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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 179: Andy Quiz

August 10, 2023 The Allusionist
a boggle grid spelling out the words 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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In episodes, quiz Tags words, language, quiz, cows, ox, bovine, animals, Greek, Ancient Greek, Greece, Old English, Latin, classic, Proto-Indo-European, bucolic, butane, butter, gwou, vows, run, running, car, carriage, goats, goat song, caprine, John Oliver, comedy, explosives, explosions, Alfred Nobel, eponyms, ballistite, crying, weeping, left handed, right handed, sinister, right, Attis, cricket, sweeteners, myths, Thebes, Maenads, Bacchae, Euripides, saccharine, whales, kaboom, bang, applause, Kent, architecture, trivium, quadrivium, Dionysus, hockey, agave, baleen, boom, bugle, buttocks, careen, career, deplore, dynamite, explode, explore, jetton, left, profession, tragedy, trivia, whale penises

Allusionist 81. Shark Week

July 27, 2018 The Allusionist
A81 Shark Week logo.jpg

What is the expression 'beyond the pale' on about? How do you express the absence of feeling? Does 'testify' have anything to do with testicles? Do avocados have anything to do with testicles? How does the phrase "It's all Greek to me" relate to food styling? Can you have a caper with capers? Are sharks misunderstood, etymologically and morally? And finally: where do allusions come from?

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In episodes Tags Radiotopian guest appearance, The Beatles, indifference, emotions, nouns, verbs, adjectives, beyond the pale, phrases, sayings, ghetto, pale, impale, fences, Irish Pale, Russian Pale, Calais Pale, oppression, Jews, mood, ambivalence, testicles, balls, crotch, genitals, law, swearing, witness, testify, testis, ovaries, legal system, etymology, anatomy, Latin, Greek, ancient languages, Bible, supplication, stones, nuts, eggs, slang, avocados, Spanish, onomatopoeia, cinnamon, food, food styling, food stylists, brands, Chinese, it’s all Greek to me, typography, scribes, writing, placeholder, goats, capers, capering, foodstuffs, caprice, caprine, G.O.A.T., sharks, sea creatures, fish, Jaws, Mayan, xoc, German, sea-dog, dogs, loan shark, allusion, allude, Hrishikesh Hirway, Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, words, history, language, linguistics, expressions, Italian, Serena Williams, goatmilker

Allusionist 6: The Writing on the Wall

March 11, 2015 The Allusionist

iTUNES • RSS • MP3

Those words on museum walls that you can't be bothered to read? They're more important than you think... Exhibition-maker Rachel Souhami explains why. Visit theallusionist.org/museums to find out more about this episode. Tweet @allusionistshow,

Those words on museum walls that you can't be bothered to read? They're more important than you think...

Exhibition-maker Rachel Souhami tells us why.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL:

  • Read more about artist Fred Wilson and his 'Mining the Museum' exhibition and other works at the Maryland Historical Society.

  • Here's more about that very old museum in Ur.

  • Read a lengthy precis of the history of museums, if that's your bag.

  • Here's the etymology of the word 'museum'.

  • A few years ago, I went on a museums crawl in Vienna and saw such marvels as priapic armour, pickled conjoined foetuses, and meat animations. What's the weirdest museum you've been to?

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD OF THE DAY:
caprine

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

- HZ

CREDITS

  • Presented and produced by Helen Zaltzman, ie me.

  • Rachel Souhami designs and curates exhibitions, produces Museums Showoff, and tweets @rachelsouhami.

MUSIC:

  • 'Allusionist Theme' - Martin Austwick

  • 'Wonderful World' - Sam Cooke

  • 'The Writing's On The Wall' - OK Go

  • 'Live As If Someone Is Always Watching You' - Smog

In episodes Tags museums, exhibitions, text, exhibits, curators, curation, education, conservation, Rachel Souhami, walls, caprine, history, historical, Ur, archaeology, Leonard Woolley, artefacts, thesaurus, Roget, text hierarchy, Squarespace, science, scientific literacy, Mesopotamia, institutional critique
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Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.