Something Rhymes with Purple - Bagpudding

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Love makes the world go round, And so does etymology too! Happy Valentines Day! This week, Susie and Gyles explore the words of affection we used in our everyday vernacular... From darling, to cabbage(?!), to sweetie, to bae - we find out where these cutie-pie terms originate from. Also, Gyles tries to impress Susie this week with (what he thinks are) good chat up lines! We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Explaterate: to talk continuously; to bluster. Twirlblast: (19th-century southern US) whirlwind. Groaning cake: cake provided for those waiting on a woman to give birth. Gyles' poem this week was 'How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up y'all it's your man Mark Strong Strizzy and your girl Jem the Jem of all Jems and we're hosting Olympic FOMO your essential recap podcast of the 2024 Olympic Games in 20 minutes or less every day we'll be going behind the scenes for all the wins

losses and real talk with special guests from the Athletes Village and around the world you'll never have a fear of missing any Olympic action from Paris. Listen to Olympic FOMO wherever you get your podcasts. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey, no, too basic. Hi there.

Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself.

Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience, and the Purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Hello and welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. And I suspect if you're a loyal Purple person, you will know already what this is about. It is about words. And well, last year, Giles, we did a bit of a Valentine's Day special, if you like, and it was called Irrumpent. And you may remember, I hope, what that means. But anyway, we thought we might return to the theme of love today without getting too schmaltzy, didn't we? We are not going to get schmaltzy. I have in front of me a poem written by my friend who I love reading her poems, Jane

McCulloch. It's simply called A Thought, and it's about growing older, really. And it reads as follows, only two lines. As one decade tips into the next, you are shorter of life and less short of sex. So one doesn't know what is going to happen in one's love life as the years go by. But Valentine's Day is a time when we celebrate the feast of St. Valentine, not quite sure who he was. And also we think about love. So we're going to talk about terms of endearment, affection. Yes. So we did talk about St. Valentine's and some death when we um when we did that episode irrompant just to remind you what irrompant means it's a gorgeous term actually and

i have to say it's usually reserved for the buds on the trees as spring arrives it means bursting forth or bursting into flower but i guess it sounds a little bit like rumpy pumpy which is why our lovely producers chose it for that episode. But yeah, we're talking about terms of endearment. And, you know, in that irrumpent episode, we covered the different types of love. And we talked a bit about how in ancient Greek and indeed in Old English for a while, we did have distinct words for different categories of love, whether it's one that a parent will feel for a

child, whether it's one you feel for your friends, or whether it's one that you feel romantically for your beloved. And those all disappeared and they were all distilled in that single word love. So today we don't really have a current synonym for love. It is all-encompassing and yet still incredibly powerful. But there are some very strange terms of endearment from the past I would like to tell you about. But first of all, when you're talking to Michelle, what do you call her? You call her darling, don't you? I think I've heard that. It's a phrase that falls all too easily from my lips. I promise that I'm going to this year, one of my promises for 2024 is to do a little bit less name dropping. But I'm afraid

I have to start with a story about being some years ago at a reception at Buckingham Palace, which our international listeners may know is the main principal home of our royal family. And I was at this reception standing in the presence of the then Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip the Duke of the then Queen, Elizabeth II, and her husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. My wife was there, and also in the group was the Archbishop of Canterbury. And my wife said to me at one stage, rather under her breath, I don't think the Queen is appreciating you calling her darling. At which point the Duke of Edinburgh then

thought, I don't think the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks much of it either. Because I'm in the habit, as people who sometimes work in the theatre are, of calling everybody darling. It's a kind of catch-all phrase of endearment, of affection. It's meant, no harm is meant by it, but perhaps it's said almost too casually. So I do call my darling wife, Michelle, darling. What is the origin of darling? Well, that goes back to Old English, and it means little dear one. So the dar bit, the D-A-R, is dear. So that goes back to the Old English for dear, as in cherished. And the ling is a little diminutive, so it means my sweet little one. So it's quite

cute, really. And in fact, we do tend to do that with our endearments. We do add a bit of a diminutive. You know, when we talk about people as poppets, for example, we are affectionately kind of making them little. It is often used as a surname, too. Can you name for me the most famous darlings in world literature? The Darling Buds of May? Well, actually, that's not bad. No, it's a good answer. Oh, I know, in Peter Pan.

Indeed. They are the darling children, and it's Mr. and Mrs. Darling who are the parents. There was a famous judge called Mr. Justice Darling, who was considered quite amusing. And once he inquired, there was a court case and somebody mentioned George Roby, who was a very famous musical star. And somebody intervened to say, or the judge said, this is Mr. Justice Darling,

said, and who is George Roby? And the KC or QC conducting the case said, oh, George Roby, sir, he is the darling of the music halls. So a nice little play on words there. Absolutely. Well, had you lived a few centuries ago, you would have had a range of epithets to use towards Michelle affectionately. So some of them, and I think I may have suggested some of these to you before, some of them may not go down so well. So you might have to wait a little while, whereas others I think are quite cute.

So once, should we start with the ones that you need to be careful with? Prawn is a bit of an odd one. So food features quite large. Cabbage from 1722. Prawn. Prawn and cabbage. I'm sorry, I'm just coping on prawn. too. Prawn. Prawn and cabbage. I'm sorry, I'm just coping on prawn. My wife is against the crustaceans and she's heard terrible things about prawns having their eyes popped out before you eat them.

So prawn she would not want to be called. Cabbage, I will just, again, to go on with this name dopping, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, did occasionally call his wife cabbage. Well, there you go. The first record is from 1722 and it reads, Ha, my little cabbage sprout, one sweet kiss to make it up and I'll be gone. Well, and also in French, people refer to their loved ones. Petit chou. Petit chou, exactly. Ou ma chou-fleur. Yes, and food continues to feature because we have honey bun, we have a sweet thing. Well, we use crumpet in a slightly different way

because crumpet is used in a sexual way, don't we? But we do still go towards food. One that you wouldn't hear these days from the early 17th century is bag pudding, which was somehow used with affection. My little bag pudding. I like it. I can see the affection there.

You like that? What about what I do call my wife is sweetheart. Yes. Are we allowed that? Sweetheart is lovely. Is that old? Yeah, really old. It's one of the oldest ones that we have.

So that's 14th century. So it was used both for a child, as it is these days, and towards your lover or your partner as well. And it used to be two words, and then during the Elizabethan time, it came to be one. And of course, in the US, it is used for anything superlative of its kind. So you might say, that is a sweetheart of a hat, Giles,

if you wore a hat. So that's another one. There is, well, be careful with these ones as well. Creep mouse. This is where an animal comes in. Can you guess what a creep mouse might be? No. A bat.

Oh. It's an old term for a bat. And we used to have flitter mouse, which of course comes from the German flitter mouse, the feathered mouse, which is how the Germans obviously saw bats originally. But yeah, creep mouse is another word for it. But that was once weirdly used as a term of affection. And I do remember telling you about pig's knee from the 14th century, which actually doesn't mean the knee of a pig. It means the eye of a pig. And so

actually someone who is especially cherished, you might say my pig's eye. I mean, I just don't get that one at all. But anyway, it was there. Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Sounds a bit like ding dong, but ding, ding was another one. My little ding, ding. I'm not sure about that one. That sounds like, you know, there are people who name their private parts. But then there's some other nice ones that I think still would get a look in. But then there's some other nice ones that I think still would get a look in.

Sparrow, ladybird, and then, of course, flowers were usually reserved for women. So, rosebud, honeysuckle, primrose tart actually was there as well. But, yeah. So, some rather surprising ones from the past. My parents, who met in the 1930s, called each other Hen and Ducky. Oh, nice. Is that period talk? I mean, you wouldn't call somebody Hen now.

Maybe you would in Scotland. Yeah, I think you would in Scotland. Yes. I think you absolutely would. You'd still hear it a lot these days. I think maybe Hen, in my parents' case, was a variation on Hun, I think. Oh, okay. Because I think they also got, maybe Hun is a short for honey. Yes, it would be.

Yeah. But Duck is a funny one, isn't it? Duck or ducky? Duck has been used since Shakespeare's time. So he uses it in A Midsummer Night's Dream and ducky. And you have to remember that, you know, much as a group of men might call a woman a bird, it's another sort of, you know, use of a sort of animal reference, if you like. There are some distinct themes.

But of course, across the UK, but particularly associated with Cockney, London, duck or ducky is used as an affectionate terms of address, much as when I go to Manchester, people will regularly say, you're right, love, or here you go, love. And I really, really like that. I don't find it demeaning because it's used actually for both men and women. I don't find these in terms of endearment, patronizing or inappropriate. If they're natural, that's fine. I'm totally comfortable with them.

Yes, me too. What about cherub? I feel, I mean, you're my cherub. Again, this is a period talk, I suppose. I wouldn't bother about that now. Yes. So, I mean, that's really, you know, raising the stakes because a cherub obviously is a winged angel, isn't it? So, but it did start to mean a beautiful child and we would still use it in that way in the 18th century. And so only a matter of time really before it would be used. I don't know if we would use it of a partner though, cherub, possibly. I don't know if we would use it of a partner, though, cherub, possibly, but much more probably for, I would say, a child or a little person. But, you know, I may be wrong with that.

You have bae nowadays, don't you? I can't quite see you calling. Just Michelle, you're bae, but maybe you do. No, I don't. I must be honest with you. No. But actually, bae may have occasionally slipped. Yeah, it's possible, actually. Okay, well, that's early 21st century, and that is simply an abbreviation of babe, my bae.

So that's usually your boyfriend or your girlfriend. And babe itself is inevitably a lot, lot older than that. What other ones might you use? I think, I'm just trying to think what I was called when I was little. I think sweetheart, darling, or poppet, really, were the ones that I used a lot. What is the nicest thing you think you've been called, both as an epithet, a phrase like that, and also maybe the nicest thing that anybody has ever said to you in a romantic situation? Well, what hasn't been said, but I would love it to be said, and I'm sure I've told you this,

there's a film with Jeremy Irons, and it's based on, I think, on a Pinter play, and one of the characters says to a woman, you dazzle me. And I just thought that is just such an amazing thing to be told. So, yeah, I'm still waiting for that moment. How about you? Well, there's a line from Shakespeare. When I first met my wife, Michelle, which was now 56 years ago, we appeared in a production of Twelfth Night together at university.

She played the part of Viola. And I managed to get myself the part of the sea captain in order to be dear to her. And I think Shakespeare has some wonderful lines about love. And I'm trying to remember which play this comes from, but it's a wonderful thing to say to a loved one. It's from Shakespeare. I would not wish any companion in the world but you. Oh, can I look it up for you? Isn't that a great line? I would not wish any companion in the world but you. So if you are looking for a line for Valentine's Day,

this year, next year, sometimes, never, Shakespeare does it all. I mean, actually, he's got a universal line too, Shakespeare, that I think is good for Valentine's Day because it's general. And I know on Valentine's Day, there are a lot of people who feel bleak because they think I haven't got anybody. Other people feel, oh, thank goodness, I haven't got anybody. But this is a great line from Shakespeare,

love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. That's gorgeous. That is gorgeous. I've just found the Tempest quote. That's where yours comes from. I would not wish any companion. And it continues. So it goes, I would not wish any companion in the world but you, nor can imagination form a shape beside yourself to like of. Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Isn't it gorgeous? Totally gorgeous.

And I found it was Betrayal. That was the film I was thinking of. And it had Ben Kingsley in it. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Indeed. And I think it was a film written by, a play written by Harold Pinter

about an affair that he had. Ah. I wonder if he ever uttered those lines, you dazzle me. Yeah, maybe he did. Yeah. But anyway, it's a lovely thing. Should we take a break? Yes. And then you can come back at me with your favourite chat-up lines.

Oh my goodness, I have no chat-up lines. Can I say, I've been waiting for years for these, Susie. My cat's just walked in, so I'll ask her. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security.

Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m late checkout just need a nice place to settle in enjoy your room upgrade wherever you go we'll go together that's the powerful backing of american express visit amex.ca slash ymx benefits vary by card terms apply you know that feeling when you're like why isn isn't there more of this? The show is so good. That was how I felt when I started to get really hooked on Black Butler that I think is just incredible.

Oh, we, yeah, it's coming back. It's coming back. He's like, I'm excited. I got it. I'm excited. After like a 10 year hiatus. And this is The Anime Effect, the show that allows celebrities to nerd out over their favorite anime, manga, or pop culture.

The Akatsuki theme song. You know what it is. I listen to that one all day. That thing go crazy. That thing kill me. Be in the gym going, and they're like, what is he listening to? Oh, it's not even in the gym.

I be on the field. I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. Find out which live action anime adaptations David Dostmalchian is praying he'll get to star in. Or how Jamal Williams uses the mindset of Naruto for his NFL

career. Listen to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to Something Rhymes with Purple, where my cat thankfully walked in just as Giles was asking me for my favorite chat up line. So luckily, I no longer have to stare into his eyes over Zoom. And instead, I'm looking at a very cute moggy who is asking me for some treats.

So I don't know what her chat up line would be in cat's language, but I don't have any chat up lines, Giles. I don't think I've ever had a little book or diary containing the best ones. Don't you remember when I first met you more than a quarter of a century ago, when I came up to you and whispered in your ear, I never believed in love at first sight, Susie, but that was before I met you. No, I don't remember because it actually never happened. Because as you say, you were 25 years into a marriage at that point.

That did never, never happen. But I love collecting those sorts of ridiculous lines. Oh, give me some more. I'll give you some more. This is a real chat-up line. If you meet somebody in a bar, you know, or the pub, you say, you owe me a drink because when I saw you, I dropped mine. Or, oh, hello hello I seem to have forgot

my own phone number can I have yours aww that's quite sweet isn't it sort of I'm not sure I think I would just say

they are all ridiculous yeah but it's but it's quite fun in their own way in a sense you know let's flip a coin

heads I'm yours tails you're mine it's a way of in a sense a chat up mine. It's a way of, in a sense, a chat up line like that is a way of getting around an awkward moment, trying to be endearing. One means well. Yes. As long as you mean well. Well, we had a lovely moment in the Countdown studio the other day because we had a contestant called Mark who is about to get married to his

lovely fiance, Annabelle. And they met because she went up to him in the pub and they started talking. And he said, what would you like to be when you grow up? She'd actually been a teacher. I think she's now in her 30s. And she said, a lexicographer. And he said, what, like Susie Dent? And because of that, they felt like Mark had to apply to be a contestant and Annabelle had to come along.

So it was absolutely, it was really sweet. And they are getting married, I think on the, actually, they may already be married because it was on the 6th of February. So congratulations to both of them. Well, real congratulations. And it's so much better aligned than, I bought you a dictionary since you add so much meaning to my life. Or even worse, let me tie your shoes. I don't want you falling for anyone else. Or I'll give you one more really bad one.

Hello, are you a Wi-Fi signal? Because I'm feeling a very strong connection here. Oh, these are all so wind-making. They are. They're really, really dreadful. Not to be recommended, purple people. Do not use these ones. Don't use these. Don't go up to someone and say, I know your birthday. And they say, well, really, really dreadful. Not to be recommended, purple people. Do not use these ones. Absolutely. Don't use these.

Don't go up to someone and say, I know your birthday. And they say, well, really, do you? Yes. It's the 10th of October. Really? Yes. You're a 10-10 in my book. Oh.

Yeah, exactly. Oh, my goodness. Should we go quickly on to some of our emails from the lovely people? In case they're still listening. Yes. If you've got a great chat- up line, do please send it in. It's purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com. All right?

Yes. And don't try any of mine because they're hopeless. Like, I need a real estate agent. I really do. Do you know any? I'm trying to make a move here. Yes. Okay, definitely.

Let's leave it there. And let's go to our very first email. And we have a voice note from Mary Ruth. Hi, Susie and Giles. I'm Mary Ruth from Malaysia. And I've listened to every single episode of your podcast, sometimes more than once, because I'm never able to remember all the new words I learn each week. And it's always a joy to revisit them. I learn each week, and it's always a joy to revisit them. I also love your episodes on Pigeon English from around the world, and we sometimes call our Malaysian English Manglish, although it's not as famous as our neighbor's Singlish. I also sometimes joke that Manglish could be a portmanteau of Mangled English. Now, I'm trained as a biologist and I have a question about the word fluke. Whenever I hear the word fluke, my mind immediately goes to the parasitic worm, but I realize it's more commonly used to describe something good which seemingly happened by chance. But there is also the fluke

describing the lobes of a whale's tail, and also fluke as a flatfish. Could you please share with us how this word came to mean all these different meanings? Thank you and best wishes from Malaysia, Mary Ruth. That's a brilliant question. And I have to say, until Mary Ruth got in touch, I didn't really know that there were so many meanings for fluke. I'd not heard of the flatfish called a fluke. Had you?

No. Or maybe I had. Maybe I had, but I don't think I really thought about it. No, I've definitely never eaten it, that's for sure. Well, there are indeed many, many different meanings. I'll start with the one that we're probably most familiar with, most of us, which is, oh, that was a bit of a fluke. You know, I did really well there, but it was a bit of a fluke.

So, meaning a surprising piece of luck or something that is unlikely and happens by chance. We're not completely sure where this comes from, but it emerged around the mid-19th century and it began in games such as billiards when it did mean a lucky stroke. So something that the player was especially grateful for. It possibly comes from a dialect word meaning the same thing, but its ultimate origin has been a little bit lost. The fluke that is a flatfish, especially a flounder, that one's a little bit easier because that is from Germanic origin. And there is a word in German that is quite similar, meaning flat, which is flach, which sounds quite like fluke. So that's where that one comes from. As for that sort of triangular plate that you'll find on the arm of an anchor or either of the lobes of a whale's tail, that probably comes from the fish

because of the shape. So the fluke that is everything but the most familiar meaning, that kind of unlikely, happy occurrence is from the flatfish. Anything else we're a little bit unsure of, but definitely first used in billiards. Very good. We got time for another one? I think we do. We have a voice note from Susan Ng. Hi, Susie and Giles. I've become a huge fan of your podcast since I discovered it a few months ago.

I have learned a lot over the past few weeks as I have listened to as many episodes as I can. I was having a chat with a friend of mine who lives in Washington State in America the other day and I happened to mention that someone was having a row with someone at the time we were chatting with each other. She found this comment funny and said that it isn't an expression that she uses in America. It made me wonder how long we have been using the expression here and where it came from originally. And if there are any other similar alternatives we perhaps don't use so much today. Thank you for your hard work, Susan Ng from Berkshire, England. Well, we have a row with someone a little bit too often, really. And it is a bit odd when you

look at it, because obviously it's a homophone with, well, not homophone, but a homonym of row as in an orderly line and row meaning to propel with oars. And so the sense and orderly line, that row, that's recorded from Old English. It's separate to row, meaning to propel a boat with oars, because that's also Old English, but it actually goes back to a word used by the Romans for an oar, remus, R-E-M-U-S. But the kind of row that results from a heated argument, that's a different word again, and has obviously a different pronunciation. And that turned up in English from a completely unknown source out of nowhere in the middle of the 18th century. And all we know about it, and this reminds me of the word humbug actually, Giles, is that it was considered to be vulgar or slang.

It was considered to be low speech. But we have absolutely no idea where it comes from. So I'm sorry to disappoint you, Susan. It is a very odd thing having a row with someone, especially the pronunciation. And all I can say is that the work will go on, but it's not related to the words with the same spelling but different meanings to row, or a row, indeed. Isn't it interesting how people's voices tell you something about them? I really loved the sound of Susan Ng's voice. Those people who know two famous English writers, they were sisters.

Margaret Drabble and her sister A.S. Byatt, who sadly died recently. They may be the same generation or the same part of the country, they sound a bit like Susan Ng sounded. And I just love that, the voice. I think it's the voice of somebody who's highly intelligent and interesting. No wonder we were partly baffled by her question. No, absolutely. And I'm sorry if I got confused between homophones and homonyms and homographs and that kind of thing.

So those are homographs, the row and the and not homophones because we pronounce them differently. But yeah, absolutely. Very distinctive voice. I think it might be time for my trio. Shall I introduce myself? Please introduce your three special words that we should make a note of. My first word is to explatterate. that we should make a note of? My first word is to explatterate. And to explatterate is to talk continuously without interruption, often in a blustering way. Oh dear. But it's a very expressive word, to explatterate. My second word is one I discovered only the other day. It's 19th century US dialect from the south of the US, and it's a twirly blast. Can you guess what a

twirly blast might be? Well, I don't know. Is it like a typhoon? Is there a lot of going around? Very good. It is. It's a whirlwind. Ah, very good. Yeah. I love that. I mean, a twirly blast makes it sound a little bit innocent, but it is rather nice, I think. And the third one is one of a whole list of words, including the term groaning. So there are a whole load of compounds, groaning pie, groaning cheese, groaning beer, groaning malt, groaning cake, and groaning bread. Any idea when these were served? At a wake? No. It sounds like the groaning that is a lament, but it's not. It's the groaning of a woman in labor. So people would be invited to attend the birth or at least to wait outside. And whilst

they were waiting for the happy event, while the woman was positively groaning, they would eat pie, cheese, beer, drink, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, that's brilliant. The groaning cake. I think that's fantastic. Let's hope the birth wasn't a twirly blast and that the supervising medical staff weren't expaturating as it all happened. She indeed wasn't expaturating either. Right. I would love to hear a poem now. Well, it's Valentine's Day, so I want to read you a love poem. I'm going to give you a choice because it's my present. You can have a modern love poem written by my friend with whom I began this episode, Jane McCulloch. It's the shorter of the two.

Or you can have my favourite love poem written by the great Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of her sonnets. Let's go for that because that'll be something different. Yeah. All right. I'm going to give you, it's my favorite poem. You will know it. This is a very famous poem, Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

How do I love thee? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely as men strive for right. I love thee purely as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seem to lose with my

lost saints. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life. And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Oh, that's beautiful. It's an amazing poem. Yes. Written by the extraordinary Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose own love story, her own story of her and Robert Browning, is a great love story in its own way. Beautiful. We remember her. Born 1806, died 1861. Great woman.

She was indeed. Thank you so much for joining us today. Please do consider, if you think you might fancy it, the Purple Plus Club where you can listen ad-free. And we have some bonus episodes there on words and language. Of course, what else would we talk about? Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production. It was produced with Naya D idea with additional production from Jen Mystery, Charlie Murrell, Ollie Wilson,

and he's still here, I think, Charles, isn't he? I hope so. Unless he's out trying out some of my pickup lines, because he's a bit like that. Go on. Yes. So, come on, Richie.

Please don't, Richie. Try this one. So, when our grandchildren ask how we met, what should we tell them? You say that as the first encounter. That is awful. And I should say that Richie, poor Richie, is looking absolutely exhausted because his

son is not particularly well. And he is surrounded by the detritus of young children. So I think chat-up lines are going to be the very last thing that he's looking for right now. But it may be what he needs. Or maybe the first.