allusion

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

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🗓️ 16 December 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2024 is:

allusion • \uh-LOO-zhun\ • noun

An allusion is a reference to something that avoids mentioning the thing directly. Allusion may also describe the use of such a statement or the act of alluding to something.

// The lyrics contain biblical allusions.

// They made allusion to their first marriage, but said nothing more about it.

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Examples:

“The Rings of Power is full of echoes and allusions to the original [Lord of the Rings] trilogy.” — James Grebey, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2024

Did you know?

An allusion is not a play on words—that would be a pun—but allusion does come from the Latin verb allūdere, which in turn combines the verb lūdere, meaning “play,” with the prefix ad-, which can mean “to,” “toward,” or “near.” One way of thinking about an allusion—an indirect reference, especially (though not exclusively) as used in literature—is that it “plays toward or around” something rather than naming it directly. For example, Picnic, Lightning, the title of a book by poet Billy Collins, is an allusion to a line from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita. This allusion—like most—works on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge shared by the author and reader and that therefore the reader will understand the reference. Don’t be misled by the similar pronunciation and spelling of allusion and illusion, however. You wouldn’t be the first, but the latter—which also comes from lūdere—refers to something that is visually or otherwise misleading.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Word of the Day podcast for December 16th.
0:11.3	Today's word is allusion, spelled A-L-L-L-U-S-I-O-N.
0:17.2	Illusion is a noun, and illusion is a reference to something that avoids mentioning the thing directly.
0:23.6	Allusion may also describe the use of such a statement or the act of alluding to something.
0:29.6	Here's the word used in a sentence from Vulture by James Greby.
0:33.6	The Rings of Power is full of echoes and allusions to the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.
0:41.6	An allusion is not a play on words, that would be a pun, but allusion does come from the Latin
0:48.2	verb alludere, which in turn combines the verb ludere, meaning meaning play with the prefix add, which can mean
0:55.0	to toward or near.
0:57.3	One way of thinking about an illusion, an indirect reference, especially, although not exclusively
1:02.7	used in literature, is that it plays toward or around something rather than naming it directly.
1:10.0	For example, Picnic Lightning, the title of a book
1:13.1	by poet Billy Collins, is an illusion to a line from Vladimir Nabokov's novel, Lolita. This illusion,
1:21.9	like most, works on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge shared by the author and
1:26.8	reader, and that therefore the reader
1:29.8	will understand the reference. Don't be misled by the similar pronunciation and spelling of
1:35.8	allusion and illusion with an eye. You wouldn't be the first, but the latter, which also comes
1:41.8	from Luderay, refers to something that is visually or otherwise
1:45.4	misleading. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:53.0	Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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