49. Bonus 2016
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2016
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why is gaslighting ‘gaslighting’? What do bodily fluids have to do with personality traits? Why does ‘cataract’ mean a waterfall and an eye condition? And do doctors really say ‘Stat!’ or is that just in ER?
To round off 2016, here’s the bonus edition of The Allusionist, featuring listeners’ etymology requests and extra material from guests who’ve appeared on the show this year. For links and more information about the episode, visit http://theallusionist.org/bonus2016.
The show will return in early February. Meanwhile, catch up on the back catalogue at http://theallusionist.org, and stay in touch at http://facebook.com/allusionistshow and http://twitter.com/allusionistshow.
Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, make the leftovers of language into |
| 0:08.2 | a big sandwich. Today's episode is the end of 2016 bonus edition of the illusionist, |
| 0:13.9 | wherein we hear some bits and pieces from this year's guests that didn't fit into the |
| 0:17.1 | episode, but I thought we were interesting. Also, I've pulled out a few of your etymological |
| 0:21.4 | requests from the coffers. Thanks very much for sending those in throughout the year, |
| 0:24.9 | and apologies if I have not replied or etymologised yet. The illusionist is mostly a one-horse |
| 0:29.7 | operation, and the horse can open neither emails nor the dictionary. I don't know why I keep |
| 0:34.2 | it on payroll, really. If this is your first illusionist, welcome, go and listen to a few |
| 0:38.8 | more typical episodes. This year there have been shows about how, if you spend too much |
| 0:43.0 | time in Antarctica, your ability to use words freezes, how to rewrite your online dating profile |
| 0:48.7 | to find a person in your dreams, how language is being preserved in the event of apocalypse, |
| 0:54.1 | how Brits and Americans use the word pleas in different ways. Episodes have got the most |
| 0:58.0 | strong and varied responses of any episode so far. I've learnt a lot this year, and |
| 1:02.6 | thanks very much for allowing me into your ears during that process. |
| 1:08.9 | On with the show. |
| 1:16.4 | His etymological request from Drew says, sanguine. I would love to know why this word means |
| 1:22.4 | what it does instead of say, covered in blood. Or sanguine can mean bloody and blood-colored, |
| 1:29.2 | from its origin in the Latin for blood, sanguine, but I'm assuming that Drew wants to know why |
| 1:33.8 | sanguine is a personality trait at Chivala beat one. This is related to the Four Humans |
| 1:39.2 | Theory of Medicine popularised nearly two and a half thousand years ago by Hippocrates, |
| 1:43.8 | the Greek father of Western Medicine. For some two thousand years after him, the Four |
| 1:48.2 | Humans remained scientifically significant. The theory was, any malady could be ascribed |
... |
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