Image: Martin Kraft License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The brilliant and dazzling Helen Zaltzman pops in with some new asides in this encore episode of Ologies. Helen, host of the podcasts The Allusionist, Veronica Mars Investigations and Answer Me This, and a person who technically for a living researches the origins of language and thus is an etymologist, visits Alie's apartment to chat about various word origins, gender in language, the Bible a.k.a. The Oxford English Dictionary, origins of the filthiest slang, emoji decoding, mediocrity, step parents, babies wearing glasses, Greek kimonos, the romance of languages and the fundamental truth that language is always changing whether you want it to or not. Also tomatoes, pliable boobs, avocados, and fish trails.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, Google, Podbay, Podcast Addict, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow Helen on Twitter & Instagram

Listen to episodes of The Allusionist mentioned in the show: No Title and Sorry

This week's donation was made to POPS the Club

Links to things we discussed:

Tomato/tomahtoh

Etymology of tomahtoh

“Professor and the Madman” book

Step parents on The Allusionist

Origin of pizazz

Pizazz pizza

OED added words in 2018