Something Rhymes with Purple - Beatlemania

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

This week at the Purple HQ, we explore words that come from the swinging 60s! Hear all about Gyles meeting The Beatles in an Apple shop back in the day, and Susie unpacking extraordinary etymologies... 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:  Batterfanged: Done in. Sammodithee: A way of replying to the toast. It means the same unto thee. Splute: Someone who exaggerates. Gyles' poem this week was 'Imagine' by John Lennon Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us, only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one 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

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amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. 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. Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. This is a podcast about words, about language, about etymology. It's presented by me, Giles Brandreth, and my good friend, Podpanyon, that's a word she's invented, Susie Dent, who is both a lexicographer, a television star, and one of the most brilliant, and if I may say so, beautiful human beings in the world. Honestly, I come to this place for my weekly ego soothe, because, yes, it's a lovely oasis where you say very nice things, and then I go back out into the

real world. I say them, and I know one's not supposed to make personal remarks, and I don't wish to make personal remarks, but I want to make warm remarks. People can't see you on the podcast. I know some podcasts do it on visual as well. You can be seen. And we haven't developed that far. But I think you look lovely. And I also think you're looking really sort of fresh. And I mean, are you feeling good this year? Has it been a good start for you?

I wonder if I put a different light in my study, maybe. We're not actually in the same room. No. I'm in my basement in London, South Wales, London. And Susie is in Oxford, where she's been for many years. She went to the university there. And she worked for the Oxford University Press on the Oxford English Dictionary, where she learned a lot of what she now shares with us.

And you've gone on living there. I did have a break. I did have a break in the middle where I lived in the States and then in London and then I returned. And yeah, I mean, it's in some ways it's weird coming back to the same place, but I remember I was at college here at a wonderful college called Somerville. And I'm sure I told you this, Giles, I would wake up because I was in a student accommodation. It was a little bit like Celebrity Squares, if you remember that game show where everyone looks like they're stacked up on top of each other in a giant lego box and I would open my curtains and I was looking straight out into the buildings of Oxford University Press where I would wave to an elderly

gentleman every morning who worked there and it was very Mary Poppins-esque that particular morning ritual so I felt when I went to OP, had it been a direct move, that would have been quite sad because I would have only shifted a few yards. But I did go to do an MA in America first. And then I lived, for a long time, I lived in London when I commuted to Oxford. And when you lived in London, of course, you lived in Soho, right in front of the most exciting part of London. Yeah.

Have we discussed before the incident of david tomlinson the actor and being on top of the bus does this david tom who's david tomlinson david tomlinson was a lovely actor famous in the 1950s 60s and 70s in the uk and around the world around the world because he appeared as the father in Mary Poppins. Oh, he's good. Yes, I do remember him really well. Remember who I mean? Yes. Well, he was travelling on a bus in London on the upstairs floor of the bus.

Yeah. And the bus stopped by some houses and he was looking out of the bus window. And you're mentioning being like the, you know, in Celebrity Squares, being one on top of the other. Yeah. He found himself looking from the top of the bus into somebody's bedroom. Oh, dear. He saw sitting up in bed with a cup of tea, his father, sitting next to a lady who was not his mother. Oh, good grief. No, you've never told this story. He and the family discovered that his father had a complete second family.

No. Yeah. Wow. And the actor, Miles Jupp, who you may know. Yes, I do. Contemporary actor, entertainer, lovely fellow, did a brilliant show about David Tomlinson that tells this story, which I saw a couple of years ago. Anyway, it's a remarkable story. But this is not terribly unusual, because the house I live in in southwest London was once owned by a member, I think I've got this right, of the Fife's banana importing family. It turned out he had a second family just living down the road in Putney. So there are a lot of these people who have sort of double lives. Theatre critic. He did review television and film occasionally. The famous theatre critic, who was the first literary manager of the National Theatre called Kenneth Tynan.

Kenneth Tynan, yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Yes, I do. The first person to use the F word on British television. That's how I know him. Yes. For that in the 1960s. Well, he discovered that his father, he looked at the newspaper one day and saw on the front page of the newspaper a picture of his father under a different name. And his father, I think,

was something like the Lord Mayor of Warrington. And yet his father was living with the family under a different name in Cheltenham. That is extraordinary. Would you have the strength to lead a double life, the energy? No, just the worry would be extraordinary, wouldn't it? Yes, you'd be caught out. Yeah.

That is amazing. We should talk about Kenneth Tyne then, because that was quite a big moment, as you say, that sort of, you know, the first use of the F word, before the Sex Pistols came along, etc. You know we do our purple plus club and we're doing an a to z at the moment of wit and wisdom yeah this time was a very clever and sometimes very witty man he was he was also a little bit wicked i think i knew him he might be somebody to do under the letter t okay might be quite interesting well he was a big figure in the 1960s and 1970s and that's that's the period that we're going to be covering, aren't we? Because we're talking about words uncovered or revealed or new-minted in the decades of the 20th century.

And I think we've already covered everything from the 1900s to the 1950s. So let's at least begin with the 1960s this week and see where this takes us. Tell us about words, Susie, from the 1960s. Well, as we have said in the previous three parts of this particular subject, where we're looking at 20th century words, you just have to look at a smattering of words from a particular period to get a really strong sense of the time and the preoccupation to the people living through it, etc. And this is so profoundly true of the 1960s which was such a period of transition of breaking with the past of setting off down uh slightly heady slightly drug-induced new paths quite often towards a new future really and so the children

that born in the 1940s baby boom really was that was when they were really coming of age during the 1960s. They had money, certainly compared with those in previous decades. They had the beginnings of technology with a computer, not the beginnings of technology, but certainly computer technology. That was kicking off as well. Exploration of space, of space of course you know huge breakthrough in scientific progress etc etc and music uh fashion drugs all of it quite extraordinary in the 1960s so i was too young to know any of this charles yeah what are your memories of the 1960s you are were barely born but i am a baby boona boom boomer. I was born in 1948. So, you know, by 1960, I was 12.

Yeah. And I was very aware of the world. In fact, I published a diary, a volume of diaries called Something Sensational to Read in the Train. I think it's still in print. It was my diaries from 1959. Wow. I think it's still in print. It reaches my diaries from 1959. Wow.

Onwards until the beginning of the 21st century. It covers the sort of the last part of the 20th century. And so you can read about my childhood through the 1960s. So I remember it very clearly. They say, of course, if you remember the 1960s, you weren't there. It was the era of, in theory, free love and hedonism and smoking pot. I am afraid all those things passed me by. I was able to observe it quite keenly. I remember it well, and I loved it.

I lived in London in the 1960s. The first word I think we're going to touch on is Beatlemania. Yes. The first word I think we're going to touch on is Beatlemania. Which, of course, the 1960s began with the Beatles becoming a huge sensation. I think for a British band, a British group, the first global sensation we've had. We'd had people who'd gone global before. Charlie Chaplin originally came from Britain and went global. But there hadn't been a British star to equal the Beatles before the Beatles, I don't think. Beatlemania is the word from 1963, is that right?

Yes, it is. And I think my parents, one of their favourite albums was Revolver. So, I do remember them playing it. But yeah, Beatlemania coined in 1963. And interesting in that it set the path for the mania suffix when it came to bands. So I do remember the Bay City Rollers, if you remember them. In the 1970s, we had Rollermania. And, you know, and so it has gone on. So it was important linguistically, but obviously not as important as it was musically. Now, what's interesting for me is that, you know, I like to feel I've met everybody. And indeed, in the 1960s, I managed to meet the Beatles for this reason. Of course.

My parents, I lived with my parents, and we had a flat in a Victorian mansion block in Chiltern Street. The flat block was called Portman Mansions. It's still there. Yeah. We lived at number 5H, in block 5, flat H. And this was 50 yards, no more, from the corner of Baker Street, where the Beatles opened a shop called Apple. And indeed, I think when Apple, the computers, came along,

they had to pay a little tickle to the Beatles to be allowed to use the word Apple. And indeed, I think when Apple, the computers came along, they had to pay a little tickle to the Beatles to be allowed to use the word Apple. They opened this shop at the corner, literally 50 yards from our front door. And I went there on a regular basis and the Beatles were in there. And the first thing that struck me about the Beatles is they weren't very tall. I don't know why I thought this because I know because they were so huge as stars, I expected them to be big. But often when you meet movie stars, they're quite small. Go to the Madame Tussauds, which is not in Baker Street,

but just around the corner in the Marylebone Road. They have the Beatles there, and they are life-size models of the Beatles. And you will be amazed to find that you're taller than most of them. Ah, okay. That's really interesting. And they are life-size models of the Beatles. And you will be amazed to find that you're taller than most of them. Ah, okay. That's really interesting. Particularly interesting that you met them and heard about them. And they weren't really disco, but disco was another word that was coined in the 1960s. So 1964 as an abbreviation of discotheque, which was a decade earlier.

And yeah, that um obviously pop music frequently played in discos heavy bass that kind of thing and actually it's first recorded as a verb to dance at a disco but yeah my wife says to me that the world divides into beatles people and rolling stones people and her view in the past used to be that beatles people are rather wet and that rolling stones people are a bit harder and more exciting and more interesting. Do you go along with that? You know what she's saying? I do. I do understand. I don't think it's as binary as that, probably. But I do get that. I have to say, for all that I admire them, I never really got the Rolling Stones. I mean,

I love their lyrics, but in terms of their music, I wouldn't seek them out on Spotify. Would you? I think with the passage of time, I'm more into the Rolling Stones than I am into the Beatles. The Beatles look, I think I was, I mean, obviously, I was just a sort of ridiculous shrimp. And I wasn't interested. I mean, I was interested in Cole Porter, Noel Carr, things from the 1930s. I mean, the 1960s completely passed me by. So, musically, I knew nothing. And the Rolling Stones were so exciting, so daring.

Oh, totally. And I totally get that. The danger and the rebellion, I could see. None of that could be, I mean... That's a funny noise. But I have to tell you, I mean, a friend of mine was given a christmas present this is two he phoned me up a friend of mine two years ago my childhood autobiography called odd boy out and have i given you a copy yes oh good anyway i actually um i was gonna say i gave it away but i gave i gave a copy to each of my parents if you remember and you very kindly signed them that's very very sweet of you to say that my mother my wife says to me Charles with your books why did

you take them straight down to Oxfam cut out the middleman don't give anybody else but anyway a friend of mine phoned me and said I've had a he's somebody who knows Mick Jagger and this friend of mine phoned me and said you won't believe this he said Mick Jagger has sent me a Christmas present a book I said it was very nice I said what is it he, you won't believe this. He said, Mick Jagger has sent me a Christmas present, a book. I said, well, that's very nice. I said, what is it? He said, you won't believe this, Charles. It's your children. Wow, you're kidding.

Yes. That's so nice. Isn't that amazing? That's lovely. And I think the reason would be is that it's about living in the 1950s, 1960s. Yeah. Childhood. And so I suppose that rang a few bells.

Oh, that's amazing. Now, were you a flower child? I did have clothes a bit like that. I had clothes with flowers on them and I did go to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, or was it Los Angeles? Los Angeles, where all this flower power was manifesting itself.

Tell us more about flower power. Well, flower people and flower children are first recorded in 1967. So they're a kind of subgroup of 60s hippies, I suppose, and early 70s who often carried flowers, but certainly wore flower motifs as symbols of peace and love. But they became slightly ridiculed, didn't they, for their unworldliness, I suppose, but also for their apparent drug taking, etc. Well, which we don't approve. But I was fascinated because I did my gap year, 66 to 67, in the United States of America. And that's when I went to the Haight-Ashbury.

And of course, by then, I think John Lennon had left the Beatles and had shacked up with Yoko Ono. And famously, they were exponents of love. Well done them. Yoko's still with us, still espousing all that. And so, they were sort of figureheads in that movement, weren't they? They were. And I can't quite imagine you in a caftan with beads and bells and that kind of thing. But you did tell me the other day that you wore a golden codpiece and stockings, not for recreational purposes, but for work purposes. But did you ever wear caftans and things? Yes, but only as a costume. Nor in real life, in the same sort of

period, did I think of becoming a skinhead. That was another sort of word from the 60s, wasn't it? It was. Yeah, that's towards the end of the 60s although it'd been around in in u.s slang since the 1950s so yeah i think the cult arose here in the 60s so really short haircut so that was um the idea behind that speaking of the stones and drug taking getting stoned how long was that being a phrase it's nothing got nothing to do with the rolling stones is it no nothing to do whatsoever with the rolling stones, is it? No, nothing to do whatsoever with the rolling stones. And it's interesting. I'm just looking it up, actually, here. Because it's a funny word. I mean, obviously, it means you're stoned on drugs.

But a stone is a heavy thing. Does it make you feel heavy? Or is it to be knocked out by a stone? Hold on one second. What I'm going to turn to is the grand dam of dictionaries here the oed bear with me see when that first came about i was just looking at some of the computer technology so we had glitch for example first coming around in 1962 so it's strange isn't it that technologically people were storming ahead and yet it was also this time as such a libertarianism etc but computers in the 1960s filled rooms they weren't even didn't have a question did you they were huge things that took up a whole floor of an office yeah well a bit like mobile phones but still i mean it was you know big big news oh good grief. Okay, 1959. So to stone someone is to render them intoxicated or indeed

to be stoned. Stoned out is to become intoxicated with drinks or drugs to the point of unconsciousness. And actually, that's a little bit earlier, stoned out. That's from 1952. it looks like it came from the US where to get stoned was to be drunk or intoxicated but it doesn't really explain where it comes from so I think it must be as if you've been hit by a stone but yeah leave that one with me it's interesting good intriguing any more words from the sixes you want to share with us oh my goodness well we have loads well again when it you know comes to computers you have hands-on um as well as glitch so that was um especially used for having your hands on computer or computer keyboard and then of course we use it in a much wider sense these days um you had grotty now grotty i think was actually first used by one of the beatles in a hard day's night if i remember this so that was the first first use of it 1964 yes hard day's night um i

wouldn't be seen dead in them they're dead grotty um and in this one it is short for grotesque so that's a possible etymology grotty short for grotesque and they don't quite mean the same thing these days um you have a groupie of course which makes absolute sense you have hype you have hipsters uh you have an image maker you have juggernaut so that was quite interesting um juggernaut was originally the name of a huge huge wagon on which a statue of krishna the hindu god was drawn in procession and actually comes from a hindi word meaning lord of the world and because it was so big dragged through the streets often causing you know real damage it was so big, dragged through the streets, often causing, you know, real damage. It was so heavy.

It was applied metaphorically to a really large or heavy vehicle or indeed something that is, you know, huge and potentially destructive. You have inner city. You have lander. We talked about moon landings. So a lander in 1961, which was a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the moon. You have a kiwi fruit in 1966. Well, that's a leap suddenly from the moon to the kiwi fruit. I mean, there hadn't been a kiwi fruit. Well, obviously it had been around, but it was originally called the Chinese Goodsberry, I think. But when New Zealand growers tried to export it to the US, it wasn't acceptable for political reasons, so they came up

with a new name, kiwi fruit. And you have kink and kinky as well. So kink in 1965, a sexually deviant person, then someone who behaves a bit eccentrically, and then we have kinky. But kinky actually preceded kink, believe it or not. And so you can see the themes can't you that are coming out missionary position 1969 um mohican monokini uh we have neutron bomb we have multimedia in 1962 which is quite interesting um you have a computer mouse you have a moonwalk so um yeah so you have psychedelic um actually that was the 1950s, but then we got psychedelia in 67 to psych out as well. It's into things. You have a radiothon. So, things were happening, essentially, in many, many different areas of life. But you can see that there was a sense of

kind of excitement and novelty. How does a dictionary decide which of these words will stand the test of time? Or is it there as a, I mean, Beatlemania, a hundred years from now, people may not know, may not be playing the music of the Beatles, but I suppose it needs to be in the dictionary because if people are reading newspapers or books from that period, they'll still know what Beatlemania means.

Yeah. But some words may come and then go, mayn't they? They will. But if you remember with the Oxford go, mayn't they? They will. But if you remember with the Oxford English Dictionary, which I was consulting just then, because this is a historical dictionary, so it's as much a document of the development of language as it is anything else.

Once a word goes in there, it never ever comes out. As opposed to the current English dictionaries, where things can come and go, as the lexicography is a charting usage. So it's all about usage, really, for these current English dictionaries. But with historical dictionaries where things can come and go as the lexicographers are charting usage. So, it's all about usage really for these current English dictionaries. But with historical dictionaries, there are some beautiful, wonderful words that are recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary that they've only got one record of, but it still is there for people to consult or indeed like me to kind of think, why have we lost that and to try and bring it back?

Well, there we are. Like our famous lovely word, abricity, which now is everywhere. Yes, it's one of them. That's the impact that you have, Dent. Let's take a quick break and then see where we go from there. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

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Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. Join me every Wednesday as we set off on a stunning journey of curiosity on a new subject and dive into the archive of more than 370 episodes. Listen to Getting Curious wherever you get your podcasts. I loved the 1960s. I must say, have you had a favorite decade of your life, Susie Dent? Oh, that's a really good question i think it would be you know the one where the the noughties really where i you know first had my get my eldest daughter and then i think i would link it with children and sort of you know

the the lifetimes of my children how about you well I'm hoping it's going to be the 2020s. I'm counting on that. I look to the future. I keep a diary, as you know, and I published two volumes of diaries. And in fact, one of the volumes about the 1990s, my political diary is called Breaking the Code, is going to be reissued this year in the UK. We're having a general election almost certainly towards the end of the year. And the publishers thought, well, maybe there are echoes of the 1990s now. So let's republish his diaries. And it's interesting.

I haven't reread them, but I'm going to have to reread them before I write the introduction to the new volume. And I don't, though I have kept a diary all my life, since 1959, I very rarely consult it. I very rarely look back. I like to look forward. I just am so amazed that you've actually kept them. And when you write your journals,

are they quite detailed? Or are they sort of little bullet points of things that you did? It depends on the day. Okay. On the day, for example, today that I'm speaking to you, I happen to have met earlier this morning, Sir Keir Starmer, who in the UK is the leader of the opposition to the Labour Party, and who hopes to be Prime Minister. Well,

obviously, he's an interesting person to have met and to have spent some time with. So i would write that quite carefully because i think i want to recall that encounter um but i might also put you know um did the um something i was verbal again with suzy gosh um she's looking good this year and i do so much you know i might just put a little line about you because you you come in and i almost i don't take you for granted, but you're part of the- Part of the furniture. But it is, I tell you, Tony Benn, who is a famous Labour politician in this country and a very delightful person,

he kept a diary all his life. And he told me it helps you live life three times. You live it when things are happening to you. Then you live it again when you record it. And you can live it again later if you want to look back on it. That's lovely. a nice idea isn't it yeah that is a really nice idea have we done that we ought to do diaries as a particular subject that's a great idea that's a really good idea yeah speaking of diaries and people getting in touch actually it's a stupid

link um we might do diaries if you've got idea, if you're listening to this and think, oh, I'd love them to talk about such and such, do let us know. Our address is purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com. And we'll talk about the words that came into the language in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in future episodes. Right now, we must hear from our correspondents because we get letters every week, don't we, Susie? This is our favourite part. And the first voice note comes from Hilary and Matt Scholes. Dear Susie and Giles, my husband

and I were just listening to the radio when we heard someone use the expression not jumped over the brush when referring to somebody not having been married yet. Neither of us had heard that expression before but we both thought that you may be able to explain its origin and how it's related to marriage. We're both huge fans of your show and regularly listen to your episodes on a Saturday morning. With thanks from a couple who jumped over the brush 20 years ago, Hilary and Matt Scholes. Isn't that lovely? Very lovely. So yes, I think we also use it in the expression living over the brush, if you heard that one, which essentially means not being married. And you know what, Hilary and Matt, this is a bit of an enigma. I've looked into this one before, actually, because it is so intriguing. It may possibly be a riff on a broomstick wedding and a broomstick wedding. The broomstick here means sort of fake, if you like, not a real

one. And that is sometimes linked to practices amongst traveller communities in which a couple could be married outside the church by leaping over a real broom or a brush. But there's been no evidence collected for that whatsoever. So I think that is usually discounted. I've also heard the idea that if you live over the brush, you leap over the threshold of a house rather than being carried over it by your groom because you have skipped the wedding part. But honestly, we really, really don't know. And it's a really, really old expression. I know it's been around in Yorkshire

for example where I first heard it for a long long time but we just don't exactly know it's possible that it is linked with some old wedding tradition and there are many many you know all wrapped up into the folk history and folk customs etc but why a brush or a broomstick is involved we really don't know so I'm sorry that I have to leave you with a mystery, but it is intriguing. And as always, we say to the purple people, if you've got any ideas or have heard, you know, different origin stories, then please do get in touch.

I love the idea of Hilary and Matt having a regular appointment to listen to the show. So good morning to you too. I hope you're enjoying today's show. We go from wherever you are to Australia for our next piece of communication and we know it comes from australia because the letter begins good day suzy and giles carry on with your best australian accent i shall not because i would then be cancelled i shall read it in my normal voice i have been a keen listener uh says the delightful

henry who is writing to us i have been a keen listener, says the delightful Henry who is writing to us. I have been a keen listener since I discovered your podcast earlier this year and love my weekly adventure into the world of the English language. Sometimes, admittedly, I embark on this adventure while sitting on the loo. And that brings me to my question. Oh, dear. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and it is uncommon here to refer to a toilet as a loo. The reason I do may be because my mum comes from the posher, more British Adelaide. Very interesting.

But that got me thinking about the word dunny, D-U-N-N-Y, which I use to describe an outhouse backyard toilet, which is a very Australian word. Where does the word dunny come from? What about the word loo? What about bog? And what are your favourite names for the good old John? Thanks for your show, Henry. Well, my goodness, he's taking us to the smallest room in the house. Oh, there are so many euphemisms for the toilet. So I don't know if you were like me, Giles, but I

was not allowed to use the word toilet, particularly in my father's house, because it was considered too crude, which is quite interesting because toilet itself is a euphemism. It comes from the French toile, which is a covering. It was originally a headscarf or a shawl, but also one that would be laid over a dressing table. And when a lady did her toilet, she went to the dressing table to do her ablutions and put on her makeup and brush her hair etc so to do one's toilet actually was not to go to the loo it was to just beautify yourself exactly but the idea of the twirl the shawl or covering head covering explains why there are lots of references in the oxford english dictionary to wearing a toilet on one's head which always makes kids laugh when they read that one but toilet is seen as being very non-you, isn't it? And so people prefer all sorts of

euphemisms, one of which is loup, which we think goes back to the French lieu d'aisance, which is a place of ease used for French, well, nowadays you get little lay-bys with lieu d'aisance, but they were places where you could relieve yourself. And it's possible that British troops coming back from fighting in France in the First World War brought back lieux d'aisance and lieux became lieux. That's our best bet. But what about Waterloo being an abbreviation? Yeah, unlikely.

I know people, and they also say that it comes from the Edinburgh custom of, well, the custom of shouting Gardez-le, which is a mangling of the french watch out for the water which is anything but water it was chamber pots being emptied from a house above thank you don't think it comes from that anyway dunnigan dunny is short for dunnigan and that means a privy and it's recorded from the 1920s henry um and it probably actually goes back to an old slang term ken k-e-n meaning a house and dung in front of it so it was a dung house i'm afraid so dunniken became a dunny can so it was a bit of a corruption of that and then eventually a dunny

i'm probably not originally austral either. We think it was British dialect before it went over to Australia. Privy is just short for private. Yes, exactly. So that's another euphemism. And Henry asked for my favourite one, which I know I've mentioned before, because did we have a whole episode? We must. We certainly did for euphemisms. I'm not sure if we had one for the toilet itself. But my favourite one is from victorian times when people wanted to visit the powder room it's another one they would say they were visiting

the spice islands so that's my actually do you have a favorite well i do remember um being in a household once where somebody i was in the hallway and the hosts were welcoming the new guests. And the hostess said to the guest when he just arrived, would you like to wash your hands? And he said, oh, no, I wash them in the flowerbed on my way up the path. That's very good. That's another euphemism. And we did talk about this. You want to wash your hands or powder your nose or something. Yes. Do you remember the sketch that we did talk about, which was, I think, with, now, the wonderful guest that you had on quite recently on your other podcast, When You Moonlight, on Rosebud, your other ones, your other podcast, where you had Sir Michael Palin, and he was involved in a sketch in which a man, I think it was John Cleese,

so a man, Michael Palin, goes to John Cleese's house and is desperate to use the loo. Do you remember this? And he uses all these euphemisms, I need to see a man about a dog, etc. And in the end, he says, oh, for goodness sake, I just need the toilet or something. And John Cleese says, why didn't you say so in the first place darling could you show this gentleman to the donut in granny's greenhouse and actually that became um either a song or i think it was the doggy doodah band or something i don't know purple people will know all about this anyway henry thank you it's a great question i simply say i used to say lavatory okay i mean that's what i was brought up to say but in fact i now say toilet because everybody else yes everyone else does i don't like it being called the john it's called the john particularly in america because i think

it must be rather harsh on people called john yeah there was johnson to the john yeah he's over there it's like there's some roads near where i live in southwest london where where the builder who built the streets, he wanted the roads named after his daughters. And they were for many years. And then eventually the people living in Fanny Close objected. And so it's no longer called Fanny Close. But poor Fanny. Well, near me, there is a crotch crescent. Oh, is there?

Anyway, so my trio. Yes. I'm going to ask myself for my trio yes i'm going to ask ask myself for my trio this is when i come up with three words from the historical dictionary that i just think are worth knowing or forgetting asking yourself reminds me of somebody yesterday said to me that he was looking forward to going to a threesome for the first time he said it was great fun i said really yes i went to the threesome it was great fun he said there were two no shows okay so um we are recording this i have to say on a friday afternoon and um before the red recording light came on all of us including richie our sound engineer and naya our lovely producer and

you just we all said that we were feeling quite shattered. But another name for that, there are lots of them, is Batterfanged. Old dialect from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire here in the UK. And he's just completely done in, just completely batterfanged. Now, this I quite like. So do you remember me telling you how my father, who had been admonished by his future father-in-law for saying, hello, how are you, rather than shaking the hand and saying, how do you do? I think he shook the hand, but he didn't say, how do you do?

As a sort of private revenge, I have told you this story. He would say, whenever there was a toast, he would raise his glass and say, pios. It sounded very posh. My stepmother would say pjors as well and then it was really up yours anyway this is quite a nice one uh this is samodithi samodithi and it's from norfolk and it's a way of replying to a toast and it's actually really nice it means the same unto thee samodithi and i just quite like that one because we kind of need, rather than just cheers and parroting that, we need Samadithi to you. I like that. And then from Scott, we have a splute,

S-P-L-U-T-E. And this is someone who is always exaggerating, which I just quite like because we all know a splute. Might even be one. So, yes, that's my trio. Can you finish this off with a poem? I'm going to give you a poem. And of course, we were talking earlier about the Beatles. And that made me think of John Lennon, who published some volumes of poetry, and was clearly a most remarkable person, I think almost grows in stature as the years go by. And earlier this year, in fact, now it'd be last year, for my birthday, when I put on a fundraising show at the London Palladium, there were a dozen dames. Dame Joan Collins came

on and read this poem. Well, it's really the lyrics of a song by John Lennon. You'll all know it, but it's quite nice just to hear the words even without the music. Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one. Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will live as one. It's just beautiful, isn't it? I have to say I was, the music was there in my head throughout that. But it's just, yes, gorgeous. my head throughout that but it's just yes gorgeous my my friend tim rice a great in fact triple oscar winning lyricist said to me the definition of a hit song and a great song is one when you hear the music you think of the words and if you hear the words you then think of the music that's

brilliant that's brilliant well we don't know if you would have found this brilliant, but we hope that you enjoyed it because we certainly did. And thank you so much for keeping us company. Please keep following us on your favourite podcast provider. You can follow us on social media at Something Rhymes on Twitter and Facebook or at Something Rhymes with on Instagram. And there is also the Purple Plus Club where can listen ad-free and get some bonus episodes on words and language. Good. We'll be off there in a moment, unless we're too bat-a-fanged. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production produced by Naya Deo, with additional production from Naomi Oikiu, Hannah Newton, Chris Skinner, Poppy Thompson, and...

And it is the lovely Richie. Samadithi.