Namaste
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder wants people to stop saying 'namaste' after a yoga session.
Read moreAllusionist 46: The State Of It
Each of the 50 states in the USA has its own motto. The motto might be found on the state seal, or the state flag; more often than not, it might be in Latin, or Spanish, or Chinook; it might be a phrase or a single word. And if you think you know what yours is, check that it is not in fact an advertising slogan.
Read moreAllusionist 33: Please
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There's an ocean between Britain and the USA, but an even wider division between each country's use of a particular word: 'please'.
Linguists Lynne Murphy and Rachele De Felice explain how one nation's obsequiousness is another nation's obnoxiousness.
PLEASE, READ MORE ABOUT IT:
Lynne Murphy’s blog is Separated By A Common Language. She has written about ‘please’ and ‘please’ in restaurants.
Anthropologist David Graeber considers the reciprocity in using these niceties.
This claims to be a history of etiquette, but is mainly about forks. Get the forks right, and the rest follows (or so the fork tyrants would have you believe).
Emily Post may have died in 1960, but she’s still looking out for your manners. Keeping the Post flag politely flying, her great-great-grandchildren host the Awesome Etiquette podcast.
There's a transcript of this episode at theallusionist.org/transcripts/please.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
linstock
CREDITS:
Lynne Murphy's blog is separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com and she is @lynneguist on Twitter. Rachele De Felice is @racagain on Twitter. If you're interested in linguistics, follow them!
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with music by Martin Austwick.
Please find me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
Please come back for another episode in two weeks.
- HZ
Allusionist 32: Soho
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Around the world, there are several places called Soho, getting their names from an acronym-portmanteau-ish composite of local streets or neighbouring areas. But not the original Soho in London. In fact, London's place names are an etymological hotchpotch: landmarks present and long gone; 1000-year-old vanity projects; and Cockfosters.
This is a companion piece to the 99% Invisible episode 'The Soho Effect', about the proliferation of acranamed places.
MO SOHO INFO
Peruse lots of historical and modern pieces about Soho on the Museum of Soho's blog, and find their touch screen exhibit on Sherwood Street.
The Soho Stories app will take you on a walk around Soho and play anecdotes into your ear when you pass notorious places.
There are so many stories of Soho, usually saturated with booze and sex; these ones are quite endearing.
There’s yet another Soho in Britain’s second city, Birmingham. There are acranamers claiming it’s from ‘SOuth HOuse’, but it’s probably a second win for the hunting cry.
Learn about Pittsburgh’s former Soho.
Have a look at the first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus.
Read an 1878 account of Soho, if you can handle the verbosity.
The Londonist was keeping track of the city’s rebranded areas.
Encyclopedia Briannica just tweeted to tell me that ‘acranames’ are actually ‘clipped compounds’. Yeah, but accuracy’s gain is acromanteaus’ loss.
Hungry for more portmanteau words? There's a feastmanteau in the Brunch episode of this show.
There's a transcript of this episode at theallusionist.org/transcripts/soho.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
yarak
CREDITS:
Tony Shrimplin is the chair of the Museum of Soho, a grassroots community project which you can find at mosoho.org.uk and twitter.com/TheMuseumOfSoho. Pop into their Bowie's London exhibition, 9-23 April at 35 Beak St. You can also hear him on Soho Radio, Sundays at 10am.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, except for the bit that was produced by Avery Trufelman and 99% Invisible. The music is by Martin Austwick.
Tony and I met in the Soho landmark Black's Club, who very kindly paused the coffee machine while we were talking.
Sound the hunting cries at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
Let's reconvene in two weeks for another of these.
- HZ
Allusionist 30: US Election Lexicon
The 2016 US election isn't going away anytime soon, so let's seek refuge in etymology, as we did before in the first Election Lexicon.
EXCESS BAGGAGE:
Oxford Dictionaries have had enough of these political terms, and perhaps so have you.
Lo, here's a short history of filibustering.
The linguistics of mass persuasion: how politicians make ‘fetch’ happen.
And in case you needed to know about the sex lives of politicians during primaries, the escorts they hire are here to tell you.
If you want podcasts about the US Election, I've heard good things about FiveThirtyEight, Bandwagon, Presidential, Slate's Political Gabfest, Candidate Confessional, Left, Right & Centre, The Pollsters, Whistlestop... And there's this episode from our pals Mortified.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
flockmaster
CREDITS:
You heard from Jonathan Mitchell from The Truth; Benjamen Walker from Theory of Everything; Lauren Spohrer from Criminal; Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder; Nick van der Kolk from Love + Radio; and Avery Trufelman and Katie Mingle from 99% Invisible.
This episode was produced by Matt Hill and me. The theme tune is by Martin Austwick.
Say hello at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman, regardless of on which shoulder you sport your parrot.
