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24.09.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 182. Siblings of Chaos
Lexicographer, author and Dictionary Corner resident Susie Dent has been
studying words to make us feel happy. She brings etymologies concerning
cows, gas, guts and fat, of bellies and breathing and bonanzas. And some
that came from the high seas and aren't made up!
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13.09.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 181. Cairns
There's an abiding myth that the landmark dictionaries are the work of one
man, in a dusty paper-filled garrett tirelessly working away
singlehandedly. But really it took a village: behind every Big Daddy of
Lexicography was usually a team of women, keeping the garrett clean,
organising the piles of papers, reading through all the citations, doing
research, writing definitions, editing, subediting...essentially being
lexicographers, without the credit or the pay.
Academic Lindsay Rose Rus
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24.08.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 180. Project ENABLE
Sterling Martin was in grad school, studying C. elegans worms, when COVID19
hit and suddenly he found himself in lexicography, as part of a team
creating a Navajo-English dictionary of science terms.
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10.08.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 179: Andy Quiz
It's the annual etymology quizlusionist! I’m on a family holiday for the
first time since 1988, so enlisted my brother Andy Zaltzman of the Bugle
podcast to test his/your wits on singing goats, explosives, mythological
Greek sweeteners, attics, left-handedness and whales.
Can you beat Andy’s score? Play along using the interactive scoresheet at
the bottom of this post.
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22.06.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 178. Uranus
Have you ever wondered why the planets in our solar system are all named
after Roman deities, except two of them? One of those exceptions is Earth.
The other is Uranus.
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10.06.
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The Allusionist
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Tranquillusionist: Gay Animals
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, say a load of
words which aren’t really about anything, so that your brain gets a little
gentle diversion from thinking and/or feeling. Today: a list of gay
animals.
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02.06.
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The Allusionist
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Pride playlist
Hello! Here’s a playlist of episodes of the show that are good to listen to for Pride month, but also at any time, because they are some of the most interesting and complex language matters that I’ve covered in the show:Many Ways At Once. The Scots language didn’t have much of an LGBTQ+ lexicon. So writer and performer Dr Harry Josephine Giles decided to create one.
Polari was a secret language that was used mostly by gay men in London. And now lives on in the non-secret lexicon - you m
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27.05.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 177. Fat part 2
“The starting point is, and the research questions are all framed by: 'We
know it's terrible to be fat, but how terrible is it?' Not: 'What would it
take to give effective healthcare to fat people?'” says Aubrey Gordon,
writer of the new book You Just need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths
About Fat People, star of the documentary Your Fat Friend, and podcaster of
Maintenance Phase. And it's not just healthcare where the alignment of
'fat' with 'unhealthy' - and 'thinner' with 'healthier'
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12.05.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 176. Fat part 1
It should just be an accurate descriptor of my body, but the word 'fat' has
shaped so much more of my life, and our society. "There is this whole set
of baggage that we are all culturally bringing to this word all the time,"
says Aubrey Gordon, writer of the new book You Just need to Lose Weight and
19 Other Myths About Fat People, star of the documentary Your Fat Friend,
and podcaster of Maintenance Phase.
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22.04.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 175. Eurovision part 2
Oh, you thought the Eurovision Song Contest was about songs? Or a fun
international TV event that brings people together in lots of different
countries? Or watching extremely vigorous dance numbers? OK, it is, but
it's also about some pretty thorny language-related politics. Historian
Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest,
discusses Eurovision's many linguistic controversies, and the ways the
contest has been exploited politically - and caused political kic