More than meets eyes

Some podcasts tell stories. Others explain ideas. The Allusionist, hosted by Helen Zaltzman, performs a rarer trick: it makes language itself the protagonist. Episode 225, Hues, is a delightful example of why the series has become indispensable listening for anyone curious about words.

At first glance, defining colours seems straightforward. Yet, as Zaltzman and guest Kory Stamper - former Merriam-Webster lexicographer and author of True Color - reveal, colour names have long frustrated dictionary makers: how do you define a colour using only words? The result is a fascinating journey through dictionaries, history, science, psychology and culture, where every answer opens another linguistic puzzle.

Zaltzman blends research with wit, allowing complex ideas to unfold conversationally. The episode glides from Samuel Johnson's famously inadequate colour definitions in his 1755 dictionary - he defined pink as 'a colour used by painters' - to modern debates about perception and meaning, without ever sounding like a lecture.


Hues proves that something as seemingly obvious as colour is richer, stranger and more revealing than we imagine.

Now, try defining begonia...