Author: Helen Zaltzman

“How are you?”

“Oh, fine – and you?”

“Yeah, not bad. Nice day today, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it was a bit chilly this morning, but now the sun’s come out…” [Continue until the lift arrives, or until the end of time.]

Small talk is usually not conveying much vital information, nor is it especially interesting. But beneath that comfort blanket of tedium lies a valuable social function.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/smalltalk. Chitchat with me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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This week seems like a good one to listen again to last year’s episode Pride, about how the word came to be chosen for LGBTQ Pride. Activist and publisher Craig Schoonmaker tells the story.

There are full show notes and links to additional material at http://theallusionist.org/pride-rerun. Find me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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Got a company or a product or a website you need to name? Well, be wary of the potential pitfalls: trademark disputes; pronounceability; being mistaken for a dead body… Name developer Nancy Friedman explains how she helps companies find the right names, and why so many currently end in ‘-ify’. Plus: The Allusionist’s origin story, with Roman Mars.

Read Nancy’s excellent blog about naming and trends in the language of commerce at http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/brands. Greet me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

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‘Classics’ started off meaning Latin and Greek works, then works that smacked of similar, and now – what, exactly? Books that are full of bonnets and dust? Author Kevin Smokler and bookseller Jonathan Main unpick what constitutes a classic, old or new.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/biglit. Announce your favourite classics at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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Open up a dictionary, and you’ll find the history of human behaviour, the key to your own psychological state, and a lot of fun words about cats. Dictionary.com’s Renae Hurlbutt and Jane Solomon lead the way.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/word-of-the-day. Visit me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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‘Continent’, as in a land mass, is much more complicated semantically than the bodily function control sense of ‘continent’.

Plus: more ‘please’, and how ‘thank you’ is not necessarily an expression of gratitude.

TL;DR: trust nothing.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/continental. Visit me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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There’s an ocean between Britain and the USA, but an even wider division between each country’s use of a particular word: ‘please’.

Linguists Lynne Murphy and Rachele De Felice explain how one nation’s obsequiousness is another nation’s obnoxiousness.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/please. Please greet me at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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Around the world, there are several places called Soho, getting their names from an acronym/portmanteau-ish composite of local streets or neighbouring areas. But not the original Soho in London. In fact, London’s place names are an etymological hotchpotch: landmarks present and long gone; 1,000-year-old vanity projects; and Cockfosters.

This is a companion piece to the 99% Invisible episode ‘The Soho Effect’: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-soho-effect.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/soho. Say ‘soHO!’ at twitter.com/allusionistshow and facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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Breaking up is hard to do, and it’s hard to put into appropriate words. Comedian Rosie Wilby seeks a better term for ‘ex’, and family law barrister Nick Allen runs through the vocabulary of divorce.

NOTE: this episode is not full of bawdy talk, but there are adult themes and a couple of category B swearwords.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/post-love. Don’t go breaking my heart: say hi at twitter.com/allusionistshow and facebook.com/allusionistshow.

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The 2016 US election isn’t going away anytime soon, so let’s seek refuge in etymology. Consider the linguistically appropriate age of a senator, and whether Congress should get sexy.

And we revisit the UK Election Lexicon – http://theallusionist.com/electionlexicon – for the origin of words like ‘campaign’, ‘ballot’, ‘democracy’, ‘poll’, ‘debate’ and ‘argue’.

There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/us-electionlexicon. Tweet @allusionistshow, and convene at facebook.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

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