This episode examines uncommon words for conversations about fixity, exploring their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words featured include intransigent, obdurate, adamantine, indelible, obstinate and irrevocable.

Hear how a wartime survey of buildings at risk of bombing led to Britain's listed building system, granting certain structures legal protection designed to secure their permanence.

Sources:
https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/09/crying-over-spilled-milk.html

https://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abeswlgbt.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/targets-of-enemy-bombers-and-our-own-demolition-men-1598384.html

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/about-the-list/

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This episode explores lesser known words that are useful in conversations about reputation, considering their origins and recognisable words from the same root. Words highlighted include perfidious, calumny, susurration, ignominy, opprobrium, obloquy and flagitious.

Listen to the history of how a derailed train helped shape the beginnings of the modern public relations industry.

Sources:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1857-08-18/debates/4642f51a-ffe6-4eee-a43e-9276e7fc81ac/CompensationForTheSufferersByTheIndianMutiny

https://www.audible.com/blog/quotes-theodore-roosevelt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qn-XatSQaA&t=404s

https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/irish-legal-heritage-richard-pigott-and-the-forgeries-commission

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-history-spin-doctor

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This episode investigates obscure words for discussions about error, tracing their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words examined include solecism, lapsus calami, amphibology, defalcation, misfeasance and mea culpa.

Discover the mistaken beliefs that gave us the names West Indies, malaria and platinum.

Sources:

https://www.rd.com/article/malapropism-examples/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOU0eA03S2c

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2015/desperate-adventures-and-men-of-straw-the-failure-of-city-of-glasgow.pdf

https://www.taylor-rose.co.uk/posts/misfeasance

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/library-archive-open-research-services/archives/sir-ronald-ross-collections

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJKMZCVjxs

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This episode considers unusual words for conversations about happiness, examining their origins and recognisable words from the same root. Words featured include gaiety, delectation, sangfroid, equanimity, ananda and rapturous.

Hear the history of Jeremy Bentham's attempt to systematically assess pleasure and pain as a guide for moral action.


Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/eudaimonia

https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/osler-library/aequanimitas/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqfjUTqDGRw

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This episode gets into unusual words for conversations about eating, exploring their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words discussed include voracious, pantagruelian, temulent, alimentation, deglutition and abstemious.

Plus, discover the history of how three daily meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, became the norm.


Sources:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/caterpillar-mcmaster-1.5605825

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gourmet-vs-gourmand-usage-difference

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1877-06-05/debates/119d4165-514d-4018-bd66-f6b96f695261/PrisonsBill%E2%80%94Bill121

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243692

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfast-health-america-kellog-food-lifestyle

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/hard-chews-why-mastication-played-crucial-role-in-evolution/

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This podcast returns on February 22nd 2026. This episode examines lesser-known words for discussions about Precision, looking at their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words explored include punctilious, ad litteram, cavilling, facsimile, pettifogging and fastidious.

Find out when systems of measurement moved from regional variation to global uniformity.

Sources:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/20686987-candelabra-selected-essays-and-addresses

https://wordhistories.net/2018/02/04/scruple-origin/

https://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/blog/new-facts-about-fax-in-healthcare/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bUVjJWA6Vw

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51198666

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This episode explores uncommon words for discussions about Power, examining their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words highlighted include recrudescence, lese-majeste, contumacious, de facto, seditious and arrogate.

Hear how the transfer of royal power was not always determined by birth.

Sources:
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Stephen-Anarchy/
https://debretts.com/royal-family/the-royal-succession/
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199791279/obo-9780199791279-0046.xml
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73906.txt.utf-8
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2009-07-09/debates/09070996000389/CoronersAndJusticeBill
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/biog207883
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/john-gaunt-duke-lancaster-who-facts-family-children-legacy/

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This episode covers rare words for conversations about Time, exploring their origins and recognisable words from the same root. Words featured include desultory, ephemeral, dilatory, tarry, exigent and evitable.

Listen for the history of how time, once determined locally, became standardised across Britain with the emergence of the railway.

Sources:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/387/294/
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/1/1/
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/give-us-ballot-address-delivered-prayer-pilgrimage-freedom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TbLTpR0njo

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