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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.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:
See the birth of an eponym in the full text of Senator Charles Sumner's 1872 speech 'Republicanism vs Grantism'.
Mini guillotines were popular toys for children during the French Revolution. Here's the potted history and other not-fun facts about guillotines.
I just think it's pushing it to think the gerrymandered counties of 1812 look like a salamander.
Nicolas Chauvin may or may not have been a real person, but he still gets a day named after him (15 August).
Whist is probably pretty similar to the card game Triumph, which derived from the Italian playing cards known as trionfi, which are also related to tarot cards.
Wow, there are a lot of different versions of Top Trumps now. Even more if you make your own!
In the 1980s there was a Donald Trump board game, described by a VP of Parker Brothers as "not the kind of thing you want to pull out on the spur of the moment when grandma comes over. It can leave you exhausted and feeling like you don't want to play again."
If you do want to play it, but are not sure whether you want to splash out on a set on eBay, here's roughly what to expect from the game.
Visit the ghost town of Trump, Colorado or the Trump Islands in Antarctica.
Listen to the first, second and third annual Allusionist eponymisodes.
The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/trump.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
frisket
CREDITS:
Elizabeth Joh cohosts the podcast What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law with one Roman Mars. Get your quick fun doses of US constitutional law at trumpconlaw.com.
Paul Anthony Jones writes books, tweets and newsletters about etymology and word trivia as Haggard Hawks. You will love his work. Dive in at haggardhawks.com and follow him on Twitter @haggardhawks for excellent nuggets of etymology several times a day.
This episode was produced by me, with assistance from Martin Austwick, who also makes the music that you hear in every episode. He has a new album out at palebirdmusic.com. It's beautiful, listen to it.
Find me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/helenzaltzman.
