diff --git a/include/chaiscript/dispatchkit/dispatchkit.hpp b/include/chaiscript/dispatchkit/dispatchkit.hpp
index d825a9a..edbd7ac 100644
--- a/include/chaiscript/dispatchkit/dispatchkit.hpp
+++ b/include/chaiscript/dispatchkit/dispatchkit.hpp
@@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ namespace chaiscript
   /**
    * return true if the Boxed_Value matches the registered type by name
    */
-  static bool is_type(const Dispatch_Engine &e, const std::string &user_typename, Boxed_Value r)
+  bool is_type(const Dispatch_Engine &e, const std::string &user_typename, Boxed_Value r)
   {
     try {
       return e.get_type(user_typename) == r.get_type_info();
@@ -472,6 +472,11 @@ namespace chaiscript
     }
   }
 
+  std::string type_name(const Dispatch_Engine &e, Boxed_Value obj)
+  {
+    return e.get_type_name(obj.get_type_info());
+  }
+
 }
 
 #endif
diff --git a/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_engine.hpp b/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_engine.hpp
index 0ffb0d0..8460008 100644
--- a/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_engine.hpp
+++ b/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_engine.hpp
@@ -148,6 +148,8 @@ namespace chaiscript
             engine.add(fun(boost::function<bool (Boxed_Value, const std::string &)>(boost::bind(&is_type, boost::ref(engine), _2, _1))),
                 "is_type");
 
+            engine.add(fun(boost::function<std::string (Boxed_Value)>(boost::bind(&chaiscript::type_name, boost::ref(engine), _1))),
+                "type_name");
 
             engine.add(vector_type<std::vector<Boxed_Value> >("Vector"));
             engine.add(string_type<std::string>("string"));
diff --git a/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_prelude.hpp b/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_prelude.hpp
index 28b83a4..e7b23e1 100644
--- a/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_prelude.hpp
+++ b/include/chaiscript/language/chaiscript_prelude.hpp
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 #define CODE_STRING(x, y) #x ", " #y
 
 #define chaiscript_prelude CODE_STRING(\
-def new(x) { var retval = clone(x); clear(retval); retval; } \
+def new(x) { eval(type_name(x))(); } \
 # to_string for Pair()\n\
 def to_string(x) : call_exists(first, x) && call_exists(second, x) { \
   "<" + x.first.to_string() + ", " + x.second.to_string() + ">"; \