210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Four Letter Word season continues with a quiz (which is a four-letter word itself) about four letter words. Test your etymological knowledge, and hear about the original nepo baby, John Venn's invention that wasn't the venn diagram, brat, gunk, rube, the time(s) Led Zeppelin changed their name, and plenty more.
Play along while you listen - there's an interactive scoresheet at theallusionist.org/444, where there's also a transcript of this episode, plus links to more information about topics therein, and to the rest of Four Letter Word season and the previous Allusionist quizzes.
Also check theallusionist.org/events for upcoming live shows, including a special collab with Material Girls podcast, and an event with Samin Nosrat for her new book Good Things.
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, livestreams with me and my collection of dictionaries, and the charming and supportive Allusioverse Discord community.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. The music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, sell on eBay a big bag of language likely used. |
| 0:11.1 | Four-letter word season continues, and this time we do not require explicit tags or content warnings, because today's four-letter word is quiz. |
| 0:23.6 | Or rather, today we have a quiz about four-letter words. |
| 0:27.6 | Play along while you listen. |
| 0:29.6 | Gather paper and pencil or use the interactive school sheet at the illusionist.org slash 444. |
| 0:36.6 | That's the digits 444. |
| 0:39.5 | When you're there, hit the events tab, because there are a few things coming up. |
| 0:43.3 | The Illusionist Live Show Souvenirs is playing in Montreal, June 9th. |
| 0:47.5 | On 3rd of July in Vancouver, I'm part of a special one-off live show with the podcast Material Girls. |
| 0:53.9 | And also in Vancouver, on the 16th of October, I get to interview Samin Nostrat at an event |
| 0:58.8 | for her new cookbook Good Things. Could there be a gooder thing than that? |
| 1:03.3 | Samin featured in another illusionist quiz. That one was all about food. And you can listen |
| 1:07.8 | and play along with that. And all the other previous quizzes, there are seven in total. |
| 1:11.8 | Each of them packed with etymology and amusing linguistic facts. |
| 1:15.9 | There's a swearing quiz, a creature-themed quiz, and one way you listeners set the questions. |
| 1:21.3 | Also on The Illusionists's Forever Home, The Illusionist.org, you can find a playlist of episodes that are relevant to Pride Month, |
| 1:27.8 | and just as relevant every month. There's one about the secret gay language Polari. |
| 1:32.4 | There's the origins of terms like queer baiting and rainbow washing, being a birth parent |
| 1:37.2 | when you're a trans man, listeners' stories of changing their names as part of their gender journeys, |
| 1:42.6 | ACEA E. Routerms, new queer vocabulary in Icelandic and Scots, |
| 1:46.7 | old queer vocabulary in Māori, |
| 1:48.7 | there is no title bringing unbeatable arguments for use in combat with singular they winers. |
... |
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