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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 7: Mountweazel

March 25, 2015 The Allusionist

iTUNES • RSS • MP3

You'd think you could trust dictionaries, but it turns out, they are riddled with LIES. Visit theallusionist.org/mountweazel to find out more about this episode. Tweet @allusionistshow, and convene at facebook.com/allusionistshow.

You'd think you could trust dictionaries, but it turns out, they are riddled with LIES.

Delivering this upsetting news is Eley Williams, who is just finishing up her PhD about mountweazels, esquivalience and other hoax words that lexicographers have snuck into dictionaries.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

  • In 2009 a Dublin art gallery held an exhibition called 'The Life and Times of Lilian Virginia Mountweazel'.

  • Here's the process by which a real word gets into a dictionary.

  • And here's how they rooted out 'esquivalience'.

  • Cryptozoological hoaxes!

  • I love Eley's sister Catherine Williams's illustration of the made-up bird jungftak:

jungftak

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
osculum

Say hi at facebook.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow, and come back in a fortnight for the next episode.

- HZ

CREDITS

  • Eley Williams's website is giantratofsumatra.com and she is on Twitter as @giantratsumatra.

  • This episode was presented and produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.

MUSIC:

  • 'Allusionist Theme' - Martin Austwick

  • 'Would I Lie To You' - Charles and Eddie

  • 'Little Lies' - Fleetwood Mac

  • 'Suspicious Minds' - Elvis Presley

In episodes Tags dictionaries, lies, fibs, deceit, words, trust, lexicography, lexicographers, OED, Oxford English Dictionary, Mountweazels, jungftak, Eley Williams, appendicitis, esquivalience, mountweazels, Basset Hound, Poodle, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, traps, tricks, copyright, copyright traps
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.