10. Election Lexicon
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2015
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the eve of the 2015 General Election in the UK, take a jaunt through the etymology of election-related words. Find out why casting a vote should be more like basketball, and why polling is hairy.
There’s more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/electionlexicon. Tweet @allusionistshow, and convene at facebook.com/allusionistshow.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the allusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, spin the wheel of linguistic fortune. |
| 0:10.8 | This episode comes out the day before the 2015 general election in the UK. |
| 0:15.4 | So please join me for a jaunt through the etymology of some of the words that are the linguistic |
| 0:20.0 | flies buzzing around the carcass of democracy. |
| 0:23.9 | On with the allusionist election lexicon. |
| 0:30.0 | Is this thing on? |
| 0:32.0 | Can you hear me out the back? |
| 0:35.0 | In French I used humans. |
| 0:37.0 | The dictionaries on your side politically are you disillusioned by democracy? |
| 0:44.0 | Democracy, rule of the people from ancient Greek demos meaning people or population, and |
| 0:50.0 | craft us meaning rule or government. |
| 0:52.0 | I propose a solution that is more straightforward, more honest, more honest, more honest, |
| 0:59.0 | more etymological. |
| 1:02.0 | Politicians use words to tell lies. |
| 1:07.0 | I vow words will be used to find the truth in politics, under etymology. |
| 1:15.0 | If you vote for me, I will put the ball back into ballot. |
| 1:22.0 | It is a real ball in ballot. |
| 1:24.0 | Some of you in other countries might have jazzy ways of voting in elections, but in present |
| 1:28.5 | day Britain we do it by feeding ballot papers into the mouths of ballot boxes, but casting |
| 1:33.3 | a vote used to be an exciting ball sport. |
| 1:36.7 | Small balls known as ballotter in Italian, we use to cast anonymous votes. |
| 1:40.7 | A white ball meant yes, a black ball meant no. |
... |
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