Something Rhymes with Purple - Ceiliog

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Have you ever given a second thought to where the brands we use every day got their names from? Well we have! And we’re here to share our findings with you. Staying very much ‘on brand’ we’...ll be revealing the history behind PG Tips, the fantasy of Fanta, and how a sibling rivalry in Germany spawned two of the globe’s biggest sports brands. We’ll ‘play well’ with our Lego, unpack our IKEA, and find out how a Welsh harpist (may have) had a hand in one of our most recognisable breakfast brands. As always, Susie will be arming us with a trio of words to pepper into conversation this week and Gyles will be inspiring us all with how to avoid being miserable. A Somethin’ Else production. If you want to get in touch with Brand Purple please do: purple@somethinelse.com Susie’s Trio: Nikehedonia - the pleasure of the anticipation of success Xertz - the act of gulping something down quickly Jentacular - relating to breakfast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:58 amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Amex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Hello, and welcome to another podcast. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. It's really half an hour or so where we celebrate the English language because we love it. The we involved is me, Giles Brandreth, and my friend... Susie Dent. And today we're speaking to you from London, England, where Susie has come with a cup of tea.
Starting point is 00:01:27 But it's, what's it, it doesn't look like real tea. What's the flavour? Oh, can you not smell it? It's ginger and lemon. Ginger and lemon? Yeah. And. Good tonic for the soul. Very good. Whenever I think of lemon and ginger, which is most of us think of it as lemon and ginger. Okay, yes, you're right.
Starting point is 00:01:43 It reminds me how important commas are. Oh, it's just reminded me of something I'm going to have to come to at some point today. It's a process called ablaut reduplication, but you have to wait for the example. Ablaut reduplication. Well, let me tell you about the importance of the comma first. Okay. As you know, I wrote a book called Have You Eaten Grandma? Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:05 All about the importance of punctuation and traditional grammar. And of course, have you eaten grandma without the comma after have you eaten could mean have you eaten grandma? Nan, have you had your tea yet? Or it means have you eaten grandma? Good grief. Are you some sort of cannibal? Well, the same can be said with a list of words, whether or not you put a comma before the final and. The Oxford comma.
Starting point is 00:02:30 The Oxford comma. So-called because it's favoured by Oxford University Press. Yes, it's our house style. I use it all the time. And there is a reason for it. A lot of people say it's completely unnecessary. But lemon and ginger is a good example of why it is necessary. What are your favourite teas? Well, I like orange. I like chamomile. I like lemon and ginger.
Starting point is 00:02:53 If you put a comma after lemon, then it's I like lemon and I like ginger. But if you don't put a comma after the lemon, it's lemon and ginger. It would be, yes. so you'd have i like chamomile green pico comma and lemon and ginger yes yes ah you need the comma before that as well that before the penultimate and so that's the importance of the oxford comma but ginger i have to mention ablac reduplication which has nothing to do with the subject of today at all. Although actually it does a little bit. So two-fingered chocolate bar. What would you call it?
Starting point is 00:03:30 Please, up yours? I don't know. The two-fingered chocolate bar. Yes, the famous one. Kit Kat. Yes, Kit Kat. You could never call it a cat kit, could you? You couldn't call it a cat kit.
Starting point is 00:03:38 Just as you couldn't play a game of pong ping or walk in a zag zig, dally dillying or shally shillying none of that and that goes back to an ancient law which i've been writing about called ablout reduplication where it's not really a law because we've decided it ourselves but we instinctively put the if sound as in pit or the e sound as in c before we put the o or the a. So ding dong. It can never be dong ding. Seesaw. Never can be saw see. Exactly. Isn't that amazing? And we've been doing it for centuries and it also exists in other languages. It's all about sound, we think, but it's a bit of a mystery. I love it. Well, we mustn't shilly shally any further.
Starting point is 00:04:17 No, shally shally. Our theme today, because if you're new to our podcast, welcome. We hope you like it. If you do, please tell your friends. It's brand names, brands, words that are associated with different products that become part and parcel of the language. Kit Kat is a good example. I wonder what the origin of that is. I think I may have looked this up and I couldn't quite get to the… There was a famous Kit Kat club, wasn't there? Loosh, gentleman of the 18th century, went to join the Kit Kat club.
Starting point is 00:04:48 I seem to remember they met in caves. People like Lord Byron, loosely associated with the Kit Kat club. I wonder if that's the origin of it. Well, if you know. Two legs. If you know, and obviously we don't know, feel free to let us know. You can get in touch with us. You can tweet us or email us at purple
Starting point is 00:05:06 at something else dot com. And tell us, if you do know it, the true origin of the Kit Kat. I do know that the Mars bar is named after Mr. Mars. Which is extraordinary. And that's why all the riffs with the galaxy and the Milky Way, right? They all came from Mr. Mars, because there wasn wasn't a Mr Milky Way who invented the Milky Way, but there was a Mr Mars. What do you know about brand names? How old are they? How long have they been going?
Starting point is 00:05:32 What's the phenomenon all about? Well, I'm not an expert on the history, but we have been doing it for a long time. In fact, didn't you say that your family actually had hand in this, Giles? They did. I know there are people listening thinking, oh God, are you always going to get back to all that? Oh, dearie me. Oh, goodness. But the truth is my great, great, great grandfather called Benjamin Holmes, he arrived in America calling himself Dr. Benjamin Brandreth. He was not a doctor. He was a Brandreth on his mother's side,
Starting point is 00:06:03 but he called himself that because he was taking to America some pills that his maternal grandfather had made that were homeopathic remedies, little vegetable pills that cured everything and anything, he claimed. And he made a major fortune, was one of the richest people in America by the time he died in the 1880s. Dr. Brandreth's pills. He came up with the idea of a tin of the pills that always looked the same.
Starting point is 00:06:30 And he advertised them with the print Dr. Brandreth's pills in the same typeface. What was in them? What was in them? Herbs. He grew vegetables. So he did believe in their efficacy. Totally believed in them. And people swore by them.
Starting point is 00:06:43 And they sold in their mega millions. And he had an office in New York and he pioneered the hoarding. He was the first person to have advertising hoarding in New York. Great big sign saying Dr. Brandreth's Pills. And they became so famous that, I mean, in, for example, Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, the characters there are taking Dr. Brandreth's Pills. They became a household word. Everybody had heard taking Dr. Brandreth's pills. They became a household word. Everybody had heard of Dr. Brandreth's pills.
Starting point is 00:07:09 So he was a pioneer. Not connected to the word brand, which actually goes back to the branding of cattle and the idea that just as you would brand something eternally on the skin, you would engrave something on your mind, you know, so that it becomes instantly memorable and forever memorable. Well, like Mr. Mars, like James Dyson. Mr. Dyson, you think of Hoover was a real person. But we still don't talk about Dyson in the carpet. It's not become a generic verb, is it? Which of course is the pinnacle of a brand name when it actually becomes embedded in the language, although it then loses its trademark status. So it's a kind of, you know, double-edged sword. Well, that's interesting because I, for some years, was a director of the company that made the game Scrabble. And I founded the National Scrabble Championships. I'm the president of the
Starting point is 00:07:57 Association of British Scrabble Players. But there was lots of problems we had with people wanting to use the word Scrabble as saying it now entered the language. But it hadn't. We felt we were still protecting it. But because scrabble also is an English word, scrabbling around, that was what the dispute was over. And I think the agreement was that if it's scrabble with a capital S, you can't use it, particularly if you're trying to pass it off as a kind of word game. Yes. But scrabbling certainly is legitimate. Absolutely. Well, as I said, Google in some ways, although
Starting point is 00:08:29 that, you know, the verb Google did not exist, Google did as a number, but not Google, it kind of straddles the trademark fence. So as a noun, Google is still a trademark, but you can Google something and that has a lowercase g. So that is now in the dictionary and not trademarked, the verb. It's an amazing achievement. I mean, to create a brand that people really value, like Nike is an interesting one because I see people wearing sports gear and sports shoes with the Nike symbol on and the word Nike.
Starting point is 00:09:02 And I know they've paid two, three, four, maybe ten times what I've paid for what looks and feels like exactly the same product. But it doesn't have the swish. Isn't that interesting? Nike is an invented name. There wasn't a Mr. Nike, was there? No, in fact, I think the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports. And I think it was that from its founding.
Starting point is 00:09:24 It's Greek mythology. Oh, is it? Yes. So Nike is the goddess of victory. Ah. So she's the winged goddess, really. She was the daughter of Pallas, was it? The titan?
Starting point is 00:09:35 Pallas Athena? And he sticks. No? No. Oh, yes, possibly. Gosh, I need to brush up on my mythology. But yes, she's the winged goddess of victory, which, of course, makes sense for a sports company.
Starting point is 00:09:45 So there we are. It was Blue Ribbon Sports. It became Nike. That's hugely powerful. Among the older companies, a company founded in my great-great-grandfather's time, I think, was Coca-Cola. Coca and cola, they're two real words.
Starting point is 00:09:58 Coca is from cocaine, isn't it? And in the early days, wasn't there a little element of cocaine in Coca-Cola, in the mix, right at the a little element of cocaine in coca-cola in the mix right that would be really interesting i know it began when a colonel who was wounded in the civil war became addicted to morphine and he wanted to find a sort of less evil substitute if you like obviously not evil in certain contexts but his recipe recipe included the cola nut, the African cola nut, which is what gives the Coca-Cola the caffeine. It's interesting you should mention cocaine there, actually, because heroin originally was the trade name that the German pharmaceutical company Bayer used for that particular medicine.
Starting point is 00:10:43 And it was marketed as a cough remedy made from a supposedly non-addictive morphine substitute can you believe that or morphine derivative at least and heroin is from the german word heroish meaning powerful and of course you know people say that's exactly what heroin makes you feel and then of course opiates then began to be regulated etc and it shifted entirely from that kind of trademark or name, which is quite an interesting one. The thing about Coca-Cola is, and it relates to these names as well, there are myths about them. Is it true that if you put a tooth inside a glass of Coca-Cola overnight, is this true? You put an old coin and it comes up shiny new.
Starting point is 00:11:25 Quite possibly. What I do think is true is that tree-bore mints, when I was a child, I loved a tree-bore mint. And I do know because, of course, you and I, we love anagrams, we love rearranging letters. We see the word Monday. We're recording this on a Monday for Tuesday morning. Monday, we look at those letters, we rearrange them immediately into the word dynamo.
Starting point is 00:11:48 I see Trebor and I know it's Robert backwards. And that excites me that the company that made Trebor mints was originally called Robertson and Woodcock. That was changed when they moved to Trebor House. They thought, let's keep it simple. Let's name it after one of our products in Upton Park in London. And the Trebor part of it appealed to Mr. Robertson as, of course, it was part of his name. Yes, I think it was already called Trebor House, but he liked it because it was reversed of his name. I think that's the way it goes.
Starting point is 00:12:21 Oh, well. But there you are. We're saying this, but we're not sure if it's true or not. So that myths do attach to these names as well. Yes. So many are apocryphal. I can tell you about PG Tips. Oh, please.
Starting point is 00:12:32 So for any non-British people listening, PG Tips is one of our most famous tea brands. And the PG, I never thought about this, but it was first called pre-gest tea because it was a pre-digestive, if you like. It was supposed to aid digestion of the food that followed. Similarly, I was having a full veggie English breakfast yesterday, bottle of HP sauce, another very British institution on the table. I never knew that the HP stood for... Houses of Parliament? I never knew that, even though there's a picture of the Houses of Parliament on the bottle. Harold Wilson, when he was Prime Minister, in every photograph taken of him in domestic setting,
Starting point is 00:13:12 always had a bottle of HP sauce on the table, even at number 10, in order to show that he was a man of the people. My full English has been slightly... I don't have dairy now very much at all. So actually, HP sauce went down a dream. Do you know the origin of Fanta, as in the drink? No, I don't. Well, apparently during the Second World War, Nazi Germany was subject to a number of trade embargoes, as you can imagine.
Starting point is 00:13:40 And because of the lack of raw materials and ingredients, the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland,, was a man called Max Keith. He decided to create a new drink for the German market using whatever they had, you know, the leftovers of the leftovers. And the name comes from the German word for imagination. Fantasie. Fantasie. That's the origin of Fanta. I didn't know that.
Starting point is 00:14:02 That's lovely. I say this. Well, yes. Is it an urban myth that I've picked up over the years? I was just looking at my notes for this one and remembering this one and thinking, really? Can this be true? But I love it. The origin of car brand names, which are pretty global, aren't they, by now? Yeah. one of the reasons that Toyota cars are so named is because Toyota in Japanese is written with eight strokes that symbolizes good fortune. Well, the actual surname of the founder of the company was Toyota, which is written with 10 strokes, but that's considered to be less lucky.
Starting point is 00:14:37 So they call it Toyota. I love that. I don't know if it's true or not, but I love it. Well, I've got another one that you'll love. Again, we're not quite sure how true these are. Puma and Adidas, Rudolf and Adolf Dassler, two brothers, they fell out during the Second World War, set up rival companies. Ruda became Puma and Adidasler became Adidas. I do know there is a myth, kind of urban myth there's an acronym all day i dream about sports which is yeah adidas but that that is an urban myth can i tell you about another car one yes audi how do you know what that means in latin listen here yes i listen that is a pun on the founder of audi's name, Horsch, which means I hear in German.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Isn't that great? You see, it's all about the owner and flattering the owner. IKEA was named after the first letters of the founder and the Swedish village he belonged to. His name was Ingvar Kamprad and he grew up in Elmaterid, Agunari, somewhere like that. Yes.
Starting point is 00:15:53 So that gives you I-K-E-A. Ah, I like that. Is it time for a break, do you reckon? And then I must come back and tell you about Frisbees. Oh, do, and I want to tell you about Lego. Oh. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there.
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Starting point is 00:16:55 plot. If you want to get all episodes at once and completely ad-free, subscribe now. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Also from Something Else. Mel Gedroich is quilting. Listen to Mel and good friend Andy Bush as they learn a great new skill and tell some brilliant stories. All whilst having some good wholesome fun. In a nutshell, I took a pair of scissors and I went into my husband's wardrobe. Now, this comes from a shirt that I bought him
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Starting point is 00:17:49 Okay. Listen now in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all good podcast apps. Welcome back to Something Rhymes with Purple, where we're having a lot of fun relaying what may be apocryphal stories, but we hope not, about the origins of brand names. And Giles, I promised to tell you about Frisbee. I just like this one. I love Frisbees. I'm playing with Frisbee.
Starting point is 00:18:13 Don't know about you. We should all play more than we do. Yes, we should. Anyway, apparently in the 1950s, college students used to like playing catch with cake tins. They used to just improvise, really. So any kind of flying object. What period is this? And pie pans, 1950s.
Starting point is 00:18:29 They sometimes used the pie pans from the Frisbee Pie Company of New England. When one company bought the rights to that plastic disc, I guess it was, or maybe not plastic in those days, in 57, they re-spelled the name and then they made it official. So it was F-R-I-S-B-I-E, I think, originally. I love that.
Starting point is 00:18:48 Well, that links nicely to the one I was going to mention, which was Lego. More Latin. Well, or initially an abbreviation of the Danish words Leggott, L-E-G-G-O-D-T, which means play well. But you're right. The word Lego also means i put together in latin but apparently that was not in the minds of the company when they came up with the name because ludo of course means i play of course it does yes can i go back to cars please oh i just love all these so sorry for bringing back to the automotive industry, but it's just lovely, some of these things. Volvo, more Latin, eye roll,
Starting point is 00:19:29 because it was a product of a ball bearing company. Oh. Apparently. Do you know anything about the origin of Tesla? No, how's it going? Oh, gosh. For those who have not been following this saga, in order to be right on and to make Greta Thunberg feel that I was an okay older dude, I followed the government's advice and got rid of my diesel car.
Starting point is 00:19:53 I'd only bought a diesel car 25 years ago because the government told me to do so. And they were now telling me to go electric. So I thought, well, I haven't bought a car for 25 years. Let me run riot. And I bought a Tesla. It arrived on the 11th of December. On the 2nd of January, no, 2nd of February, seven weeks later, funny noises from inside the Tesla and then dripping from underneath it.
Starting point is 00:20:17 Something was wrong. Nice Ms. Tesla, who we got hold of. They kindly brought another older Tesla around as a substitute for us to have and took our new Tesla away. Whatever time it is now, where are we? We're already in March. We haven't heard a word since. Not a word. Apparently, they're waiting for spare parts. We have that module. Spare parts. That's a bit frustrating. What's the origin of the name Tesla? I've just looked it up for you because I didn't know this. The founders were called Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning.
Starting point is 00:20:46 So Elon Musk must have joined it later. Chose the name Tesla as a homage, homage, I don't quite like that pronunciation, to Nikola Tesla, who was a Serbian inventor and engineer. And he created the induction motor and alternating current power transmission. I'm reading that straight from Wikipedia. No, no, Business Insider. People, I mean, like the biro is a good example. Yes, Laszlo.
Starting point is 00:21:10 Laszlo Biro. Yes. Because he came from Hungary. Lots of eponyms. There are actually lots of eponyms when it comes to brand names. What about Kellogg? Kellogg's. I mean, they've been around since Victorian times, I think.
Starting point is 00:21:26 Kellogg's. I mean, they've been around since Victorian times, I think. The urban myth was that the Welsh harpist, Nancy Richards, visited Will Kellogg when he was looking for a marketing idea for his serial. And she suggested a cockerel as a play on the Welsh word for the bird, Edward Kellogg, C-E-I-L-O-G. Do you think there's any truth in that? Kellogg is a cockerel in Welsh? I have no idea. I need to ask my friend Ethan that one. I can tell you about granola.
Starting point is 00:21:55 Oh, do? There was a health sanitarium in upstate New York run by Dr. James C. Jackson. And he created something called granular for his patients. And he formed it by breaking up twice-baked, whole-grained flour that was quite granular in appearance and texture. And it was Kellogg who decided, oh, that sounds good, but I'm going to call it granola, which, of course, is where we ended up with today.
Starting point is 00:22:22 If you're listening to this and you either disagree or you know better than us, which wouldn't be difficult in this particular instance, do feel free to get in touch. You can email us at purple at somethingelse.com and something else is spelt something else without the G. Something else is one word, dot com. I've got something for you.
Starting point is 00:22:42 Oh, yes. Bisto. A Bisto? Mmm, Bisto. Mmm, I love that. Do you remember that? Of course I remember that. This is, again, a very British ad. I'm sorry, we're being quite British-centric here, aren't we? No. Mars, Kellogg's,
Starting point is 00:22:54 Dr. Brandl's pills, we've been international, global. Okay. Bisto was the name, or is it still the name of a gravy, instant gravy powder? Bisto is an acronym, did you know this? Browns instantly, seasons and thickens in one. I think that sounds like a retrospective.
Starting point is 00:23:12 A backronym, probably. Oh, that's what they're called, backronyms. Backronyms. Okay, I can give you a non-apocryphal one then. Because the sound is so good. Bistro. Bistro. It bestows something marvellous on you, Bistro. Sounds a bit like bistro, which is one of the big etymological mysteries of the English language. Nobody knows the origin of bistro? Well, it may go back to Russian soldiers visiting cafes in Paris who would say, and my Russian is very patchy, but would say bistro, bistro.
Starting point is 00:23:36 I mean, quick, quick, quick. That's one possible explanation. Because one sometimes sees bistro as in the restaurant or the cook, spelt with a T on the end. B-I-S-T-R-O-T. Yes. Bistrot. That's how it is in French. And I think we dropped the T.
Starting point is 00:23:49 Very good. I think that's where it comes from. Bovril, I can tell you about. There's quite a picturesque history, this one. And it starts, you were asking how far back either brand names or the inspirations for them go. Well, this one started not with ancient Greek mythology like Nike, but with Napoleon III, started not with ancient Greek mythology like Nike, but with Napoleon III, who needed a way to feed his soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War, I guess that must have been. And he ordered a million cans of beef from Britain, but there just wasn't enough to meet his demand. So
Starting point is 00:24:19 they created over here, in fact, it was in Scotland, in Edinburgh, a new derivative product, which this butcher called Johnston's Fluid Beef, which doesn't sound very appetising. But he was reading a novel by, now, how do you pronounce this, Giles? Edward Bulwer- Oh, Bulwer-Lytton. Bulwer-Lytton. Okay, there you go. He wrote something called The Coming Race, which was a kind of utopian piece of sci-fi. Really successful in the 1870s when this was essentially in the story the narrator goes deep into a mind stumbles across this mystical peaceful people who have
Starting point is 00:24:52 learned to live without any envy or sort of vice at all and in sheer harmony with their fellow men and women and they said this was due to a mystical source of energy, which they called vril. Sounds very Tolkien-esque. And Johnston took the Latin word for ox, which was bos, B-O-S, chopped off the last continent and added some vril. This is a mystical quality imparted by the drink of povril. Oh, I just love it. Such a lovely story. Do you know, I just love being with you because I learn so much.
Starting point is 00:25:22 We learn so much, too, from the people who listen to our podcast. Val T from Canberra, which I think I'm correct in saying is the capital of Australia, has been in touch. Dear Giles and Susie, in this week's episode, Susie wondered why the search engine Yahoo, Y-A-H-O-O, was called that. Yes, we talked about Gulliver's Travels, didn't we? And well, according to Val T from Canberra, it's an acronym made up by the creators of Yahoo for Yet Another Hierarchical Object-Orientated Oracle. Do you think this is an acronym again? Yet Another Hierarchical Object-Orientated Oracle. Possibly. I mean, maybe it was simultaneous. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:26:08 I can't otherwise understand why they went to Gulliver's Travels though. But, you know, Starbucks went to Moby Dick again, didn't they? No, but they're saying that they never went to. They just thought of Yahoo and came up with it. Oh, okay. I mean, she does, Val does say, I don't know what a hierarchical object-orientated oracle is. We have a lovely email from Andrew Steele. Namaste from Kathmandu, where I've been residing since 2001.
Starting point is 00:26:33 Thanks and admiration for your splendiferous podcast, which fills me with joy and glee every Tuesday. Thank you, Andrew. So he's wondering about the origin of two expressions of surprise. One is, oh, my giddy aunt, which is something that my mum uses a lot. And, well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs. I like that as well. Have you heard that one?
Starting point is 00:26:52 I've never heard that. It's quite northern, that one. I think, tell us where you're from, Andrew, but I think it's quite northern. First of all, giddy aunt. I can't remember if I've mentioned where giddy comes from. It was first used of someone thought
Starting point is 00:27:03 to be possessed by a god. So giddy is a sibling of god. It was giddy in old English. Essentially, someone who was frantic, acted in a kind of confused, bewildering, head-swimming way was thought to be possessed by one of these gods. There was also elfish at this time, which meant possessed by an elf, which also made you behave in a slightly strange way. Then it eventually came to mean sort of vertigo and not quite being very focused. Why aunt has been chosen? I mean, aunts have long been chosen
Starting point is 00:27:36 for these kind of exclamations like, oh, my sainted aunt. Heard that one before. So maybe it was only a matter of time before Gideon aunt came together as a sort of euphemism for, oh my God, oh my giddy aunt. But God is definitely there in the giddy. So it's another euphemism for God. Yes, it's one of those. And I'll go to the foot of our stairs. I have tried and tried and tried
Starting point is 00:27:55 to work this one out and I can't. So again, if any of our listeners have any ideas, I would love to know. I mean, maybe it's just like, well, I'm so surprised I'll fall down the stairs. That seems to be the general gist of it. Nancy Vita V has been in touch. Love your podcast. Thank you. I look forward to each episode. Thank you very much. Like a hairy mouth looks forward to gorming. Ah, a hairy mouth. What's that mean? That must be a Californian term. I don't know. She's from California. Yes, she is. The best part of California, northern California. A hairy mouth looks forward to Gorming. Okay, well, Gorming is just looking very vacant, as we know.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Now, Nancy Vitavi asks, when and why did kids come to mean human children? Was it merely a metaphor? If so, why kids and not pups, cubs or kittens? Well, it's a really good question. And it's just one of those idiosyncrasies of the English language. It was, of course, originally, as it still refers to the children of goats, but I guess before, because they are full of capers, which comes from the Latin caprine, meaning goat-like, and because they prance about, maybe it seemed more fitting than cubs and kittens. But quite often you will find pet names for kittens.
Starting point is 00:29:09 My kitten or other animal metaphors are available. But yes, it was a metaphor, and I'm just looking now to see when it started, but I think we're going to be looking back quite a few centuries. That's my guess. There's a pause now while Susie Dent looks back quite a few centuries. That's my guess. There's a pause now while Susie Dent looks back quite a few centuries. Nancy ponders if it was in fact the word was derived from kinder or kinder.
Starting point is 00:29:34 I don't think so. So kinder in German, child, obviously, but I don't think that's related to kid here. here. Kinder is actually related to kind and to kin, because to be kind originally was to behave in a polite way to your fellow sort of kin, if you like. So that was the first meaning of the adjective kind. So that's where kinder, childlike takes you, because people who generally are childlike and innocent are kind. I love a kinder egg, by the way. I do. Yes, that's going to be my Easter, is always to get a kinder egg or two. Oh, nice. You know? Okay, I'll bring you one of those.
Starting point is 00:30:09 So do we have any idea why we've turned to kids instead of pups, cubs and kittens? Well, just because of their sort of, you know, capery, capering nature. I think playful nature. And you also asked Nancy when. It was the early 19th century, I think. So, yeah, it goes back a few centuries. Speaking of people with a playful nature, our own Gully, who we always credit at the end of the programme,
Starting point is 00:30:32 I was asked, what does he do? Well, obviously, he sits there scratching his head because he left, when we arrived today, on the table here, a question for you about two words, antler and antennae. Antlers obviously come out of your head and antennae is a kind of, well, youler and antennae. Antler's obviously come out of your head, and antennae is a kind of, well, you know what it is. It sort of sticks up and you use it to communicate with. Is the ant in antler and antennae in any way connected?
Starting point is 00:30:56 Antler, we don't know where the ant comes from. We know that it's French, entouiller, which means the same thing, but no one quite knows the etymology of that one, and it doesn't appear gully to be linked to antennae and actually antennae goes back to sails because in ancient greek their version of antennae were the horns both of insects and also of a ship's sail so it was all to do with being up high but no there doesn't seem to be any etymological connection between antlers and an antennae.
Starting point is 00:31:26 But the work still goes on. The work goes on. And if you want to contribute to it, it's purple at somethingelse.com. Now, this is the point in our podcast when Susie reveals to us her words of the week. A trio. What have you got for us today, Susie? Well, I have one that's inspired by the goddess of victory. It's Nikehedonia. So you spell that Nike, N-I-K-E, and then H-E-D-O-N-I-A. And it is the
Starting point is 00:31:54 pleasure of the anticipation of success. Oh, I love that. Nikehedonia. So you can be a Nikehedonist if you want to be. Lovely. Looking forward to the great things to come, the triumphs ahead. It may be specific. You may be to be. Lovely. Looking forward to the great things to come, the triumphs ahead. It may be specific. You may be at an Arsenal match and looking forward to the success of the game. Or, yes, generally in life. Nike Hedonia. Oh, yes. I like that.
Starting point is 00:32:16 Useful one for Scrabble. You mentioned Scrabble. Xert. Oh, God. I pronounced that with a kind of German accent. Xert. So, X-E-R-T-Z. X pronounced that with a kind of German accent. Xertz. So X-E-R-T-Z. X-E-R-T-Z.
Starting point is 00:32:28 It's simply the act of gulping something down quickly. Oh, what I do. I'm not sure about that one. I take vitamin pills. I do. Because I'm a veg, you didn't ask me why. I take all these supplements. So I've got a whole load of supplements that are kindly lined up for me to take.
Starting point is 00:32:44 Yes. And some of them are pretty big. And so I have to gollop them down. That would be... There you go, you're certsing. I'm certsing. Yes. X-E-R-T-S. T-Z. Oh, T-Z. Oh, it's a brilliant Scrabble word because you get eight for the X and 10 for the Z, and it's just five letters long. Oh, I like that. That's going into my next game.
Starting point is 00:33:04 Have you got a third word for us? Yes. This one always sounds slightly rude to me, but it's the adjective relating to breakfast. So I mentioned my full English, slightly vegan version. Gentacular. It was a gentacular treat.
Starting point is 00:33:17 It sounds rude, doesn't it? How do you spell the gent? J-E-N-T. Ah, J. Gentacular. Why is, what's the, how's that derived? It's just from the Latin relating to breakfast. Ah, J. Gentacular. Why is, what's the, how's that derived? It's just, I think it's just from the, from the Latin relating to breakfast. Well, they were.
Starting point is 00:33:29 Nickel, nickel. Nicodonia, I see. Or Nicodonia. Nicodonia. Xerts. And. Jink. Gentacular.
Starting point is 00:33:39 Gentacular. Three very easy words to remember. My quotation of the week, I've been rereading, going back to George Bernard Shaw, who I've decided is a very, very great man and a wonderful playwright. And I had a very busy weekend and a friend of mine said, oh God, why do you cram your weekends with things? Why don't you take a day off? I'll tell you why.
Starting point is 00:34:01 It's because years ago, I came across this line from the great George Bernard Shaw. The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. That's a lot for this week. We'll be back next Tuesday. You can tune in to us anytime. Podcast is available everywhere and please if you've enjoyed us give us a nice review recommend us to a friend. If you've got a question, you know, want to get in touch as you know, purple at somethingelse.com
Starting point is 00:34:34 Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Paul Smith, Steve Ackerman Grace Laker and Gully! Fancy a cup of pre-digestive tips? Oh, very good.
Starting point is 00:34:54 That's enough.

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