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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 206. Bonus 2024

December 22, 2024 The Allusionist

It's the annual parade of Bonus Bits - things this year's guests said that I couldn't fit into their episodes, and/or weren't about language, but now is their time to shine.

We've got tricorn hats, changing your dog's name, Boston cream pie, parmesan vs vomit, the placebo effect's negative sibling, the universal blank, headache poetry and bawdy riddles. And more!

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In episodes Tags history, etymology, bonus, bonus episode, Joanna Kopaczyk, William Dunbar, flyting, poetry, poems, headaches, migraine, Juliana Pache, Black Crossword, crosswords, puzzles, Ben Zimmer, spelling bee, Scripps National Spelling Bee, homophones, letters, alphabet, pronunciation, Stacey Mei Yan Fong, names, pies, USA, America, American, cakes, Boston cream pie, Massachussetts, AJ Jacobs, framing, parmesan, vomit, -nyms, retronyms, capitalnyms, forks, elastic, tricorn hat, US constitution, battle reeactments, historical costume, hats, cloves, Zazie Todd, animal psychology, dogs, cats, companion animals, renaming, training, Caroline Crampton, Susan Sontag, battle, illness, suggestion, health, cancer, bodies, metaphor, anti-fat, placebo, nocebo, medicine, medical, pharmaceutical, riddles, Old English, monks, onion, bine

Allusionist 191. Hypochondria

March 23, 2024 The Allusionist

The word 'hypochondria' has travelled from meaning physical ailments in a particular region of your body, to ones that are only in your mind. It has been in fashion, and thoroughly out; it has been subject to a range of treatments; it has been lucrative for quacks; and it's a very understandable form of anxiety - which I have, and so does Caroline Crampton, author of the new book A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria.

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In episodes Tags etymology, vocabulary, history, Caroline Crampton, hypochondria, hypochondriac, hypochondrium, bodies, medical, medicine, health, anxiety, health anxiety, mental health, psychology, depression, melancholy, science, doctors, treatment, Four Humors, humoral theory, humorism, bile, hysteria, Cicero, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sanditon, literature, cures, wellness, quacks, class, panaceas, DSM-5, diagnosis, Somatic Symptom Disorder, Illness Anxiety Disorder, uncertainty, cancer, spleen, liver, gut, abdomen, uterus, womb, edaphic

Allusionist 151. The Bee's Knees

March 18, 2022 The Allusionist

Bad hats, cat's pyjamas, banting, goops, creatures, and playing possum - what WERE people going on about during the Golden Age of detective fiction? Caroline Crampton of Shedunnit podcast and I get sleuthing into the slang of the mystery novels of the 1920s and 1930s.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Helen Zaltzman, history, phrases, idioms, slang, Shedunnit, Caroline Crampton, murder mysteries, novels, fiction, writing, writers, authors, detectives, Golden Age, codes, war, spelling alphabets, phonetic, military, diets, dieting, eponyms, William Banting, undertakers, flappers, canary’s tusks, flea’s eyebrows, creature, Frankenstein, monster, whiskey, refrigeration, ditches, Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, exclamation marks, courtship, sex, Mae West, royalty, opossums, animals, bunt

Allusionist 98. Alter Ego

April 25, 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 episodes 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 Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
feed bullshit
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
queer playlist
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.