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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 223. Bonus Bits 2025

January 16, 2026 The Allusionist
A Boggle set spells out the words 'bonus 2025'

Dinosaur mouths and dinosaur poop, psychedelic plants, feminist cookbooks, and taking a class in profanity.

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In transcript Tags words, history, etymology, Alex Ketchum, Martin Austwick, So Mayer, Hannah McGregor, Kelly Elizabeth Wright, Nicole Holliday, feminism, feminists, cookbooks, cookery, food, cooking, recipes, Bloodroot, cake, psychoactive, drugs, poison, plants, hens, wave, witches, fear, shame, mistakes, WOTY, Word of the Year, American Dialect Society, enshittification, rawdog, mouths, Monstrous Feminine, cunt, cunty, serving cunt, Jurassic Park, dinosaurs, Laura Dern, poop, Jeff Goldblum, research, Ian Malcolm, academia, films, movies, profanity, linguistics, minced oaths, swearing, swears, bullshit, ASL, sign language, gesture, bonus, bonus bits, glaucous

Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate transcript

June 23, 2025 The Allusionist

The Watergate Scandal’s linguistic legacy: the suffix ‘-gate’

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In transcript Tags society, culture, words, language, arts, history, vocabulary, four letter words, snowclone, libfix, suffixes, scandal, gate, -gate, Watergate Hotel, Watergate Complex, Watergate Scandal, Washington DC, Watergate, Richard Nixon, Foggy Bottom, Mr Blobby, Blobbyland, England, Noel Edmonds, theme parks, politics, food, entertainment, sport, sports, wine, football, soccer, corruption, curling, butter, Ariana Grande, Royal Family, monarchy, King Charles III, Princess Diana, Queen Camilla, Prince Charles, Sarah Ferguson, Fergie, meats, tabloids, headlines, newspapers, media, Australia, Tony Abbott, Theresa May, onions, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Mumsnet, biscuits, Mauritius, Macarena, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Argentina, Venezuela, Denmark, mink, Panama Papers, UK Government, Downing Street, prime minister, covid, coronavirus, lockdown, police, doughnuts, donuts, Nutella, Quebec, French, pasta, pasties, chess, blood, rugby, fake, NFL, balls, farts, crime, Gamergate, gaming, baseball, GBBO, Great British Bake Off, Baked Alaska, ice cream, TV, television, Academy Awards, Oscars, Moonlight, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Chicago, Super Bowl, poop, radio, Harry Styles, spit, Chris Pine, politicians, zwitterion

Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz transcript

June 7, 2025 The Allusionist

Four Letter Word season continues, and this time we do not require explicit tags or content warnings, because our four-letter word is QUIZ! Or rather, today we have a quiz about four letter words.

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In transcript Tags etymology, vocabulary, lexicon, words, language, history, four letter words, quiz, kombucha, body parts, foot, feet, Bible, euphemisms, metanyms, lead, Led Zeppelin, The Nobs, nepo babies, nepotism, popes, Vatican, cardinals, nephew, John Venn, eponyms, Stigler’s Law, inventions, cricket, quails, collective nouns, collective terms, Muhammad Ali, GOAT, Greatest Of All Time, petri dish, Robert Koch, microbiology, moist chamber, Pliny the Elder, knights, Mariko Aoki phenomenon, bookshops, bowel movements, poop, pooping, square, cube, weights, measures, lengths, units of measurement, Pope Paul III, Pope Innocent XII, slugs, The Yardbirds, lawsuits, soap, sapo, cleaning products, accolade, bevy, brat, G.O.A.T., gunk, lights, limaceous, lungs, onyx, rostellum, rube, SCOBY, venn diagram
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Allusonist 158 Creature Quiz transcript

August 5, 2022 The Allusionist

Magpie is short for:

A. Magnum PI
B. Margaret Pica
C. Magic Pigeon
D. Magister Pinetree

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In transcript Tags history, words, language, lexicon, vocabulary, entertainment, culture, arts, etymology, quiz, meatus, animals, creatures, fish, birds, beasts, magpie, Margaret, pie, pica, sexism, Latin, Greek, Old English, parrot, Italian, priest, piebald, skewbald, bald, camelopard, offend, elephant, raccoon, chicken pox, chickens, cowardice, pox, goose barnacles, geese, goose, barnacles, myths, squirrel, cattle, weasel, smell, stinky, ferret, eggs, manure, porpoise, shrews, beshrew, agriculture, poop, dung, bison, polecats, weasel words, chattel, property, real estate, fee, livestock, petunia, penis, genitals, bowels
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.