I have no idea how a conversation about card tricks turned in a more lewd direction, but to elude that road, I alluded to Houdini’s ability to illude his audience. I had deluded myself into thinking the discussion would safely follow suit. That’s right: I was deluded to think I could elude the lewdness with an allusion to illusion.
Just in case such a -lude word trick works for you sometime, here are the cards you’ll need in your hand:
- To allude is to refer to indirectly. With no time to describe how purely and innocently passionate and imaginative my young neighbor is, I alluded to Anne-with-an-e and went on with my tale.
- To delude is to lead into error or misjudgment. We delude ourselves if we think allusions are all we need to communicate clearly. “Darmok and Jalad” is meaningless, for example, if the story isn’t in your shared lexicon. The wise are not deluded into simplistic understandings.
- To elude is to avoid, escape, evade, or defy. The protagonist eludes the giant boulder or the obtuse suitor
- I once read a short story in which an obtuse suitor fell victim to a giant boulder, but the name of the author eludes me.
- To illude is to trick or deceive, often in a mocking way, as with an illusion. An elaborate plan to illude them regarding the true identity of the blackmailer resulted in a madcap romp through the mansion and the eventual death of the villain.
Have some good, clean word fun! The root of each of our -lude words comes from the Latin ludere “to play” and has no relation to lewd, which comes from the Old English læwede “nonclerical.”
Header photo via Jack Hamilton, Unsplash.
This article was originally posted on the Copyediting website, Feb. 6, 2013.
