Episode 25

full
Published on:

8th Apr 2026

Episode 25: oblivion

Every day we forget things. Thankfully, we don't need to remember every face from our commute, every song on the radio. Today's word "oblivion" draws from this universal experience of forgetting, and its Latin ancestor oblivisci gives us several modern English terms, both common (like "oblivious") and obscure (like "oubliette"). In our consideration of forgetfulness and the practice of leaving things in the past, we look at a poem by Wisława Szymborska, the Polish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996.

Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords

Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

---

https://originalpublicmeaning.com

Show artwork for Original Public Meaning

About the Podcast

Original Public Meaning
Exploring the ancient roots of modern words
Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about our own ideas and the wider world? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth the ancient foundations of our language and consider how its vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.
Support This Show

About your host

Profile picture for Charles McNamara

Charles McNamara

Director of Greek and Latin Language, University of Minnesota