Something Rhymes with Purple - Bizzies and Kirtles

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

You’re nicked! This week we’re playing Cops and Robbers and chasing down the origins of words and phrases on both sides of the law. Find out who gave us the terms Bobbies and Peelers, why you should respect an Onion, and what to do if you come across a Black Rat. On the other side of the cell door, on account of our kirtling, we’ll be rolling up the Veras, pouring ourselves a weak diesel and watching the custard, away from the watchful eye of the kangas… As always Susie will be giving us her handy trio of words and Gyles will be lifting our spirits with his quote for the week… as well as detailing the downsides of his new electric car. A Somethin’ Else production. Susie’s Trio: Grumbletonian - a person who is often discontented and taken to grumbling Cuddle-me-buff - beer Haplology - the omission of one occurrence of a sound or syllable which is repeated within a word If you have a question for Gyles and Susie please email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello, my name is Giles Brandreth, and I'm here in a studio near Old Street in London with my friend, the distinguished lexicographer, Doyen of Dictionary Corner on Countdown, one of Britain's most wonderful entertainers. Whenever I see her stage show, I think, oh, I hope there's going to be another tour. And there is. It's... Well, actually... No, it's Susie Dent is what I'm trying to lead up to, for goodness sake.

OK, it's Susie Dent. Hello, Susie. Thank you. Hello. I was just, yes, a bit bemused and bum-fuzzled by that introduction. Thank you. Do you know the lovely warm-up man, Dudley Doolittle from Countdown, used to call me the Dunyon of Dictionary Corner. I think he was trying to say Doyenne, but I quite liked Dunyon. I like Dunyon very much. Are you still on your tour, though? I plugged that because it's...

No, I have actually just finished. Last week I finished, and I will do some more later in the year, but the current run is finished, just for a bit. Will you be able to come and see my tour? I would love to. I begin, I think, April the 19th in Torquay. You've got loads of dates. Oh, I've got more than 30.

I begin in Babacombe, which is near Torquay. It's beautiful. That's a beautiful place. It's a lovely part of the world. I know a bit about it because Oscar Wilde famously went on holiday there. And I end up at the Buxton Opera House several months later. It's a brilliant theatre too. I used to go there with Hinge and Brackett. Do you remember Hinge and Brackett? Dame Hilda Brackett, Doctor of Adney Hinge.

And I wrote the scripts for their series, Dear Ladies, and we did shows at the Buxton Opera House. Anyway, so I shall be on tour. And if people want to find out where they can come and see the show, it's called Break a Leg. It's about the theatre. It's a funny story. It's a couple of hours. People seem to like it. There's some singing.

And what I like to think of is dancing, but it's not really. Anyway, I move about a bit. You can go to my website, which is simply my name, www.gilesbrandreth.net and then forward slash 2020 tour. We are going to talk today

about something we haven't talked about, I don't think, ever before. Cops and robbers. When you were a child, did you play cops and robbers? No. Did you play doctors and nurses? Yes.

I look forward, that will be another week we can talk about that. I played cops and robbers. But because I was always such a goody-goody, oh, I realise that now. You were always the cop. I was always the cop. Self-elected or did people just say, Giles, put the helmet on? No, I just assumed I would be the cop.

And I did have a helmet and I had a little rubber truncheon and a notebook, as I seem to remember, with a pencil. And I would go around arresting my friends. But there is a whole world. When I say cops, people now talk about policemen. How come? Oh, that goes back to a Latin word, capere, which goes capture as well. So it was all about seizing someone and placing the hand of the law on their arms, I guess, or on their shoulders. So it's nothing to do with a copper. It's nothing to do with a pencil. I mean, a pen, a penny.

No, nothing to do with a penny. Because copper is also a nickname for an old penny, isn't it? Yes, that's from Kupfer, the German for the metal. Ah, as in being made of partly of copper? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the old penny coin was called a copper. That's nothing to do with the copper, the policeman. And so how long have coppers been coppers?

For a very long time, I think. I think it was the American who cut copper to cop. And that was much more recent. But I think it had been called coppers for quite a few centuries. Oh, really? I mean, formal police only began relatively recently. As I recall, it was the family of the great writer, Henry Fielding. He and his brother pioneered the police in London that eventually became the Metropolitan Police.

Yes. And that was created by Robert Peel, wasn't it? Hence Peelers. And he was the Home Secretary at the time. He was the Home Secretary. Yes, and that was created by Robert Peel, wasn't it? Hence Peelers. And he was the Home Secretary at the time? He was the Home Secretary, yes. 19th century we're talking, aren't we? And that's why, so Robert Peel gave us Peelers, which is not a nickname that's lasted, and Bobby, but Bobby has lasted. And they were Bobbies, as in

more recently one had Boris Bikes in London, named after a person. We had Bobbies named after Bobby Powell, Robert Peel, if you can remember, Bobby Peel, who founded the police force. Yeah. I'm not sure.

I think younger people nowadays, I'm not sure they'd use Bobby. They might use, or they'd probably use cops. They might use the fuzz because they make a fuss. I think that was where that one comes from. But likewise, they're called busies in some places. In Liverpool, for example, they're called busies as well. As in busybody? Yeah, I think that's because they get busy. Yes, and they're busybodies, exactly. And then

on the American streets, of course, you've got the feds, you've got the five O's, you've got the po-po's. Po-po's short for police, I guess. So a whole range of slang that does come over here as well. So, you know, there's a whole slang lexicon to do with the police force. And do they have language themselves? I mean, do they, once you become a police officer, do you start talking a different sort of language to the rest of us? We absolutely do. So like all of us, we each have a tribal language

and we're each part of many, many different tribes. So our hobbies, our professions, our friends, etc. We will all have our own lexicons that that mark us out as a group. And really importantly, with the police, particularly, and as we'll come to a bit later, the criminals, it's designed to keep outsiders out and insiders in and it's a badge of identity and it's unifying. So when it comes to the emergency services, it's often really dark, as you would expect, dark, dark humour, because it's a coping mechanism. But, you know, sometimes it's incredibly important shorthand that cannot be understood or must not be understood by outsiders, because it

is all about secrecy and, you know, and nabbing the bad guys. And you have delved into this world, you've actually met police officers and discovered the way they speak. Can you give me some examples of the words they use that we don't? Yes. Well, the different groups or the different departments within the police force will each have sort of monikers for themselves. So the Diplomatic Protection Group, DPG, are otherwise known as doors, pillars and gates because they're normally seen as standing next to one of them. Hold on, the Diplomatic Protection Group,

they're the people who stand outside embassies? Embassies, possibly. I'm not sure if they're the ones on Downing Street. I think it sounds like they ought to be. Yeah, they probably are. And Royal Protection as well, that sort of thing. Yeah. TPG, Doors, Pillars and Gates.

Like it. The Traffic Police, they actually inspire vehemence not just in the public but also in every other police force. And they're known as the Black Rats, partly because they have a Black Rat sticker on the back of the car not just in the public, but also in every other police force. And they're known as the black rats, partly because they have a black rat sticker on the back of the car that indicates a traffic cop. Where is this on the back of their car? Well, I have looked for one, but I've heard this many, many times.

I don't think it's obligatory, but I think if you do see one on there... A black rat sticker on a police car? Yes. And according to the other members of the police force, it's allegedly because these are the only animals that will eat their own young. So they're just not popular, the traffic cops, with anyone, let's face it. Including their own colleagues? I think so, yeah. I think so.

Particularly paramedics. Paramedics did not have very much love for the black rats at all. And you're giving us this as first-hand evidence. I mean, you actually went and researched this in person. Yes, and I had a wonderful correspondent, and he gave me a lot of insider info, both to do with the wonderful jargon of the paramedics and the emergency services, but also the police.

So that was really interesting. A canine officer. Canine is a police dog handler, obviously. The TSG, the Tactical Support Group, big and muscly, they're nicknamed the Knuckle Draggers. I was about to interrupt you, and then I remembered my New Year resolution of not interrupting you. You do. You can throw in your own gems.

My words died on my lips. I was going to tell you how, as you know, we got a Tesla car. Yes. And something went wrong with it. I sat in the car and I thought, I know there's a button here I can press that they'll come and rescue me in my Tesla. Anyway, I saw this thing above my head that said emergency. I thought, aha, this is the, I'm in an emergency. I don't think I can drive this Tesla. I better press. So I pressed this thing. And a moment later later the screen lit up and there was

a voice saying police ambulance fire i'm so sorry it's just it's the car's making a funny noise and the thing repeated police ambulance fire is this an emergency no no it's not really it's an emergency for me but not for i do apologize uh and he unplugged me but the lights the lights are still flashing i didn't i didn't dare press the button again because I didn't want to call him back. No. I was lucky not to get nicked for wasting emergency services time. Yeah. Nicked. Where's that come from? Yeah. And in the nick, I wish I knew. It's actually very elusive. So the OED will say that the use of the noun nick in the sense of a prison goes back to Australian slang where it began meaning a jail.

But the verb Nick you will find in early glossaries of criminal slang. And we must talk about those later because they're fascinating. So in the 16th century, someone talks about I never nipped the poorest of his pay. So it meant to swindle or to cheat. So there's always been that kind of criminal link. Maybe it's related to old Nick. It was a nickname for the devil. Who knows if there's always been that kind of criminal link. Maybe it's related to Old Nick. It was a nickname for the devil. Who knows if there's a link there. Other people say it goes back to Niccolo, the first name of Machiavelli. Maybe it's a shortening of iniquity. There are

so many theories out there, but the answer is we don't know. But it has a clear history within the criminal underworld. Yeah, it's's used but nobody knows quite why no should i give you some of their some of their other yes phrases you mentioned the truncheon that's called their stick their helmet they talk about as their bonnet which is quite sweet and their pr is the personal radio and they used to call that the bat phone which i quite like do the different ranks have different nicknames i mean is there you know plod well where does that come from plod as in because they plod they plod the streets that's as simple as that because i think enid blyton

had a character called pc plod who was the name of the policeman it's not very flattering is it pc plodding along no what was the policeman in Noddy? Do you remember Noddy? Oh, but that's the policeman. Is that what you said? I think, yeah. Enid Blyton created Noddy. He did. She did, I mean, sorry. You never know. That could be a revelation. Enid Blyton turns out to have been a man.

Well, there you go. Oh, dear. Yes, they do have, they talk about the police stations, the factory sometimes as the local nick, whereas the New Scotland Yard they refer to as the factory sometimes. That's the local nick. Whereas the New Scotland Yard, they refer to as the Kremlin. But they do have nicknames for various ranks. So Gov is an officer of at least inspector rank. They will always talk about the Gov.

And Onion is a sergeant. Onion Bargy, Sargy. Oh, that's great. Onion Bargy, rhyming slang for Sargy. I love it. Yeah. The laziest officer sits in the bingo seat, which stands for bollocks, I'm not getting out seat. Oh, I love it.

Bongo is an ineffectual police officer who always clocks on but rarely leaves their desk. And that stands for books on, never goes out. They have the muppet, most useless police person ever trained. That's generally used affectionately. A wooden top is one who spends their time dealing with domestic incidents. Why is that? Because the wooden tops were a family?

Daddy wooden top, mummy wooden top. Yes, probably is. Yeah. The wooden top. I'm going around to the wooden tops. The wooden tops. I don't think I ever saw the wooden tops. Was that an animation?

Yeah, it was a stop frame puppetry. It was, I don't know when it was, 60s, I suppose. Maybe even 50s. No, 60s. What about their clothes, their uniform? I heard war suit as being one of the... Oh, that's quite nice. Yeah, that's quite nice.

War suit. Do you know what? Apart from the stick, as I mentioned, and their PR, I'm not sure about the uniform itself and the bonnet. They have various terms for the criminals. So a lag is a repeat offender. And they peddle ice cream. Ice cream, often slang for drugs.

And so on. I mean, they just have so many different things. And have we talked about Mr. Sands before? We have, because you've heard this, haven't you? I regularly hear it because I travel a lot on the London Underground. Explain to people about this, people who don't live in London, because we have listeners all over the world. We do.

Well, in the capital here, Mr or Inspector Sands is a standard code for fire. Oh, is it fire? It's usually fire, but it can also mean an emergency. So it's used to alert staff or police without panicking the customers. So you might hear something like, well, Inspector Sands, please report to the men's toilets? I've never heard that. I think it's a bit dodgy.

Oh, I see. It's where the location is. I see. So I've heard platform so-and-so or the such-and- such an office. So it's indicating the location and a bomb. I'm not sure if this is still the case. This may have been superseded. but when I was talking to the police officers a few years ago, the code for a bomb in the underground, the London Tube, was Mr. Gravel. What's the one in the theatre? Because there's another one, isn't there?

Is there one in the theatre? I think there is, yeah. I went on a very exciting journey with some police officers a few years ago for the one show. They took me on a... showed me how their fast cars work and it was called doing the blues and twos oh yes you know about that the blues and twos is what is that just blue lighting

it's blue lighting and twos is flashing lighting too so it's two different lights yeah and it was amazing i they drove at such speed and the officer who was driving was looking so far down the road i mean he was almost looking around the next corner. That's advanced driving, isn't it? I was deeply impressed by the driving. And you know the really annoying civilians who then tailgate a flashing blue light, whether it's an ambulance or a police,

in order to get to their destination quickly and they just basically tag on. Those are called blue wave riders. So they ride the blue wave and are deeply annoying to anyone in the emergency service because they make their life so much more difficult if they've got a car literally on their tail, taking advantage of the free road. We must turn in a moment. We've given all this time to the cops. We must turn to the robbers, turn on the suspects. If you,

though, have any queries about any of this or want to get in touch with us, particularly, for example, if you know what the code that they use in a theatre or a cinema is, so that we can all be apprehensive at the same moment, do get in touch. You can tweet us or email us at purple at something else dot com. This time something is spelled

S-O-M-T-H-I-N without a G, something else dot com, purple at something else dot com. Yes. And I suspect that in other countries they'll have their own versions as well which would be fascinating to hear should we take a break 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 yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Hello, I'm Elizabeth Day. You might know me as the creator and host of the How to Fail podcast, but I want to tell you about a new podcast I've made. How to Write a Book is for anyone who wants to get their story out there.

Fronted by a best-selling author, a super agent, and a powerhouse publisher, this 12-week masterclass will take you right through from developing an idea to nailing the plot. If you want to get all episodes at once and completely ad-free, subscribe now. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. We're back and Susie Dent today is coping with a cough and a cold and is therefore sucking a cough sweet. She's doing this despite the fact that she knows the one thing that annoys me most in the world is people phoning up while sucking things or drinking things or eating things. I haven't got a cold.

It's just I went straight to a cough. And I'm absolutely fine. But I apologise. I'll try not to suck audibly. We talked about cops. Let's talk about robbers. Do they have a world of language of their own? Well, the sort of criminal underworld vocabulary is fascinating to me because the language of crime was the first category of crime to ever be collected.

So in 1535, a printer called Robert Copeland or Copeland, there was no E in there. That would be amusing if it was Copeland. It would be great, wouldn't it? Given that cops. And robbers. Yeah. Anyway, go on. He wrote something called Highway to the Spittle House. Now, Spittle House, it was written with a Y.

It was essentially just a lodging house where people gave hospitality. He collected a whole load of what was known as cant, and that comes from the Latin cantare, meaning to sing. And it was a kind of reflection of the sing-song tones of a lot of the criminals who used it. Because the thing about tribal language, as well as being a secret code, you know, to enable you to, as I say, evade the authorities, etc. It's also banter, much like Cockney rhyming slang also had kind of criminal beginnings.

But it was fun. It was banter. The rhymes were sort of cheery and, you know, again, marked out the group, but gave them a bit of wordplay and fun at the same time. And so it was with criminal slang. And it's absolutely fascinating. And some of the crimes in those days, we're talking 16th century here, they sound quite funny, although they were taken very seriously in their day. There was the counterfeit crank. There was the kirtle. And that's a man who was basically a pickpocket, so named after a kirtle or a short cloak. Bordy basket, and the bordy basket was a female thief who posed as a seller of pins and needles in her basket.

They carried out all sorts of crimes that were known as lays. The gooseberry lay, and that was the stealing of linen drying in the open air by tramps and thieves. And the linen was known as gooseberries, and I can't find out why. The whalebone lay, which was using a piece of whalebone daubed with glue to rub a shop till. So I guess they just kind of, you know, stuck it in. The smug lay, which was the selling of worthless goods on the pretext that they were smuggled contraband. The Peter lay, which was stealing baggage and boxes because Peter was a trunk or a safe.

There was also the hoist lay, but which was the robbing of a man by holding him upside down and shaking the money out of his pockets. I can see that. I feel I've seen it in a kind of Keystone Cops movie from the beginning of the 20th century. And then they feared the highwayman who had lots and lots of different nicknames. So there was the Newmarket Heath Commissioner because the Heath was so popular for holdups. They had the tax collector, one of St. Nicholas's clergymen. That was definitely a play on old Nick for the devil. This is clergyman. That was definitely a play on old Nick for the devil.

And a high lawyer. And that was a pun on the high law, which was somebody who robbed on the road. Or quite simply a scamp. What period is this language from? So this is all from about the 1600s to about the 1800s. And it's died away. I'm not sure if the crimes have, but certainly the nicknames have died away now. And today, the language that, as it were, the criminal fraternity would be using today, do they still have banter? Is there still criminal cant?

And what are the words in it? There absolutely is. Now, you might know more of this than me because I know you've been to prisons. And one of the things I would really love to do is talk to a few prisoners about the slang they use. Because a few years ago, there was an article published which suggested that criminals were learning tons of Elizabethan criminal slang

in order to evade the authorities. So they thought, well, you know, they understand all our current stuff, all our current jargon, so we're going to go back centuries. Even back to Shakespeare's day, they were going to learn some of the things that criminals used then, and that would become their new code, which I thought was fascinating. But I've never, ever been able to find out whether that's true. But you have. Well, off and on, I've spent a bit of time in prison. When I was a teenager, I didn't quite know why, it became my hobby. Literally, when I was at school,

when I was sort of 17, 18, 19, 20, I began visiting prisons. And the first book that I published about 50 years ago now was called Created in Captivity. And it was about the writing and the artwork of people in prison. And I visited prisons around the world, particularly in North America and in Scandinavia and in Russia when it was part of the Soviet Union. But in this country, I do remember I kept a note of some of the slang that I heard. And, of course, this is some years ago. And I remember that cigarette paper was known as a vera. You got any veras?

Vera, do you get why we call it cigarette paper? It's rhyming slang again. Vera, lin, skin. Oh. So it's skin light. Vanilla. Who's a vanilla? Don't know. It's a judge. Rhyming skin light. Vanilla. Who's a vanilla? Don't know.

It's a judge. Rhyming slang vanilla fudge. And I like this one. Kanga. Rhyming slang kangaroo or screw. They called prison officers screws. I don't know why they called them screws. Do you? I think it was because the keys were called screws and so it became the bearer of the screw from there on in.

Do you remember all those kind of ealing comedy and comedies and the sort of the heists that they used to get up to um there was a kind of semi-affectionate kind of slang that grew out of that as well so heist is a a riff on hoist it's always got a bit of kind of bravado and dairy do hasn't it that word heist and it's usually a jewelry robbery or something bravado and derry-do, hasn't it? That word heist. And it's usually a jewellery robbery or something over here. You know what custard is? Custard? Yep. Custard pie?

No. Thai? No. Custard and jelly. It's the telly. Oh, OK. What's on the custard? I'm hoping that some of them watch Countdown in there too. It'd be nice.

I used to get letters, actually. When people wrote letters, I used to get letters from prisoners. I know they watch Countdown because a few years ago, I went to visit, before it closed, Reading Jail. Oh, yeah. Because, as you know, I'm interested in Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde, yeah. And I went to, and the governor took me round kindly,

and I said, could I see the cell where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated? He was there for nearly two years from 1895. And they took me up to this cell. And we went into the cell and there was the prisoner who had no idea who Oscar Wilde was, but recognised me from Countdown. And he was actually watching Countdown when we turned up. Fantastic. So that was, well, a rather nice poor man. Well, I say poor man, I don't know what he'd done. Diesel. I love this. It's slang for prison tea.

Named because of rainbow scum on top of the liquid. I'll give you two more, and then I want to see if we can deal with some correspondence before we have to go. Do you know what nostrils are in criminal slang? Criminal can't. Nostrils. Nostrils. Nostrils. A sawn-off shotgun known as the nostrils can you picture it

yes you just see it because your nostrils were your nose cells remember and your thirl or trill or trill even was um was a hole which is why when you thrill someone you pierce them with excitement and basically make a hole in their body with excitement i used to thrill with excitement to the Sweeney. Do you remember that TV series? Oh, Sweeney Todd. That's why it's called Sweeney Todd. But why is it called Sweeney Todd?

Sweeney Todd Plod? No, Sweeney Todd Flying Squad. That's it. There we are. That's it. Flying Squad, so named because it could act in all the boroughs, unlike other police forces, not because they could fly. OK.

Now, tell me, has anybody written to us this week? Yes. Well, I have one from a rather disgruntled Ken Cox. He says, can you help strike a blow for the English language? I have six grandchildren. And when we pass a McDonald's restaurant, I feel obliged to point out that the drive through THRU sign is in fact incorrect and should be spelled through. Normal spelling. Help is driving me mad.

The only thing I can say, which I always do, is if you look in a historical dictionary, you will find various spellings throughout history. And granted that T-H-R-U is a kind of American shorthand and a lot of people hate it. It's the same with high H-I, isn't it? High Viz, that kind of thing. But in Old Frisian, which is where this comes from. What, the cow speak? No. What is Old Frisian?

This is looking at Old Frisian, which is an old Germanic dialect. You will find it spelt T-H-R-U-C-H. So it was more through in the McDonald's spelling than through as we spell it today. And there have been over 500 different spellings of the word throughout the history of English. So, you know, we will be creating these, I'm sure, for the next millennium. So McDonald's have on their side the benefit of history. Possibly. I'm not sure that they did it with that in mind. And through comes from Friesian.

We have Friesian cows. And when you go to McDonald's, I know they like to sell quality beef. It could well be that you're comes from Friesian. We have Friesian cows and when you go to McDonald's, I know they like to sell quality beef. It could well be that you're eating a Friesian. So maybe it's a tribute to the language and the animal. Okay. I somehow don't think that happened. Time for one more. Okay, so

Susan Malthouse, great name. She's from crazy Australia and she said we've had ravaging bushfires and golf ball-sized hail all in one week. But in my own little world, I'm waiting patiently for the arrival of my first bub in the coming weeks. So I'm guessing bub is her baby. Not sure it's her grandchildren, but I think it's her. And a friend told me today they were anticipating the arrival news with Baited Breath, spelt B-A-I-T-E-D.

And Susan is wondering, and many congratulations if Bubs has arrived, Susan, but she's wondering why Bated? What's it got to do with the bait in fishing, et cetera? And the answer is absolutely nothing because it's B-A-T-E-D, not B-A-I-T-E-D, although almost a third of the records that I looked up in the Oxford English Corpus, which is the database of current language, accounts for that incorrect spelling. So, you know, it's on the up.

What does baited without the I mean? OK, so it's short for abated. In other words, reduced or lessened. So the idea of anticipation is so great that you almost stop breathing. We had trouble, you know, with mice once at home. So I fed our cat Camembert so he could literally sit by the mouse hole with bated breath. It's time for Suzy's Trio.

What have you got for us this week? Well, any electorate that's unhappy with their present government can be spoken of as a lot of grumbletonians a grumbletonian is essentially somebody who is very unhappy with their leadership and it goes back to the 17th century when uh members of the country party which rejected all ideas of the government became known as the grumbletonians that was the the name that they gave themselves, which I love because it just does what it says on the tin. And I think it could be, you know,

any bellyache or hormonal, somebody rightly dissatisfied with their government could call themselves a Grumbletonian. Very nice. I like Grumbletonian. I like that one too. Is it time for a drink? Probably not yet. Not quite yet.

Cough tide. But if you are heading off for a beer later, you can say that you're off for a cud? Probably not yet. Not quite yet. Cough tide. But if you are heading off for a beer later, you can say that you're off for a cuddle me buff. A cuddle me buff. Yes. So literally cuddle, then me, then buff, which is all one word or the hyphens. All one word. Well, I think it did sometimes have hyphens, actually. But that's a very old term for beer. I have no idea what the buff was there. I mean mean buff can mean so many different things including being naked so there you go if you're naked as well and you're having a beer you've definitely got the cuddle me buff going on that's nice and haplology not many people will

have heard of this this word but we will all know what it describes so that's spelled h-a-p-l-o-l-o-g-y haplology it's a bit of a mouthful, but it's what happens when we kind of eat part of a word when saying it. So, for example, secretary instead of secretary. Probably for probably. February. Library for library. February is the classic example.

Yeah, February. And it's because they're so difficult to pronounce because more often than not, we've inherited them from a foreign tongue, even if that tongue might be a classical one like Latin or Greek. So that is haplology. And we're all guilty of it, I think.

I love haplology. Yeah. Oh, those are three good words. Well, before we go off for a touch of cuddle me buff, I like that. Let me give you my quotation for the week. This is a little new feature. I've dipped into

the Bronte sisters. A line from Charlotte Bronte, a wise line, a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow. Oh, that's so true. If you've enjoyed the show, please give us a nice review, recommend us to a friend. If you've got a question you'd like us to answer or you just want to get in touch, email us. It's purple at somethingelse.com Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production

from Steve Ackerman and Gully. And if you don't like it, don't be such a grumbletonian.