Allusionist 92. To Err is Human

January 23, 2019 The Allusionist

If you wince when you hear someone say “a whole nother level”, “hone in on” or “right from the gecko”, here’s some bad news: you might have to get used to it. The English language is full of words and expressions that were mistakes that stuck around. Countdown’s Susie Dent holds our hands and takes us on a tour of misspellings, mishearings, scrambled letters, and bear cubs.

Allusionist 84. Trammels

September 8, 2018 The Allusionist

Why would you write books or poems or plays with only one vowel? Or in palindromes? Or only using the example sentences in dictionaries? Sometimes you need to force yourself to jump a few hurdles (and perhaps the rest of the obstacle course) before your creativity will be unleashed.

Allusionist 54: The Authority

April 14, 2017 The Allusionist

"Sometimes you want to make the dictionary sexy, but it's just not a sexy thing."

Allusionist 35: Word of the Day

May 1, 2016 The Allusionist

Open up a dictionary, and you'll find the history of human behaviour, the key to your own psychological state, and a lot of fun words about cats.

Dictionary.com's Renae Hurlbutt and Jane Solomon lead the way.

Allusionist 7: Mountweazel

March 25, 2015 The Allusionist

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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:

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