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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 208. Four Letter Words: Ffff

May 11, 2025 The Allusionist
a boggle grid spelling the word fuck

If you’re thinking, “How the fuck can you write a whole 500-page dictionary just about the word ‘fuck’?” consider, say, the many meanings of ‘ass fuck’, noun and verb - and that’s before you even add similar terms like ‘bumfuck’ and ‘buttfuck’. And there are so many less usual terms, like ‘fucksome’ or ‘fuckstrated’ or ‘fuckist’ or ‘fucktious’.

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In transcript Tags etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, history, four letter words, Jesse Sheidlower, F Word, swearing, profanity, obscenity, swears, fuck, fucking, infixing, tmesis, dictionaries, taboo, slang, cursing, curses, insults, publishing, Jonathan Lighter, place names, surnames, last names, acronyms, backronyms, fugazi, Allen Walker Read, Horace Walpole, John S Farmer, W E Henley, Bristol, Austria, fugging, parts of speech, AI, sex, sexual, internet, online, Roger, shit, cunt, slurs, FUBAR, katabatic, SNAFU

Allusionist 207. Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary

January 17, 2025 The Allusionist

Today’s episode is in the Tranquillusionist style, to give your brain a break while I say words that are not too consequential over a soothing backing track. And this time, the words are all the randomly selected words from the dictionary from every episode of the show, in reverse chronological order.

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In transcript, Tranquillusionist Tags serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, relaxation, tranquil, tranquillity, etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, words, language, history, dictionary, pricket, trivia, yarak

Allusionist 198. Queer Arab Glossary

August 12, 2024 The Allusionist

HZ: So how do you go about building a glossary when you have to do that yourself from scratch?
MARWAN KAABOUR: Yes, it's a good question. Like, why would a graphic designer with a steady job decide to open this can of worms?

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In transcript Tags history, lexicography, lexicon, society, culture, words, language, etymology, vocabulary, Marwan Kaabour, Takweer, Queer Arab Glossary, dialect, Arabic, Levantine, Iraqi, Egyptian, Gulf, Sudanese, Maghrebi, Al-Sham, Lebanon, Levant, Southwest Asia, North Africa, SWANA, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Kurdish, queerness, queer, LGBTQIA, gender, masculinity, femininity, gay, trans, lesbian, sex work, genitals, penis, slang, slurs, colonisation, worms, yarn, crocodile, falcon, cow, hyena, food, frying, Hajj, K-pop, Mickey Mouse, Italian, French, English, metaphors, genderfree, detritivore

Allusionist 197. Word Play part 7: Word Sport

June 29, 2024 The Allusionist

Unleash the bees!

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In transcript, Word Play Tags words, language, etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, word sport, word play, word games, Scripps National Spelling Bee, spelling bee, games, competitions, contests, sport, sports, spelling sports, spellers, television, TV, school, Merriam-Webster, dictionary, Corrie Loeffler, Ben Zimmer, Jane Solomon, beeple, beecap, champions, spinning, protest, textiles, American history, USA, Noah Webster, Marie Bolden, American English, Octochamps, hemlock, spell-off, bees, univocal

Allusionist 196. Word Play part 6: Beeing

June 10, 2024 The Allusionist

DEV SHAH: Spelling is about roots, language. I genuinely loved getting a word I didn't know and having all this information - it was like a detective case: you have the language of origin, the definition, alternate pronunciations, roots;  it's like witnesses and having details to a crime scene, forensics. And, you know, it was just me piecing out together, doing what I love, in front of millions of people, shining on a stage, cameras, and still getting a lot from it. 
HZ: And you got to do all that detective work in ninety seconds. 
DEV SHAH: Exactly.

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In Word Play, transcript Tags words, language, etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, word play, word games, Scripps National Spelling Bee, spelling bee, games, competitions, contests, sport, sports, spelling sports, spellers, television, TV, school, Merriam-Webster, dictionary, Corrie Loeffler, Paul Loeffler, beeple, beecap, Spellbound, Nupur Lala, money, griffins, Aditi Muthukumar, Ananya Prassanna, Rishabh Saha, Dev Shah, Charlotte Walsh, Bruhat Soma, bells, champions, existential dread, void, community, arimasp, anserine, commination, daviely

Allusionist 187 Bonus 2023 transcript

December 24, 2023 The Allusionist

It is the annual Bonus episode - because the people who appear on this show always say so much good stuff, it doesn’t all fit into their original episodes, so at the end of each year we get to enjoy all the extra bounty. Coming up, we’ve got a mythical disappearing island, geese, human dictionaries, the dubious history of the Body Mass Index, a Eurovision thing that has puzzled me for years, Victorian death department stores, and much more. 

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In transcript Tags etymology, vocabulary, history, Caetano Galindo, Susie Dent, Lindsay Rose Russell, Aubrey Gordon, Dean Vuletic, Evie King, Cariad Lloyd, Griefcast, Hy-Brasil, myths, legends, islands, Ireland, Victorians, Georgians, death, 19th century, funerals, mourning, grief, grieving, posthumous, dead bodies, bodies, fat, anti-fatness, anti-fat, bias, medical, BMI, Body Mass Index, body positivity, eugenics, families, family, estrangement, Brazilian, brasileiros, Portuguese, wood, brazilwood, trees, dictionaries, walking dictionary, sleeping dictionary, gender, geese, goose, weaving, renaming, denaming, cremation, aquamation, ashes, burial, composting, graves, clothes, shopping, Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, five stages of grief, Jay’s, Regent Street, London, jet, jewelry, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, street names, school names, John La Rose, Richmond, Virginia, Australia, K’gari, Hobart, Macquarie Street, Tasmania, petitions, Toronto, Rob Ford, Michaelmas, Alfred Hitchcock, Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca, rebeca, cardigan, turtlenecks, lexicography, Adolphe Quetelet, Quetelet’s Index, Ancel Keys, Francis Galton, drapetomania, hysteria, Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovision, nul points, zero, French, Brazil, Brasil, gossamer, pavage, text, textile, clothing, bonus, bonus episode

Allusionist 182 Siblings of Chaos transcript

September 22, 2023 The Allusionist

HZ: I thought the etymology of 'gas' was a big surprise as well.
SUSIE DENT: Oh, yes. It is a sibling of chaos.
HZ: In a sense, we're all siblings of chaos.

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In transcript Tags etymology, words, language, lexicography, lexicon, vocabulary, history, dictionaries, dictionary, Susie Dent, nitwit, breathing, respiration, Paracelsus, JB Van Helmont, Dutch, JR Tolkien, reversal, semantic bleaching, maritime, false etymology, sea, sailors, fat, tallow, cows, cattle, meat, animals, organs, mining, mines, may, ruthless, discombobulate, recombobulation, deep dives, emotional granularity, mubblefubbles, belly, bellies, nits, rivers, hibernation, heart, guts, intestines, divination, plagues, religion, Paganism, Christianity, augers, auspex, JRR Tolkien, susurrus, fellow, cheap, Cheapside, trade, market, Romans, Ancient Rome, Egypt, posh, CANOE, dote, auspicious, bellycheer, bonanza, catastrophe, courage, derelict, derive, digs, dismay, eucatastrophe, flotsam, fond, gas, hibernacle, inauguration, inspire, inwit, jetsam, lagan, latibulate, nice, outwit, panning out, perspire, pluck, rival, silly, slush fund, spifflicate, spirit, suspire, taghaelm, vegetable

Allusionist 181 Cairns transcript

September 13, 2023 The Allusionist

LINDSAY ROSE RUSSELL: I don't think James Murray felt like he was alone in making the Oxford English Dictionary. I think he was keenly aware of himself as a part of a very large and many tentacled team. In a lecture he gave in 1900, he talked about every lexicographer as adding their stone to the cairn. You know, cairns like the little things when you go hiking that are piles of stones that tell you you're still on the right path. So I think Murray understood his own work as contributing to a larger lexicographical project where he was not a lone dictionary maker in the effort of dictionary making more grandly. But, I don't know; in history, I think it's easier to tell the story of a singular man. Because of course it's easier to tell the story of a singular man, as opposed to the story of thousands of people working on a single dictionary and doing all different kinds of things.

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In transcript Tags etymology, society, culture, words, language, lexicography, lexicon, vocabulary, history, dictionaries, dictionary, Lindsay Rose Russell, women, men, sexism, Merriam-Webster, Noah Webster, Samuel Johnson, James Murray, Jonathon Green, Green’s Dictionary of Slang, work, OED, Oxford English Dictionary, collaboration, wives, daughters, sheds, Ada Murray, Susan Ford, Jessie Craigie, William Craigie, John Florio, Mary Evelyn, John Evelyn, Robert Cawdry, Table Alphabeticall, labour, attribution, citation, hair, Fop Dictionary, feminism, feminists, feminist dictionaries, publishing, books, Gretchen McCulloch, amanuensis, geniculate

Allusionist 180 Project ENABLE transcript

August 24, 2023 The Allusionist

STERLING MARTIN: Growing up, I've always had an interest in science and that's something my family helped nurture. Also just growing up, there weren't many Navajo words in science. Then I went to undergrad at the University of Iowa and my parents were like, "Oh, what are you doing?" And I worked in a research lab, so I could get some bench experience, and just trying to explain to them what I was doing scientifically, I could tell they weren't really catching on to what it meant.

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In transcript Tags etymology, words, language, Sterling Martin, Project ENABLE, Frank Morgan, Navajo, Diné Bizaad, Diné, translation, translating, science, medicine, medical, biology, COVID19, lexicography, lexicon, vocabulary, neologisms, technology, accessibility, access, Indigenous languages, Native American languages, Native Americans, Indigenous Americans, language revitalisation, protons, electrons, chromosome, chemical, carnivore, bacteria, DNA, catalyst, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, font, keyboard, worms, C Elegans, veridical

Allusionist 116: My Dad Excavated a Porno transcript

June 3, 2020 The Allusionist
A116 pornography logo.JPG

HZ: The Victorians really did a number on people. I feel like we're still unpicking Victorian attitudes.

KATE LISTER: Yes, we are. I mean, we're still very much the children of the Victorians, and they're a fascinating bunch, the Victorians. No generation, at no point in history, has sex been successfully repressed, ever. It just doesn't happen. But what you have is really strict social morality, conditioning and mores and constructs and power dynamics around sex that dictate what we are and what we're not supposed to be doing. And outward facing, they were so repressed and polite society and so offended by everything even remotely to do with sex, to the point of where they wouldn't say the word 'trousers' because they thought they were too rude. They were 'sit down upons'.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, erotica, pornography, porn, art, writing, novels, ancient, history, Victorians, 19th century, Greeks, Greek, Latin, French, Romans, Ancient Greeks, Ancient Romans, titillation, titillating, law, legal, court, obscenity, Pompeii, obscene, repression, class, sex, sexuality, Kate Lister, Whores of Yore, Brian Watson, sex work, sex workers, John Cleland, Fanny Hill, literacy, publications, publishing, phallus, penis, winged penises, Fascinus, ichor, Sepoy Mutiny, India, stop and search, police, Hicklin Test, religion, Christianity, Catholic, Protestant, Retif de la Bretonne, comstockery, Comstock, control, Athenaeus, porneia, Deipnosophistae, satire, elitism, evil eye, power, morality, British Empire, Pope, lewd, blasphemy, Britain, England, UK, British empire, New Testament, Bible, Bible translation, translation, translators, archaeologists, archaelogy

Allusionist 100. The Hundredth - transcript

May 27, 2019 The Allusionist
A100 gif smaller.gif

Today there’ll be a celebratory parade of language-related facts that you’ve learned from the Allusionist and I’ve learned from making the Allusionist, so some old facts, some new facts - well, the new facts aren’t recently invented facts, they are established facts, just making their Allusionist debut.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicon, bees, gender, sexism, Aristotle, girl, foot, lady, lord, bread, Charles Butler, beekeeping, queen bees, king bees, Old English, Latin, Old Norse, vocables, Toki Pona, invented languages, constructed languages, Lauren Marks, Eclipse, aphasia, dictionaries, dictionary, lexicography, lexicology, eponyms, screws, phillips head screws, cross head screws, plus screws, minus screws, patents, inventions, mountweazels, Henry F Phillips, robertson screws, frearson screws, saxophone, Adolphe Sax, names, acronyms, IUD, g-spot, inventors, sideburns, NASA, TLAs, initialisms, prescriptivism, descriptivism, Skin Project, tattoos, mince, bench, please, step, stepmother, stepchild, stepfather, stepfamily, psychology, CBT, cognitive behavioural therapy, Jane Gregory, seance, portmanteau, portmanteaus, portmanteaux, endorphin, Tanzania, electrocution, log in, velcro, zazzification, pronouns, they, pith, singular they, namaste, orange, curses, Bath, curse tablets, pelvis, c-word, c-bomb, swears, swearing, profanity, penis, vagina, deniance, denial, Oulipo, halcyon, Ancient Greek, mythology, myths, legends, Alcyone, Ceyx, birds, kingfishers, halcyon days, Polari, Barnet, vogue, French, Welsh Patagonia, Welsh, Argentina, Wales, radish, radical, poll, hair, ballot, ball, politics, voting, elections, nice, Amazon, brands, brand names, trust, emoji, Victorians, Christmas cards, Winterval, slang, arseropes, halteres, Earlonne Woods, Ear Hustle, survival

Allusionist 99. Polari - transcript

May 13, 2019 The Allusionist
A99 Polari logo.jpg

HZ: In 1982, Princess Anne, the second child of the Queen of England, Olympic Equestrian, is competing at the Badminton Horse Trials.

PAUL BAKER: She's jumping over all these obstacles and oops, she slips and falls in the water off an obstacle. And all of the photographers rush forward to take a photograph, and she tells them to "naff off". Or "naff orf".
HZ: She's not allowed to drop an F-bomb really, she's a royal.
PAUL BAKER: No, but 'naff' was a Polari word.

HZ: Polari. Just a couple of decades before, it would have been unthinkable that someone like Princess Anne would have used a Polari word, or that she would even have known one.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, Polari, slang, argot, lingua franca, secret, secrecy, code, Cant, camp, drag, criminals, decriminalisation, LGBTQ, history, gay, gay culture, homosexuality, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 20th century, BBC, Mary Whitehouse, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Julian and Sandy, Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, sex, Round the Horne, innuendo, Italian, Parlyaree, London, Britain, police, gender, dating, Princess Anne, Princess Royal, royals, West End, East End, clobber, zhoozh, cline, navy, merchant navy, Americanisms, queer, queer history

Allusionist 98. Alter Ego - transcript

April 27, 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 transcript 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 97. The Future is Now? - transcript

April 11, 2019 The Allusionist
A97 logo Future Is Now.jpg

ROSE EVELETH: I couldn't say this to most people, but you probably understand getting obsessed with a phrase, where you're like, "What is this thing that we say that is weird?" And the one that I've been obsessed with for a while is "The future is now".

HZ: This is Rose Eveleth. She makes the podcast Flash Forward, about how certain scenarios might play out in the future. Which may or may not be now.

ROSE EVELETH: I tend to use it most ironically, where like you see something dumb with technology and you're like "Oh, the future is now!" "Oh, an Internet-connected toaster - the future is now!"
HZ: “Social network for dogs!”
ROSE EVELETH: Exactly. Right. And other people I think use it much more straightforwardly, and much more non-ironically, which is like, "Oh, things are happening so quickly. The future is upon us. Things are changing really rapidly. The future is always happening right in front of us. Technology is amazing." There are two ways to say "the future is now": you can say it optimistically, you could be like, "the future is now! Isn't that cool?" Or you could be like, "the future is now, and we're totally screwed.”
I have a tweetdeck column that is just for that phrase "the future is now", just to watch what people are saying. "School buses with Wi-Fi. The future is now". The U.S. Forest Service,

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, Rose Eveleth, Flash Forward, technology, futurism, future, the future is now, phrases, sayings, adages, General Motors, 1960s, 1950s, flying cars, jetpack, futurists, jokes, innovation, invention, Christianity, internet, 20th century, history, end of the world, industry, Industrial Revolution, Victorians, industrialisation, future shock, progress, passage of time, almacantar, advances, tomorrow

Allusionist 96. Trust - transcript

March 20, 2019 The Allusionist
A96 Trust logo.jpg

RACHEL BOTSMAN: I always know when a word is having its moment in the sun when big conferences, it becomes the theme at the conference, or I get slightly nervous when you start to see it as the tag line in really big commercial brands because it's a word that's starting to become co-opted and commercialised, because people go, "Oh, it's resonating with a lot of people.” It's not a brand. Trust isn't a brand that you should use. It's a social glue that when it breaks down, it has really huge consequences to our lives. When terms become so broad that they lose their meaning, they become completely diluted. And this is actually my fear around trust right now, is that it's become the word of the moment that is being used in so many different contexts that are we actually diluting something? One of the most important words we have in the human language, that is so fundamental to our relationships, that are we taking the meaning and importance out of it by its overuse?

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, Rachel Botsman, trust, trustworthy, confidence, con artists, influence, influencers, influenza, flu, business, online, technology, web, internet, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Amazon, reviews, ostracism, ostrakon, machines, bots, voices, gender, virtual assistants, smart homes, Alexa, Siri, Cortana, belief, credulity, fake, lies, deceit, deception, Project Q, apologies, sorry, apologising, faith, innovation, authenticity, manipulators, manipulation
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feed bullshit
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
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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
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.