Something Rhymes with Purple - Cerulean

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

Hello Purple People! We hope you’re not feeling too blue, or marooned right now, but fear not Gyles and Susie are here to take you down another etymological rabbit hole to get you back into the pink. This week it’s all about colours! Why are the blues blue, envious eyes green, and a coward’s belly yellow? We’ll be donning our rose-tinted spectacles, avoiding white elephants and searching for the silver linings in all of this. Also, we’ll find out why a black sheep is a good thing in Italy… As always, Gyles has a poem for us to wash our hands to as well as a quotation to take into the week, and Susie will be dropping three more interesting words into our day-to-day vocabulary. Keep your questions and comments coming in: [e-mail] A Somethin’ Else production. Susie’s Trio: Shoulder-clapper - someone who is unnecessarily friendly an overfamiliar Blunkerkin - a general incompetent Respair - a return to hope or a recovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

losses and real talk with special guests from the Athletes Village and around the world you'll never have a fear of missing any Olympic action from Paris. Listen to Olympic FOMO wherever you get your podcasts. Make your nights unforgettable

with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit

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 episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Wherever you are, we hope that you are well and safe. We are both of those things. I'm Giles Brandreth, speaking to you from my little attic studio, homemade self-isolation attic studio in London. And at the other end of the line is my dear friend, Susie Dent.

Where are you, Susie? I am in the same place I was last week, actually. I'm in my study or the room where I do all my work, essentially, still staring at those props from Comedy Countdown. The piñata has got a little bit menacing actually the mention of comedy countdown reminds us who susie is she is the lady who first became famous as the doyen of dictionary corner on the word game countdown on channel four but

has grown and evolved from that into the world's most best-regarded lexicographer and amusing personality. The reason for watching Nine Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown is... Oh, is it? Shows you how regularly I've tuned in. Is Jimmy Carr still doing it? Jimmy Carr is still there. And, yes, I am not providing the comedy on that show. I'm completely the stooge. But it's fun. Anyway.

I hope you're providing the comedy today. Now, look, we talk about words if you're new to this we we meet once a week either virtually or in person and we talk about words and language because both of us have had a lifetime loving words and language and I'm feeling fairly upbeat. I've had my moments of being a bit blue over the last few days because it's quite strange life is a bit strange. Are feeling reasonably upbeat um i like you i have my moments i think such a cliche isn't it to take it one day at a time but i think whenever i think when am i going to actually get out of this when are we going to get out of this then it does become a bit overwhelming and it is hard and

it's just you know i think unprecedented it's likely to be one of the contenders for the Oxford Word of the Year, isn't it? Or for any dictionary publisher, really. But it's just such a good word because everything is. Strange. It's strange. I'm finding that I'm dreaming much more vivid dreams at the moment. I had a very strange one last night, which I'm not going to divulge. It was really odd. It wasn't saucy. I can see. I should just say I have jars up on a camera so I can see. You can see me. The looks of my comments and gender.

But it was just very weird. I've had some pretty weird ones, but rather sweet ones as well. I've been dreaming, it must be said, of people I've loved and lost. My parents. My parents have occurred in my dreams. And two nights ago, I dreamt my mother was reading me a bedtime story. Oh, dear. Oh, wow. What does that tell us? Were you an adult or a child at the time? No, I was a child in the dream, I dreamt my mother was reading me a bedtime story. Oh, dear. Oh, wow.

Were you an adult or a child at the time? No, I was a child in the dream, I think. I don't know. I didn't appear in the dream. She appeared in the dream. So that, I suppose, is quite reassuring. It is. I've just written an article, actually, about how I think at the moment our language is reflecting this kind of lockdown as well, because I don't know about you, but I'm really reaching back to the language of my childhood in terms of, you know, saying, oh, your plimpsoles need a bit of a clean

to my youngest. But actually, I've never used the word plimpsoles, or at least I haven't for decades. And suddenly the language of home is really comforting. So I think a lot of people are beginning to, you know, like how we sort of put our dialect on or we sort of adopt it again, a bit like a kind of cosy baggy jumper um i think that's what we're doing at the moment this could be our theme for next week cozy language warm and reassuring words yes this week this week we're going to talk about words to do with color because i mentioned we were feeling oh i was feeling a bit blue and then i suddenly wondered what's the origin of feeling a bit blue what's that about about? Well, it's funny, isn't it?

It's got really distinct associations in English, but also very many different ones. So it can be the colour of the sky or a deep sea on a clear day. And there's the beautiful word cerulean, which I think has been one of my trio, actually. But it is that colour of a clear blue sky. So that's one which kind of implies serenity and halcyon days. But as you said, it's also used for melancholy. The melancholy thing specifically was down to the blue devils, which in medieval times were thought to visit certainly alcoholics or anyone who was feeling a bit worse for wear.

And anyone who had the blues had been visited by the blue devils, particularly when they had the DTs. So that was why it kind of spawned the blues as the music, of course, the kind of slightly sad, melancholic music, but also that idea of having the blues. And then you've got this kind of obscene sense of blue, you know, or a bit kind of bawdy, a blue joke. a blue joke and that we think is down to the blue ink of the censors and when they used to kind of strike through scripts or newspaper articles etc they would use a blue pencil but also prostitutes in prisons were forced to wear blue gowns so that they would stand out and be kind of openly mocked so it's all those kind of historical associations I think that are fed into it. What about once in a blue moon? Blue moon well well, blue moon does actually exist. It does happen, and I'm no astronomer, but that's why it's such a rare event

that a blue moon actually can exist, and that gave rise to the expression. Oh, it's so rare. It means once in a blue moon, once in a... Very rarely will this happen, but it will once in a while. Yeah, I think so. I'm just looking at it here. It says a visually blue moon, so the moon appearing with a bluish tinge, may occur under certain atmospheric conditions.

For example, if volcanic eruptions or fires release particles in the atmosphere of just the right size. And I think it's all to do with scattering red light, and then it gives it that bluish tinge. If you're feeling blue, you can be feeling low. What about the black dog? The black dog. That's a kind of expression for feeling depressed, isn't it? Winston Churchill, famous to use to complain that he suffered from the black dog.

Yes. And was this a kind of black dog that faced you or sat on your shoulder, confronted you? I think it became popular because of Winston Churchill because he did get frequent bouts of depression, didn't he? Or periodically. But it's been around since the late 18th century. And it was used even before then, actually, during Queen Anne's reign for a bad shilling, which is quite interesting. So whether or not that had kind of had the associations, but it's all it's a bit like.

Forgive me. Why was it used for a bad shilling? I have no idea. I knew you would ask me that. So my trusty friend in the guise of the Oxford English Dictionary is here. Let me have a look. But a brown study is quite similar, isn't it, to being a brown study? I always assumed that that meant you were kind of in somewhere with drab decor. But again, it means kind of, you know, sort of melancholy reverie. Morose.

Morose, exactly. Having a brown study, being morose. Exactly. So here we go. 1665, any of various base metal coins of low value. So it could be a counterfeit English silver coin or a coin of French origin made of copper and silver and used extensively in parts of the West Indies during the 17th and 18th century. First record, 1665. See here this piece, it's called A Black Dog with Queen Elizabeth's head thereon, which is only pewter, double washed. There you go.

It's an undervalued coin. Yes. It's a bit of depression. What about black books? You're in my black books. What does that mean? Well, there were several real black books in English history. So they were official books that were officially bound in black literally bound in black so there was the black book of the exchequer this was around um the 12th century and that recorded all the royal revenues um and there was the black book of the admiralty that was the code of rules for the navy but the most famous one which gave rise to our expression is the one that recorded monastic abuses and it was this that provided the evidence for Henry VIII for his dissolution of the monasteries. So by the 16th century it had started to be used for a book in

which names were recorded of people who faced punishment. So that's why we talk about somebody being in the black books. It was literally a black book or several. Here we are with the colour purple. Something rhymes with purple. We know it does. We call our little podcast that because purple rhymes with purple. But is purple associated with anything in the language? Yes, the purple something of power, of the purple colour of luxury. Exactly. What is purple? Yes. So purple, just like crimson actually, is named after a shellfish.

And at one time, in fact, crimson and purple described the same colour. I should say, I don't know what your favourite colour was when you were growing up, but mine was always purple. I would always say purple was my favourite. Oh no, yellow was mine. Oh really? Okay. But the first thing to be described as purple was a crimson dye that was obtained from some mollusks.

And they were called porphyra in Greek. And the dye was really rare and really expensive. And it was used for colouring the robes of Roman emperors and magistrates because they could afford it. But the actual colour really varied quite widely. And over time it came to mean the colour between red and blue that we call purple today. The mollusk were called purple. Well, they were called porphyria, which eventually sort of morphed into purple. And porphyria is that disease which certain members of the royal family used to have, including the Mad King.

Is that right? Yes. including the mad king is that right yes so porphyria porphyria was a disorder that led to a variety of symptoms which really affected the skin and the nervous system i think because it's to do with the blood i wonder if it gave a tinge to i think it did i seem to remember a skin and also purple urine. Oh, OK. Really? Wow. This rings a distant bell. OK.

That's interesting. I've never had purple urine before. I'm pleased to hear it. I'm relieved to hear it. Like a really new Prince song. Well, could it be? Let's move swiftly on. Green. Green.

How green was my valley? Now, green, of course, is, if you're green, somebody's green, it means they're naive. Yes. There was a children's comic when I was a little boy in which there was a cartoon about Lettuce Leaf, the greenest girl in the school, which meant that she was the most naive, the most innocent. Oh. It was Lettuce. Lettuce actually was once her first name, wasn't it? I think.

Lettuce, of course. It still is. Is it? I know there's a very distinguished actress, young actress, called Lettuce Thomas, known as Letty. Yes. But her full name is Lettuce, of course. It still is. Is it? I know there's a very distinguished actress, young actress called Lettuce Thomas, known as Letty. Yes. But her full name is Lettuce. Okay. Lettuce Thomas. Did you know, just to throw this in, which has nothing to do with green, but lettuce has got a connection with lait, which is French for milk. And it's all to do with the fact that when you squeeze a lettuce leaf, a little kind of milky substance kind of comes out. And it's all to do with the fact that when you squeeze a lettuce leaf, a little kind of milky substance kind of comes out.

And so it was named after that little milk-like liquid. So the French word for milk, which is lait, comes from lettuce. Well, vice versa. So we got lettuce via French, but ultimately from the Latin, lettuce in French, and then it was lactuca, I think, in in Latin and it's all because of that milky juice anyway green it won't surprise you to know is a sibling of grass and also grow so it's it's kind of it's lush isn't it but it's also young I guess it's the kind of living plants when they're in their their prime or just before their prime before they flower so an inexperienced person has been called green since the Middle Ages.

Yeah, there's that lovely line in Antony and Cleopatra about my salad days when I was green in judgment. Yes. And, of course, green's been the colour of jealousy and envy. So it was Othello, I think, wasn't it, that gave us... The green-eyed monster. The green-eyed monster. The green-eyed monster.

Which doth mark the meat it feeds on. But it's green-eyed. It's the eyes that are are green looking in an envious way yeah so green is the colour of youth naivety but also envy what about the green light and growth as well uh giving something green light it's just traffic lights i think uh we have green fingers if you're good at growing plants because you do gardening a lot the green shoots of recovery so it can be it can be really good it's got a slightly mixed life isn't it it's sort of good and they talk about being projects being green lighted in the movie industry yes oh you got the money it's great we're green light yes or green yes absolutely seeing red seeing red

yes red is another really interesting one in English. Lots and lots of things. So there's the red that is associated with, I guess, bullfighting. So if a bull sees red, then it will get supposedly. I don't know if this is borne out in fact, and I hate the whole idea of bullfighting. I think they are supposed to be colourblind and it isn't the red. It's the moving of the whatever, you know, the cape that's being waved in front of them. And the red is's the moving of the um whatever the you know the the cape that's being waved in front of them and the red is for the benefit it's hideous anyway is that is that the origin of it yes seeing red the bullfighter's cape yes i thought it was because

people became red around the face well that too so if you're if you the blood rose yes if you get red with anger i'm sure i'm sure it all kind of draws on the same thing. But red-blooded, of course, is filled with spirit and vigour and earthy and lusty and all that. You have red tape. Legal and official documents have been bound with red tape for centuries. And they still are, which is amazing. Are they?

Not only in Parliament, but in barristers' chambers. I go to barristers' chambers because I have a son who is a barrister. Yes. And I see briefs, as they're called. Yes. Which are not underpants. They are the documents telling you what the case is all about, which is a piece of A4, as it were,

folded so that it's not folded in half, but folded so that it still remains a long brief. And then around it, tying tying it up is a little bit of pink ribbon known as yeah red tape you've just reminded me of the first words of my book which was all about tribal language and all about language that could be spectacularly misinterpreted by anyone who doesn't know about the language of chambers so the clock says two lots of sex miss old bailey tomorrow at 10 and And Miss X goes, digitals. Clerk goes, yes, no briefs, just quickies.

You've been invited for both by Mr. Y. And Miss X says, punters. And the clerk says, Jimmy P and Bob H. And Miss X says, OK, I'm up for that. And that's a true exchange that, as I say, could mean something very different in the wrong hands. Also incomprehensible, unless you know the lingo. I know, I know.

That's the strange thing about language. Caught red-handed. I've been caught red-handed. Blood on your hands. It's as simple as that. But you know, we were talking about bound up in red tape, etc. You've also got the rubric. And the rubric is, that goes back to red as well,

because the red earth, or ochre as it was used as a writing material gave us the word rubric which is heading on a document or a set of instructions and rules that gave us that gave us rubric but that's all about red and miniature as well something miniature that was originally all about red because the latin for vermilion was minium and when monks and scribes decorated that you know those beautiful initial letters of chapters in illuminated manuscripts often they'd be in the strong red pigment and that's what miniatura in italian first came to mean and then it kind of transferred over to the little tiny small images that would be painted within those initial letters and over

time the word lost any connection with red and then just referred to those small pictures, which had become known as miniatures. Some things are very obvious. I was thinking about, because amazingly, a friend of mine only got back from Barbados this last week. Wow. Can you imagine? Wow.

Yes. And when I'd been, I emailed him in Barbados about 10 days ago, no longer than that, and said about some business thing happening here. And he replied saying, what's going on? He seemed completely oblivious to what was happening in the rest of the world. And at that stage, it was about 10 days ago, only one person in Barbados was suffering from the virus. Anyway, he then woke up and got, I think, the last plane out of Barbados. But he told me he'd come over his head on the red eye. Now, that obviously is called the red eye,

because that's the aeroplane that keeps you awake all night. Yes, absolutely. And you end up with red eyes. You absolutely do. And we've got red letter days as well, haven't we? Ah, that's biblical? No, well, Roman well roman really because particularly significant days in the roman calendar and in fact most of classical antiquity i think were

rubricated going back to rubric rubric and so they were written in red ink those inks containing the red ochre were really prized and reserved for any writing of significance so red was reserved for really really special days in the calendar. So Christian festivals, saints days, or any other important days became known a bit later in the 14th century as red letter days. If you're in the red, it means you're in debt. And that's to do with the ink in the ledger, the bankers used red ink. Yes, exactly right. When they were tallying up the accountants, that's to do with red for being in debt and black for being in credit. We don't want to be in the red. We want to be in the pink. In the pink. What's the origin of that?

Pink is a really strange one. So pink originally referred to this kind of murky greenish yellow colour. And the colour we know today as pink didn't get its name until I think it was the 1600s. And before then, anything that was kind of pale red would have been described simply as rose or rosy coloured then we get in the pink meaning good health and we get the sort of the pink of of youth or it meant really a prime example of something and you first find that in Romeo and Juliet am the very pink of courtesy and this all goes back to the colour included the flowers known as pinks is it dianthus family they're known as pinks because they're pinked edges not their colour so the pinked um you know if you sort of like if you

think of pinking shears that's what the flower looks like um it's sort of serrated petals and they were amongst the most prized flowers in Elizabethan England. And it was those really that gave the idea to pink. The one that we know today. And your pinky, by the way. Sorry. Oh, yeah. Pinky is your little finger, isn't it?

Nothing to do with pink. I'm sorry people can't see. We can see each other on Zoom. And I'm waving my little pinky at Susie now. Why is one's little finger called a pinky? Yeah, nothing to do with the colour pink. Although that might have kind of influenced it. But it goes back to the Dutch. I'm not sure I'm going to pronounce this properly. It's P-I-N-K-J-E. So

pinkie, maybe? Pinkie. Yes, pinkie. Very good. But I'm kind of fascinated by this whole colour psychology. Maybe we can talk about that after the break. Because in Italy, for example, a black sheep is somebody who's incredibly confident and independent, where it means something completely different here. Oh, the black sheep of the family. You're right. Absolutely. Just don't leave pink for a moment. In the pink means being jolly, meaning I'm in the best of health, I suppose. Oh, because your cheeks are pink as opposed to having red eyes and feeling being black under the eye. You're in the pink is that it well it's tempting to presume it does come from that your rosy complexion but it does go back to that

old-fashioned use of pink to mean the best of something uh as shakespeare used it yeah fine so in the best what about tickled pink i'm tickled pink tickled meaning i'm as happy as larry yeah i think it's the same idea i'll tell you about larry later uh i think it's the same idea. I'll tell you about Larry later. I think it's the same idea, tickled pink. So yes, you probably have got a little bit of a pink complexion if you've been tickled. Don't get me onto tickling because I've got a phobia about it. But again, it's that idea of just in great spirits, you're tickled pink. Then you aren't as happy as Larry. What's the origin of that? All right, we'll do that and then we'll go to the break. Larry, well, some people think it might have been Larry Foley, who was a prize US boxer who won many a fight

and retired early in his 30s, very happy. So some people think it was a reference to that. But in fact, we think it goes back to an old dialect word, larrikin. And a larrikin was a kind of mischievous, up to no good, but having a lot of fun along the way. So they were happy as Alaricin. Well, let's have a very quick break, a very quick one, because I want to find out about rose-tinted spectacles. Back in a moment. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no.

What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello, 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. Also from Something Else. Also from Something Else. Mel Gedroych 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 that I know he doesn't like. So I'm testing him by... This is brilliant. Yeah, by finding out when he discovers that the shirt has got a big patch out of the back of it.

Wow, and which area of the shirt is this taken from? Bottom right. OK. Listen now in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all good podcast apps. Welcome back to Something Rhymes With Purple. I was just telling Susie Dent that I'm in the pink. And one of the reasons I'm in the pink this week is that I'm feeling very proud. As you know, Susie, I'm the Chancellor of the University of

Chester. And up at the University of Chester, this last week, a whole raft of our third year nurses have been upskilling. And former graduate nurses have been volunteering to get behind the NHS to upskill so they can start working in the NHS sooner than they would have done during their training, as it were, and returning to work in the NHS. And they've had lots of coverage on the news, you may even have seen some of it. Anyway, some of these young people are people to whom I've given degrees over the last two or three years, and to whom I will be giving degrees. And I think they are just amazing. And I rather hope that there's going to be a coronavirus 2020 medal,

campaign medal. A lot of my family have been in the military. My son, son-in-law, my father, grandfather, all, you know, have been soldiers. And you get a campaign medal just for being part of a campaign. And I think these guys deserve a campaign medal. I think that's a wonderful idea. It's a detail now. Anyway, I thought of them when I was looking for a 20-second poem to share with you.

OK. Should we dedicate it to them? Let's dedicate it to them and all these people. Yeah. It's by Emily Dickinson, who is a Victorian American poet. It's very short and it takes 20 seconds or even less. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one life the aching or cool one pain or help one fainting robin unto his nest again i shall not live in vain that is beautiful i can't think of it genuinely can't think of anything more fitting for for those who are

doing what they are now fantastic rose-tinted spectacles people often say i look at the world through rose-tinted spectacles where do they go that's good well it's simply been a metaphor i don't know if there were any rose-tinted spectacles of the kind that Christopher Biggins might wear. But 1780 was the first record I could find. And it's always meant characterised by optimism or when something's cast in a favourable light. It's always meant that. What about we're hoping there's going to be a silver lining to all this. And in some ways, there is going to be a silver lining. One of the things most people have discovered is that if they go work in an office most of the meetings they've been attended attending over the last 20 years weren't necessary so that's a silver lining but discovering that

where does silver lining come from i guess that is true um so silver lining was first i'm just looking here at the oed proverb from John Milton. There you go. Was I deceived or did a sable cloud turn forth her silver lining on the night? I should have known that. Milton also gave us Trip the Light Fantastic, which is wonderful too. He gave us so much. And I remember that line because at school I did.

It's a mask called Comus. Yes. C-O-M-U-S. Yes. A mask, M-A-S-Q-U-E-e a kind of play a poetic masquerade yeah that's where that line comes from oh well done him beautiful isn't it we haven't mentioned what about being blue ribbon when you're talking about um awards and medals blue blue ribbon you know if somebody wins today at a county fair for example they ordered a blue ribbon and if a group of the

best minds are assembled to is assembled to study something they're called a blue ribbon and if a group of the best minds are assembled to is assembled to study something they're called a blue ribbon panel aren't they but the blue ribbon is the emblem of the order of the garter and you'll know about this one of britain's highest orders of knighthood and only the sovereign can give it um and that's why the blue ribbon connotes you know excellent the highest honor you can get it is the oldest. The oldest chivalric honour is the Order of the Garter. How wonderful. It is, isn't it? What about Blue Ribboned?

That race that they have to cross the Atlantic. Who's the fastest ship across the Atlantic? Well, maybe it's a riff on that. I think it is. I think it's R-I-B-A-N-D. The Blue Ribboned. Yeah. Am I right?

Yes, I think you are right. Ribboned, for sure. Now, I know this one. The Origin of White Elephant. Something that's useless. Yes. Got you are right. Ribboned, for sure. Now, I know this one, the origin of white elephant, something that's useless, got around the house. It's a white elephant. Give me, I'll tell you what I think it is. You tell me.

I think it is to do with the king of Siam, whose custom it was to give rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him. Yeah. Because then they couldn't get rid of it because it had been given to them by the king. But of course, it was very expensive to maintain. And white elephants couldn't be worked. So they were considered to be very sacred.

But they were so sacred, they had to be looked after extremely well. But they couldn't bring in any money. So yes, that's where it comes from. So I am being Thailand now. A white lie, I suppose, means it's an sorry i'm being thailand now a white lie i suppose means it's an innocent lie well-intentioned lie yes and they used to call about they used to talk about black lies uh by association as well so they're really kind of evil heinous ones were black lies whereas a white lie is a fib and fib i love thisib is short for fibble fabble, which was a trivial falsehood. A fib. I like that

one. Before we get on to a couple of my favourite acronyms, just a quickie. I've long, long to know about this. You've explained to me that the colour orange is named after the fruit. Yeah. The colour maroon. Yeah. Has that got anything to do with being marooned no i was marooned on a desert oh no two very different ones but it's a really good question because you'd be forgiven for thinking that it would be so the maroon that means abandoned goes back to the maroons which are capital m they were descendants of runaway slaves who lived in the mountains and forests of suriname and the west indies and they take their name from a spanish word meaning wild or feral in the mountains and forests of Suriname and the West Indies. And they take their name from a Spanish word meaning wild or feral. In the early 18th century, to maroon someone was to abandon them on a similar kind of desolate island

and leave them there as a form of punishment. So slightly imperialistic origins, I think, that one. The maroon that we talk about with a colour goes back to the French marron, meaning a chestnut, because maroon is chestnut coloured. And that also gave us the maroon that was used as an air raid warning during the First World War, because a chestnut on a fire makes a bit of a loud bang when it bursts. What's your favourite pudding?

Some people love marron glacé. What's yours? Where did that come from? I just suddenly fantasised. Oh, my favourite pudding. Let's have a lovely pudding together. OK, blackberry and apple crumble and ice cream. what's yours where did that come from it suddenly i just suddenly fantasized i thought my favorite pudding let's have a lovely pudding together okay blackberry and apple crumble and ice cream oh oh oh my that is perfect i like bread and butter pudding i like bread and butter pudding it's gorgeous yeah i'm eating so much sweet stuff during this lockdown i have to say i prayed i put on nearly half a stone. Despite your one show yoga.

Yes. I've had a call. I've been calling lots of people and getting lots of calls. And my friend Christopher Biggins called me. Oh, I just mentioned him. Yes. Yeah. And he's a glorious person. And we've agreed that the moment this lockdown is over,

we are going to go out to have lunch together with our partners. And I shall be having bread and pudding pudding as my pudding but he's managing not to put on weight which is impressive wow i'm not so much worried about the weight it's just that it's so addictive sugar and i just find myself yearning for it at every opportunity and then of course you're kind of stuck around the house and you know if you just think oh i'm going to do a bit of work but i need a bit of a pick-me-up. And there you go. It's the chocolate tin. Now, do you know, can you give me, in correct order, the colours of the rainbow? No.

I could guess, but I could try, but I'm not going to. You don't know. I mean, this is, we are definitely of a different generation. Because when I was a little boy, very little boy, in the 1950s, we all learnt the acronym Richard of York. Yes. It's a mnemonic, it's not an acronym. Richard of York gave battle in vain.

Yes. And the initial letters of those words give you the colours of the rainbow, don't they? They do. Richard of York gave battle. It's about Richard III. That's the Richard involved. And then you've got the I can sing a rainbow. That's lovely.

No, but what are the colours then? Richard of Dorngate, Battle in Vain. They are? Red, orange. Spit it out. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Correct. Well done.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom but a horse. I've seen a rainbow. Can I just mention, I promise that we come back to black sheep, etc. Yes, of course. And I'm fascinated by the fact't this is not giving any explanation for because i don't really understand it but different countries and different cultures have very different perceptions of color so in german it's yellow rather than green that's associated with envy the koreans um have green meaning anger um and in lithuanian i love this rage is expressed not with a single color

but with varying colors for different levels so white is kind of controlled anger you're on top of it red is normal normal anger um that's sort of fairly justified blue is intense anger and black is extreme incandescent anger and i mentioned also that the black sheep for the italians was actually a really good thing it meant confidence and independence and there was a an ad for volkswagen i think it was a golf with a black sheep in the middle of a larger flock and the idea was that somebody owned a vw golf was unique and self-assured whereas for us that would mean something completely different um and and it's similar with you know you might say in this country pink for a girl blue for a boy that that's really outdated now but in other

countries it's completely different so it's femininity i think in the netherlands is blue rather than pink so i just find that really fascinating and i'm not quite sure i'd love to look into the cultural history in fact there is a wonderful book all about colour and the histories of different colours and their associations, which I can heartily recommend. And it's called The Secret Lives of Colour by Cassius Sinclair. And it's just a lovely read. I recommend it.

Does it tell me about being yellow? Because you said that yellow can be positive. But yellow in our culture, I think, means being cowardly. He was a yeller. He had a yellow streak. Or a yellow belly. Yes. And I think it's to do with its pallor, really, because if you were lily-livered, again, your liver was pallid, wasn't it? And just not full of blood, not as lusty as it should be. So I think it probably comes from that.

But again, it's just a very particular association. And in other countries, they might not have the same thing at all. My friend, you like me name dropping. I know you complain that I haven't name dropped enough. My friends, Andrew Lloyd's Bank and Sir Tim Rice, are generously putting out next week for free. You can watch it, I think, on YouTube. The first of their musicals or the first big success of their musicals,

which was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. My favourite of their musicals, which was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. My favourite of their musicals, actually. I loved it. Anyway, can you tell me how many colours there were in Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat? No, there's a song, isn't there? There is. And Tim is a good Countdown friend, so he won't be happy.

No, tell me how many. It was yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fall and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange. That's just poetry in itself, isn't it? That's 28. 28. 28.

Well, it is poetry. In fact, one of Tim Rice's lyrics is in my collection of poems to learn by heart, Dancing by the Light of the Moon. Yeah, no, he's brilliant. Look, have we had any letters this week from people? Oh, we've had brilliant letters, and I have to say, they're really keeping us going. Well, I'll speak for myself. They're really keeping me going, because it's just lovely to have people, to know that people are listening as we're kind of holed up in our, you know, separate homes, not able to see each other. So to have that kind of community of the purple people genuinely, genuinely means a lot. So please keep the letters coming. And I am just looking now, I'm clicking to our correspondence email here we had a brilliant one giles now i told you about the origin bluetooth last week and aidan england has been in touch with

the most amazing top effect it tops this and i had no idea about it so you know the bluetooth symbol if you have a look on your phone if you want to enable bluetooth or not. It's actually a combination of two runes from the old Germanic alphabet. So these two runes represent initials. So there's one that looks like an asterisk and then there's one that looks like a spiky B. And then you put those two together and they give you the H and the B for Harold Bluetooth. And I just love that. I had no idea, Aidan, so thank you. Well, there you are. Yeah. So do you remember Harold Bluetooth. And I just love that. I had no idea, Aidan, so thank you. Well, there you are. Yeah. So do you remember Harold Bluetooth, the king who united Denmark and Norway and

various warring factions in the 10th century? And Bluetooth was chosen for the name of the technology because it unites different devices in much the same way that he united countries. So anyway, I love that, Aidan. Thank you for that um we have one from maureen o'hare this is a discussion a follow-up to our discussion on grockles so grockle being the term certainly that my dad uses in devon but as we've been discovering right across the country uh people talk about grockles for tourists and mostly unwanted people who seem to flood in during the summertime and maureen says with the discussion around grockles i was reminded of the irish term blow-in a term used by long-term inhabitants of an area to describe any new residents who weren't born and raised locally i love that a blow-in it's

suggesting that people are blown in with the wind for another locale i love that sorry about the next door's dog you can hear that in the back. He's obviously a grockle. Well, I remember because I'm now reverting to name dropping mode. Many years ago, I worked with Kenneth Williams on his books and I do remember going to a signing session with him. And there were people lined up and he wrote in somebody's book for Emma Chiswick. Oh, yeah. And she said, that's not my name. I for Emma Chiswick. Oh, yeah. And she said, that's not my name. I asked, Emma Chiswick. She'd simply been inquiring the price of the book.

He'd misheard and thought her name was Emma Chiswick. Oh, I love that. This is a letter on Chiswick's, C-H-I-Z-Z-I-T-S, from Stephen Marsland. Hi, both. Regarding the names people in coastal towns give to tourists, people in Skegness call tourists from, specifically Leicester, Chisits, because us Leicester locals, when asking the price of something,

will say, how much is it? I love that. So there you are. I love that. It goes back to that old story. The Leicester, Nottingham and Derby accents have very subtle differences which outsiders probably won't notice, but we do. Excellent.

Even worse is when people think, oh, the Midlands, brummy accent. That's from Stephen. Giles, I've just shut the door. Is that better? Yeah. No more dog sounds. Scuddy. Scuddy.

Scuddy. Yes, what about Scuddy? Gary Jackson. Hi, Giles and Susie. My nan used to use the word scuddy as an extra adjective when describing something in a derogatory way. Not sure if this was just a substitute swear word or if it had genuine meaning. Have you come across it? Scuddy.

Well, it probably goes back to, and I think actually this is mentioned in the email from Gary, that Scud was a mining term for kind of refuse or anything that was kind of left behind. So it could be in the tanning industry as well. It was kind of fragments of hair and lime and fat, which had to be removed from a hide. So all pretty horrible. So I think just referring to that was referring to something pretty horrible. It was an example, I guess, of lalokesia. Remember that? Lalokesia is the venting of stress and frustration through swearing but it's a pretty mild swear i would say if one at all i've told you before you know my parents never swore no my father despite all the stresses and strains of life i never heard him once

even use the word bloody it's extraordinary yeah that is amazing and bloody of course not particularly rude although it was thought to be by Our Lady and a contraction of that. So it was thought to be blasphemous. But actually, as we said in our swearing episode, it probably goes back to the Bloods who were the aristocrats in the 18th century, 17th century, used to go around literally painting the town red and causing all sorts of havoc. So to be as drunk as a Blood as one of them was to be bloody drunk. That's where we think it comes from. I've got a lovely, lovely question from Craig Roberts, who is one of our oldest listeners, not in age, but just right from the beginning. He's been with us. Craig Roberts asks, I talked about the piñata.

I mentioned it today as well. This sort of prop that I have from the comedy show, which is a piñata of me who does look quite scary. And she is huge and she's sitting in the corner of my study and Craig wondered where pinata comes from what the origin was and so I did a bit of digging Craig and it sought to date back over 700 years ago to Asia and it sought that Marco Polo discovered Chinese people who were fashioning figures of cows or even buffaloes and covering them with coloured paper and then giving them all sorts of lovely decoration to greet the new year. And piñata actually is Spanish for pot. But the idea, the tradition of it is really, really old. Everything you say demands more questions. You mentioned Marco Polo.

Is the game Polo named after him? Is the polo mint named after him? I don't think so. Polo mint. I've always, I don't know. Polo was a style of song in flamenco music. That was kind of Andalusian. I know that. But polo, the game resembling hockey, it goes back to a Tibetan word, believe it or not,

for polo, meaning a ball. So there you go. One of the Tibetan words that we have in our language. Gosh. And what about the polo mint? I have no idea about the polo of the Tibetan words that we have in our language. Gosh. And what about the polo mint? I have no idea about the polo mint. Isn't that interesting? I'll look into it.

Well, we'll look into it. And maybe if anybody, any listeners want to look into it, they can let us know. Do tweet us. Love our letters. We're both on Twitter. I'm GilesB1, G-Y-L-E-S B1. What are you again on Twitter?

I am at Susie underscore Dent. So you can tweet us or email us at purple at something else dot com. Just amazing. And I rather hope that there's going to be a coronavirus. Just amazing. And I rather hope. I have. So my first one, I think I've mentioned this one before, Giles, and I probably mentioned them as a real source of irritation because I really don't like the person that comes up to you and gives you a hearty slap on the back who's kind of over friendly and is the kind of physical equivalent of um well the equivalent I suppose of the drunk cherubimical drunk who comes up and gives you a hug when they've had one too many this is a shoulder clapper

a shoulder clapper all one word is a very old term for exactly that. Somebody comes and gives you a mighty slap. But do you know what? I've changed my mind. I think I'd really like to meet one now in my isolated state. Well, we hope you don't. No, OK. Because. Not at the moment.

Can I just say. You've got to keep distancing. In case he's listening, I went for a walk, my one designated walk yesterday, and a builder was working on a house and he came out and just i don't excuse the language coming up but he gobbed he spat no yes not just just one of those kind of right in front of me i just i was so incensed but i thought i've got to get away from here because there'll be all sorts of particles in the air but honestly so if he's listening it was really unpleasant by the sound of it just disgusting anyway uh my next one which actually i might apply to this

particular builder a blunker kin i have to say normally i love builders this is just an exception blunker kin blunker kin is a general incompetent a blunker blunker kid it's just an exception. Blunkakin. Blunkakin is a general incompetent. A Blunkakin. A Blunkakin. It's just an old dialect word, one of many for a kind of fool. So yes, I dedicate that one to him. And lastly, I'm going to end with something positive. And I remember the moment I discovered this and it really did fill me with some happiness. And it's the beautiful word respair r-e-s-p-a-i-r and it means a return to hope or a recovery and i think that's what we're all hoping for we're all wishing lovely respair so it's repair with an s yes or despair but kind of flipped very good oh i love that it's a lovely word thank you for those three words i've just got a quick quotation this week. It's from George Bernard Shaw.

And I've been thinking there's wisdom in this. He once said, there is no love sincerer than the love of food. Rather neat, wasn't it? Well, this has been Something Rhymes with Purple. Don't forget to give us a nice review if you've enjoyed it. Recommend us to a friend. If you've got a question you'd like us to answer or just want to get in touch, you can email us at 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, Grace Laker, and the really fully bearded Gully. He's no Blunkerkin. We can see youed Gully. He's no Blunkerkin. We can see you, Gully.