Something Rhymes with Purple - Filer à l'anglaise

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

This week we're speaking double Dutch, navigating a Mexican standoff, and playing Russian roulette as we investigate how different nationalities have embedded themselves into English. We'll be playing Chinese whispers, dreaming of Indian summers and hoping to receive a French kiss rather than one from Glasgow... Elsewhere Susie will be furnishing us with her weekly trio, Gyles reveals what Liz Hurley taught him about the female anatomy, and we'll be answering as many of your brilliant emails as possible. If you want to get in touch, please do, we're at [e-mail] A Somethin' Else production. Susie's trio: Ochlophobia - extreme or irrational fear of crowds Dentiloquy - talking through clenched teeth Tittle - the dot above the letter i or j. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, and welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. This is the podcast that I've been doing with my friend, Susie Dent. Are you there, Susie? I am. Hello. I have to say that because we are a few miles apart. Because though the system is changing slightly, and we've had Back to Work Wednesday, we are still miles apart from though the system is changing slightly and we've had back to work Wednesday we are still miles apart from one another where are you speaking from I'm speaking from Oxford I wish I could give you some news in that you know I'm at the top of a mountain somewhere exotic but

no I'm still still in the same study that I've been occupying for the duration of the lockdown but I'm very happy here I'm surrounded by the books that I love, some pictures that I love. And I'm okay. I'm okay, too. I'm in southwest London. And I have to say, the possibility of lockdown being lifted is alarming me a little. I've got quite cosy in the house here. And I'm lucky because all my grandchildren and children live nearby. So they come to visit. They don't come into the house. They stand outside the house. And I'm on the first my grandchildren and children live nearby. So they come to visit. They don't come into the house. They stand outside the house. And I'm on the first floor and I open the window.

And chuck the magnums, we discovered. I chuck them. But better than that, my wife was saying to the children the other day through the window, the grandchildren, oh, we can soon give you a hug. And one of them called back, we'd rather have a magnum. And indeed, last night, my wife said to me, Charles, I think, you know, it's just the pair of us now. We've been together quite a long time. You don't need to give me a hug. I'd rather have a magnum too. So the pair of us are sitting at

home on the sofa, eating our magnums, watching too much television and putting on weight pretty devastatingly. We're also beginning to fantasise about our first post-lockdown trip. Trip, okay. I'm glad you said that. Where are you and your girls going to go for your post-coronavirus holiday? Have you begun to think about it? Well, to be honest, we haven't because we're not really allowed to travel too far. I mean, I guess we can within the UK or within England, at least for the time being. But obviously, a lot of people, including my parents who live down in South Devon, don't necessarily want an influx of people from the outside potentially bringing things with them.

So it's a tricky one. So I feel that we shouldn't travel too far, but we are having a lot of fun on our bikes. So maybe we could do a long bike trip somewhere. Good. I'm getting a tr a long bike trip somewhere. Good. I'm getting a tricycle. This is for real. A tricycle? A tricycle. Because this going to work thing, they say, you know, don't take public transport if you possibly don't have to.

My children say to me, oh, you know, you can't drive the car. You know, you should be on a bike. But I say, look, at my age, I'm a little bit nervous. At the best of times, I'm a bit wobbly. I feel a bit insecure. And I'm also rather, in my head, going back to childhood anyway. And I loved my tricycle when I was a little boy. So I'm getting a tricycle. I can't wait to see this. I can't wait. I will. I promise you, I'll put it on Instagram and Twitter. You can see what I look like.

You're wearing one of your jumpers. Wearing a jumper on a tricycle. So I've been in touch with Jorvik tricycles. You wouldn't believe it. I mean, I began googling. Is it shaped like a Viking? Well, I don't know. I said to them, Jorvik tricycles, you rock. And they said, that's not quite the line we want. We want, you know, better be sturdy. And I said, well, I suppose it rhymes with wordy. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I'll let you know. On that note, you must give Nick Hewer, the presenter of Countdown, the programme that I work on, you must give him a ring because he's bought an electric bike. He's had one for a

couple of years now, I think, and he is fitter than fit. He said he's fitter now than he was in his 40s. And he's in his 70s as well. And absolutely loves it. So just think about that one as well before you go for three wheels, maybe. Or maybe you can get an electric three wheeler. And it's not all, you know, you power yourself. And then when you need a bit of impetus, the engine or whatever is there. I mean, I've already ordered it. So it's too late. I mean, it's coming. It's in the post store. I don't know. I don't know how it gets here. I think somebody drives it.

You have to assemble it. Oh, no, do I? Well, it sounds like possibly. Don't tell me that. Just get an Allen key. That's what you need. Oh, Lord. An Allen key.

What on earth is an Allen key? I need to find out why it's called an Allen key. Any cyclist worth their salt needs an Allen key. In fact, a whole set of Allen keys. But I'm not quite sure why they're called Allen. I'm going to have to look that one up. I'll come back to you next week on that one. Very good. Let's talk about language, countries, the world. Tell me this, why do we include other countries in our phrases and why are we almost always talking about them in negative terms?

You know, the idea, the very word foreigner implies something that's alien, that's almost barbaric. I mean, what's the background of this linguistically? Yes, well, you mentioned two words that was barbaric as well. Well, foreigner, it started off OK. For the Romans, it just meant it was for us and it meant somebody from outside or beyond. That didn't just give us foreigner. It gave us forest, which was outside, and also a forfeit. was foreigner it gave us forest which was outside and also a forfeit because when you trespass across boundaries outside you know there has to be some kind of punishment as a result and so forfeit came

from that too then the ground began to shift and the first meaning of strange came about when a foranus somebody who came foranus from another place was considered to be outlandish literally because they were from the outlands i mean when we talk about a stranger as well we don't really who came for us from another place, was considered to be outlandish, literally, because they were from the outlands. I mean, when we talk about a stranger as well, we don't really think about the strangeness of it, but it's the idea that they are foreign to us. Alien can mean from elsewhere and it can mean repugnant. So I think foreigners and mistrust have really gone hand in hand for, you know, for centuries. And you mentioned barbaric and xenophobia.'s obviously that the hatred of foreigners that's a greek word and in a way that's appropriate because i'm not saying

this about modern greek people at all but ancient greeks were convinced that all foreigners made weird unintelligible noises a bit like ba ba ba ba ba and that's what gave us the word barbarian because the Greeks considered them to be just foreigners who they could not understand and hence were probably primitive and rude and didn't make any sense whatsoever. Rhubarb actually has the same root of that because it was the foreign fruit it was some kind of exotic thing. Because you know forgive me yeah actors used to say on stage when they were asked to sort of mumble they would would go rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Exactly. Same thing.

It's the kind of unintelligible sound. The ba-ba-ba-ba. Interesting. And that's the origin of the word barbarian. Yes. Because it's like, I wondered if baba the elephant is the same thing. I don't know. That was French, wasn't it?

Baba the elephant. Oh, well, let's get round to the French. was French, wasn't it, Baba the Elephant? Oh, well, let's get round to the French, because traditionally, linguistic terms, the language, the country, the people that we most talk about, if we're English, is the French. I mean, last week, do you remember, we had an email from Elle Phillips that asked us about the origin of the expression, pardon my French. Yes. That's, I think, what got us into this particular area. Yes, she was our inspiration for this. She was. And I know that the Duke of Wellington used to say that we've always been suspicious of the French, and quite right too. He, of course, the Duke of Wellington, was the person who led us

up against Napoleon, who led the French, though he wasn't French himself. Give us the background to us and the French in terms of language. Well, it's all about war, really. It's all about politics. Always comes down to politics, Giles. You would know that more than anyone. It all started off, I think, with the French fairly nicely. So I'm sure if I mentioned when we were answering Elle's question

about pardon my French, but French fare was extremely polite behaviour. You know, everything was good until political conflict got in the way and the Revolutionary Wars, there was all sorts of things. And by the sort of 1700s, I think the French were more tethered to the idea of explicitness and kind of sexual adventure and that kind of thing. You know, certain French novels and that sort of thing. Pardon my French is kind of part of that you know you would think that French then was was kind of rude but we you know we've never really liked the French we blamed syphilis on them um just as they blamed syphilis on us I mean it was

a fairly mutual thing so we take French leave and the French in return filial anglais they leave the English way in other words to leave without saying goodbye. So I think there's been a fair degree of animosity there. And it goes back hundreds of years. It does go back. I mean, you mentioned the French Revolution, but in fact, we can go right back to Joan of Arc. Yes, of course. All of that, the Hundred Years' War.

Yes. Agincourt. I mean, you name it. We've been in you know yes and they call us the roast beef of course because of our florid uh complexions um and there may be a link there with the beef eaters the yeoman warders of the tower of london because they were that was originally a bit of an insult for the kind of well-fed menials of the king so there may be a link with the french calling us the roast beef and, and we call them frogs, don't we, because of

them liking frog's legs. So there's always been this sort of slightly precarious relationship, I would say, but not as much animosity for the French as we have towards the Dutch. Ah, again, to do with politics and military adventure, because there were the famous Dutch wars. So where do these express? This is things like going Dutch, Dutch courage. politics and military adventure, because there were the famous Dutch wars. So where do these express? This is things like going Dutch, Dutch courage. Well, they're actually both quite positive things, aren't they? Or maybe not. Well, Dutch courage, yes, you're right, they've lost their sting. But Dutch courage, the implication behind that was that you could only be courageous if you'd had a pint or two in order to, you know, to do anything of valour. Whereas the British,

of course, didn't need that because it was part of our intrinsic nature to be courageous and valiant. So these are all pretty much from the 17th century when the Dutch and the British were at loggerheads and both were looking for superiority at sea. They had really exotic cargo coming in from the Spice Islands and both wanted control over that. That was the inspiration behind it. Everybody having a go at each other. But yes, it wasn't just those two. There was also

Double Dutch, so gibberish. There was, I think I've told you this before, I love this, the Dutch feast at which the host gets drunk before the guests. I really like that one. A Dutch reckoning is apparently a bill that's presented to you without any details whatsoever and the more you question it the bigger it gets so you know a dutch uncle i can't remember what a dutch uncle was i think it was someone who was very difficult to describe but it was always introduced in conversation it was a bit of an odd one that one but a dutch concert was one in which a different performer played a different tune, so it wasn't very good. Dutch consolation was simply, thank God, it's not any worse than that.

And so on and so on. I mean, there's just endless in all the historical slang dictionaries. The phrase we use most regularly, I think, that involves the word Dutch would be going Dutch. Do people still talk about going Dutch? Yeah. And explain to me exactly why it's called going Dutch, because that's where each party you meet, you're going out for dinner, you say, we'll go Dutch, meaning we'll each pay our own way. Why is that?

Nothing bad with that at all. But I suppose nowadays we're kind of used to having more equality in terms of who pays, you know, and that's absolutely fine. And everybody expects to pay their fair share. But I suppose the implication when it was first coined is that someone was too mean to foot the entire bill. So going Dutch was a way of getting money from somebody else. And it may be it was the host who would be expected to pay, but they didn't. So everyone had to go Dutch. I have to tell you, I hate going Dutch. It's complicated. Because it's so complicated, particularly me, because I eat

only vegetables. You don't drink. I don't drink alcohol. So I'm usually the cheapest date. And there I am with other people say, oh, we'll all go Dutch. Let's just divide the bill five ways. And they've been quaffing and sluicing, knocking back the vintage wine, ordering the steaks at 20 pounds a slab. The port, the pudding wine, all of that. That rather dates you. I don't think people have pudding wine anymore. I've never drunk port in my life, but I think I've definitely had pudding wine before. Sauternes, right? I think this was when I was trying to be posh at some point. I, when I was very young and a student, I had pudding wine, not realising it was pudding wine. I just thought it was delicious. It was very sweet. Things like Sauternes and Barzac.

And I remember once going out for a slap-up meal at a grand hotel in Bournemouth. I went with my then-girlfriend, now my wife, I was about 19, 20 years of age, and we went to this grand hotel in a big square in Bournemouth, and I was pushing the boat out. I ordered the lobster. Yes, the lobster. And with the lobster, I said, oh yes, we'll have that bottle of, that half bottle, I think, that half bottle of Barzac. And the waiter looked at me, raised an eyebrow, served it, tasted delicious. Of course, it's apparently the last thing you should do in the world is have a sweet wine with lobster. But I eat neither lobster nor drink Barzac now.

Remind me to tell you, probably off air, about the time, I think this is one of the first times that I ever sampled Sotan, which is at my friend Mark's parents' house. And his father was sheriff of the county, I think. And I was sitting next to a very illustrious judge

and something awful happened to something that I was wearing. Remind me to tell you that. I'm sorry, you can't tease us like this. It's just me chatting. It's not you and me and a few friends chatting on the earphones. Just what happened? It's not tantalising or scintillating. It's just embarrassing. What's known as a fashion malfunction? Well, it was, but not of the kind of erotic kind. I was wearing, I was wearing a, I don't know,

some kind of dress. And I obviously wanted to kind of look remotely powerful because I'm quite slender. And I literally pushed some little shoulder pads under my bra straps on either side. And obviously I was quite nervous talking to this judge and I was shifting around to talk to him. Anyway, one of the aforesaid pads then fell in my pudding, which is when I was drinking Sauternes. So that's pretty embarrassing. It wasn't even, as I say, scintillating. It was just damn right embarrassing. He very sweetly leant over and gave it back to me full of chocolate. I had to keep it on my lap. Well, I haven't thought about that story for a very long time.

Thank you for sharing. And you will have shared it with quite a lot of people because I don't know if you've heard the news that we have now had two million downloads. Isn't that fantastic? Two million people. So this is not the way to keep a secret, but I think it's a charming story. I was once at a charity dinner with Bob Geldorf and Elizabeth Hurley. I remember this vividly because I was there as a master of ceremonies. And it was shortly after Diana, Princess of Wales, had tragically been killed in that car accident in Paris. And they were going to have this big charity event and therefore she couldn't come. But Elizabeth Hurley very sweetly stepped in instead of her. And what was interesting is that people were expecting Diana, Princess of Wales.

They got Elizabeth Hurley. They still curtsied. Isn't that interesting? Oh,, Princess of Wales. They got Elizabeth Hurley. They still curtsied. Isn't that interesting? Oh, wow. They curtsied to Elizabeth Hurley. Anyway, the point of the story is we're all at dinner, all wearing these very plunging necklines. And suddenly I saw in the middle of the soup, there was a little roll of cotton wool. And I said, what's that?

And Elizabeth Hurley explained. She said, it's the girl opposite you. I said, what's that? And Elizabeth Hurley explained. She said, it's the girl opposite you. I said, really? She said, don't look now, but you'll see if you do look now that the left boob is slightly lower than the right boob. And the reason is that that little bit of cotton wool has pinged out from under her left boob

and landed in the soup. What do you mean? And she said, don't you know? That's what I'm afraid people do do. And she explained, I learned this from Elizabeth Hurley, people apparently take little rolls of cotton wool and tuck them under their breasts. Oh, well, they're not. Now, just explain me this.

My Old Dutch is not to do with being Dutch from the country. We've been together now for 40 years and it don't seem a day too much it's a song and it ends with a line about my old dutch and i i don't think it's a lady from holland i think it's a term of endearment you called your girl your duchess she was like a princess to me she was as good as a duchess my old dutch i can tell you because i've looked it up it's an abbreviation of duchess in this case and it's 19th century slang for a costumonger's wife or more generally a wife and then from there a sort of extension to any term of endearment. But yes, My Old Dutch is mentioned there from 1920s. Good. That's probably the time of this song. Did you even recognise the song I was singing? No, I didn't, I'm afraid.

When I was a boy, that song was as familiar as Tutti Frutti. It was fantastic. As what? Anyway, Tutti Frutti. I know. Tutti Frutti. Tutti Frutti. We've been mourning the loss of Little Richard.

We have. We have. I do remember that. Yeah, what a loss. Yeah, he was not the inventor of rock and roll, but he pretty much gave it to us. And he gave you energy. The man gave you so much energy. I did, every morning on Twitter, I do a different poem wearing a different jumper from my basement. And when Little Richard passed away, I decided to look up the lyrics of which he wrote the song

of Tutti Frutti. There was a slightly saucier version, the original version, which when it went sort of global, he did a different version of it. And the lyrics are rather good. Tutti Frutti, Frutti Tutti. Back to language. Dutch is not to do with Holland. It's to do with the Duchess, my old Dutch. What about Welsh? To Welsh on somebody. Is that something to do with the people of Wales? The Welsh have not had an easy time from the English. I mean, you know, in so many different ways, but linguistically as well. So I have mentioned before, for example, that the wary Anglo-Saxons saw them as the kind of the Celtic people who, you know, were complete foreigners. And in fact, Welsh goes back to an Anglo-Saxon

word that meant foreigner. And Cornwall actually means the headland of the foreigners. Yeah, so that's all a bit strange. But within, if you look in historical dictionary, there are so many expressions coined by the English for disdain or ridicule. So Shakespeare used it as a byword for gibberish. So it's Welsh to me was the same as it's all Greek to me, which we can come to for centuries. A Welsh brief was one that was really long and complicated. And you mentioned Welshing on something that's reneging on a deal. So again, not very nice at all. And to use a Welsh comb was something that I regularly do every morning. It's just to put your fingers through your hair instead of brushing it.

So, you know, none of it particularly nice. And Welsh rabbit, we talked about these before. They're ringing a bell with me because Welsh rabbit, my mum particularly would always call it Welsh rabbit. Isn't that correct? It is Welsh rabbit, isn't it? No. So i think it was thought that welsh rabbit was kind of you know was was the sort of silly version and welsh rabbit was the true version but actually the rabbit version came first because the english talked

about cheese on toast as being welsh rabbit to snidely imply that the poor wel Welsh couldn't afford any meat. Oh, like the Italians call bed the poor man's opera. Ah, yes. You couldn't afford to have a proper rabbit on your pot, so you had some old cheese. Yeah, cheese on toast instead. And then rabbit was substituted because it sounded more posh, ironically. Tricking. So, yes. So, it's really Welsh rabbit.

It is. Oh, I think it's wonderful. You live and learn. Then, of course, you die and forget it all. I love those Welsh expressions. But we're pretty harsh on the Welsh. What about the Irish? We're even more harsh on the Irish, I imagine. you know we have some fairly nice things for the Irish we have the luck of the Irish really which possibly goes back to the gold and silver rush years in the you know into the 19th century and some of the most famous miners were of Irish or Irish American birth or you know there might have been the sort of implication that you needed a bit of luck as well as brains to get there but certainly the Welsh have come off pretty badly. There's very little, for all our animosity towards the Scots over the years, there's very little there in the dictionary that reflects that.

So I'm not quite sure why the poor Welsh have got pilloried so much. Oh, well, well done. The luck of the Irish. What about a Glasgow kiss? That's not very friendly. Yeah, there are various alternatives to that. There's also a Liverpool kiss, but it simply means a sharp whack on the nose with the forehead, basically. one of my favorite books called Pundemonium, written by an old friend of mine, Alan Lewis.

And it's full of impossible puns. And it fell open at this one. I'll share this with you. I tried to develop a recipe for hyena soup and ended up making myself a laughingstock. Richard Whiteley would have loved those. Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill, who had limited prospects outside of acting.

The only thing that I had that I could have done was organize crime. And Sofia Vergara, my very glamorous stepmom. Well, why do you want to be comfortable? Or Julie Bowen, who had very special talents. I used to be the crier. Or my TV daughter, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who did her fair share of child stunts. They made me do it over and over and over. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts.

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Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Welcome back. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. And by the way, if you want to get in touch with us as Elle Phillips did the other day, it's quite easy. You can email us at purple at something else dot com. That's something without a G. Purple at something else dot com. You mentioned the phrase, it's all Greek to me. What's the origin of that? Well, it's a really interesting story. And it involves two continents, at least, and not continents, continents, and four languages. And it came

to us via the Romans. So a Latin proverb, in fact, it might have been medieval Latin, so maybe later than the Romans, but to refer to something unintelligible, they would say in other words, it is Greek, therefore it cannot be read. And I have some sympathy with that because I can't read Greek either, which is one of the embarrassments of my life, given that I'm a linguist. But Shakespeare, who, as we know, popularised so many different things, even if he didn't create them, he borrowed it in Julius Caesar. Those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But for my own part, it was Greek to me. and it was that that really cemented it in the language and but

there's a nice little twist here as well because the spanish version of this latin proverb was habla angriego which probably doesn't sound very spanish literally to talk in greek and so again to talk unintelligibly which is a bit of a revenge on the greeks who thought all foreigners spoke unintelligibly as we we heard. And a Spanish dictionary then explained that foreigners in Malaga are called gringos, and that is borrowed from that griego, from Greek. So when we talk about gringos, or at least when the Spanish talk about gringos, that goes back to the idea of speaking Greek as well. I would have thought of gringo as a Mexican word, Mexican gringos, but of course, Spain conquered Mexico, which is why they speak Spanish in Mexico.

It was the Mexican War that in fact brought the word to the Americans. So you're right, that's when it began to be used. Is that when we got the Mexican standoff? Oh, the Mexican standoff as well. I know. We've got also, we've got the Mexican wave. We've got a Mexican breakfast, which is a cigarette and a coffee. I love that. Oh, that's very good. Yes. I'm not a great one for Mexican cuisine.

I've been to Mexico. Oh, I love Mexican food. Oh, do you? No? Oh, well, maybe I like the British version of Mexican food because I've not been to Mexico before. But if I was to give you, you know, lots of refried beans and guacamole and that kind of stuff, would you not really like it? I love all that stuff.

Okay. Just for anybody listening, Giles is looking really quite sick at this point. But a Mexican breakfast. I love that coffee and a cigarette. Tell me about the Mexican standoff. What's the origin of that? Well, I think we owe that one to the cinema. You know, the Tarantino film Reserv reservoir reservoir dogs that's the prime example of that so it goes back to the 19th century and probably

refers to real experiences during the mexican american war or gunfights with kind of mexican bandits so i think that's where that one comes from, maybe rooted in history or just simply a derogatory term, having a go at the Mexicans. What about the Mexican wave? Yes. Well, who knows when it first appeared? We think it's 1970s, but we don't quite know who created it. But there was somebody called Crazy George Henderson, who was a professional cheerleader, who gave us one of the first video documentations of one. And this was in the early 80s at a major league baseball game in Oakland, California. So yeah, so we think then it just became really widespread, particularly

during the 86 World Cup, which was in Mexico. Let me take you over to China. Now, I love Chinese food. I have reservations about Mexican food. This is probably because when I was at Mexico City Airport, stupidly, waiting for the plane that was delayed, I saw an avocado. I love an avocado. It had prawns in it. I didn't think this avocado with the prawns has been sitting under this hot light for hours. It was swelteringly hot anyway. I ate and I had, well, anyway, I had what I think is called a Mexican. Montezuma's Revenge. Montezuma's Revenge from every orifice. Oh, no.

Starting, if I may say so, with what's known as a Mexican cough. Oh, dearie me. Let's move on swiftly to Chinese food. Lovely Chinese food. I adore it. Chinese whispers. Where do they come from? Yes. Lovely Chinese food. I adore it. Chinese whispers. Where do they come from? Yes, I think, I've always wondered if this is slightly derogatory again and slightly racist, but I think being generous, it just gets its name from the fact that Chinese is incredibly difficult to master as a language. And so Chinese whispers are ones that become more and more difficult and unintelligible and undecipherable as they go along. I think that's probably where it comes from.

And Chinese whispers is the wonderful game that you play where the message goes out, send reinforcements, we're going to advance. And by the time you've whispered it through 100 people, it ends up as send three and four pence, we're going to a dance. That's the game of Chinese whispers. What about Chinese burns? They are cruel yes and again not something you will see in any kind of chinese martial arts etc i mean british school kids have talked about chinese burns for ages and who knows why it was a name something is

pretty mischievous and actually quite painful isn't it it is to know what a chinese burn is it's when you you might be able to describe it better than me jars but it's when somebody grabbed was certainly used to grab my wrist and then twist the skin in different directions and yeah really that is that is indeed a chinese but i'm glad you i'm not i'm sorry you suffered but i suffered too oh yes i definitely did and in north america it's known as an indian burn so i don't think people are very discriminating as to who they're playing for that you mentioned india what about an indian summer oh i love indian summers lots of theories for this one we think it goes back to the american midwest so to native american

peoples and warm weather in the autumn was common and the idea is that native americans would then take advantage of that and go off and hunt etc or it may go back to records that one sort of adventurer who was you know exploring it well not exploring but traveling over there said that what was quite characteristic of the midwest was that rain was followed by an interval of calm and warmth and it was known as the indian summer and he described it as a tranquil atmosphere atmosphere and general smokiness which i think is beautiful. So, yeah, it could just have, I mean, we know it's the American Midwest, but whether it referred to a Native American custom or belief, we're not sure.

Well, people listening may know the answers to this. We don't know the answer. I know the answer to nothing. Susie knows the answer to most things, but not to everything. And if you want to communicate with us, you can. You can tweet or you can email us at purple at something else dot com. Before we go to this week's correspondence, Russian roulette. Just one last one.

Why is it Russian roulette? Well, apparently this is what Russian soldiers used to play to pass the time. Pass the time? Well, there was a novella written by Mikhail Lermontov. It was called The Fatalist. And he describes a character firing a gun with an unknown number of bullets at his own head and surviving. He doesn't actually use the term Russian roulette. That was used a few decades later, in fact.

But the version that was described then, which apparently was practiced by Russian soldiers, was even deadlier because it used a gun with five of the six chambers loaded rather than just one. Can you believe that? I mean, you've only got one in six chances of survival. Not good. Well, what letters we pick is a bit of a game of Russian roulette because we do read all the correspondence, but we can't answer every query. But let me share one that's come along. Up, Sir Daisy. This is from Nancy Wittovec. Great name. Susie and Giles, I love your Something Rhymes with Purple. It's bringing me a lot of joy during shelter at home. I'm a purple person

in the lowlands of California. You see, we're calling it lockdown, but in California, they're obviously calling it shelter at home, which is currently ablaze with wildflowers and not so wildflowers. I love flowers and herbs. I'm saying herbs because she's American. And humbly request you do a pod on words and phrases derived from plants. That's a lovely idea. And herbs, too. That would be a really nice one to do. Oh, we'll do that. And I loved the TV series about the herbs. And I used to know the man who produced it, who gloried in the name of Graham Clutterbuck.

More of that another week. Was that the kids' programme, the herbs? Yeah. Partly the lion and that kind of thing. Yes, all of that. All of that. Oh, yeah. Okay.

More of that another day. For the moment, Upsa Daisy. Does the phrase Upsa Daisy have anything to do with the flower, the daisy? That could be an American expression. It's what we say to a child who has fallen to encourage them to get back on their feet ups a daisy and we do it too whoops a daisy normally we say when they fall down oh whoops daisy as a way of trying to kind of make it seem less extreme than than it might be so we use it in the same way and it's really weird this one because it actually goes back to something that was quite extreme and that was somebody uh lamenting at the top of their voices alack the day like alas the day in other words reproach the day that it should

have brought this fate upon me so all quite melodramatic um for regret or surprise or as i say lament and then by the 18th century it had turned into the much flabbier lackadaisy and then it sounded a little bit like the flower a lackadaisy so they obviously thought that was quite suitable for saying that to a child and that's where it came from lackadaisy lackadaisy and then this sort of ups came along again because it sort of made sense for what they were describing so it went through so many different incarnations that one but we think it does go back to a lack the day which also believe it or not gave us lackadaisical because somebody who's constantly complaining or is woe begone probably has little energy but to kind of mop their brow in self-pity. So, yeah, we gave us that one too.

Now, this is amazing. This is why I listened to this podcast, because you are so brilliant. I had no idea that Ups-a-Daisy had nothing to do with daisies. I assume people on the grass, children on the grass, you fell, you know, you fell over in the daisies. But it isn't. It's all to do with lackaday. Oh, lackaday, alas, a lackaday. A lackaday. with lackaday oh lackaday alas

alackaday alackaday alackaday and you end up with oopsadaisy brilliant strange one more

one more we've got time for one more before we get down to your three words scran this is from Graham Hunter

hello Susie hello Giles recently discovered the podcast enjoy listening to you both each week thank you very much Graham

thank you my question is regarding the word scran yes c-r-N, meaning food. I've never heard this. I've always loved this word, says Graham. It actually makes me hungry. I live in County Antrim, where Ulster Scots words and phrases are commonplace. As far as I know, it's a Scottish word that has travelled. I was wondering if anything is known about the origin of the word, and is it used in other regions? It definitely is used quite a lot up north. You'll find it in Liverpool for sure. So it's definitely migrated. As for where it comes from, early records are the

18th century when it was used weirdly for a reckoning at a tavern. So usually for drinks rather than food, but then it moved almost exclusively to food. And the implications were pretty much always that it was kind of scrappy food. It was sort of odds and ends or leftovers, which as we know can often be the best, or a kind of scratch meal taken on a picnic, for example. And then it was transferred over to soldiers and sea sailors rations. You know, that's pretty much where it stayed in the military and on the seas for quite a long time scran was food it was your rations lots of other phrases if you're out on the scran you might be begging for food you might have a

scran bag instead of a packed lunch bag and the Irish had this great phrase bad scran to you which was a kind of curse which is literally wishing bad food on somebody, which makes me laugh. Where it comes from, possibly, we're not sure. There is an Icelandic word scran with a K, meaning odds and ends. So it may be linked to that. But it's a great word. Thank you, Graham, for getting in touch. Thank you, everybody who does get in touch, whether you are in California, County Antrim, or wherever you are, do please keep in touch with us. We love hearing from you. We are purple at somethingelse.com. This is Susie Dent with three interesting, unusual, favourite words of hers to share with us. What are your cheer for this week, Susie?

Thank you. Well, you mentioned a slight anxiety about coming out of lockdown. I think a lot of us feel that too. So this one might describe a little bit of what we're feeling. It's a very rare Greek word. You know, phobias are pretty much made from Greek prefixes and suffix and things. And this is oclophobia, which is O-C-H-L-O-phobia, oclophobia.

And it's extreme fear or dislike of crowds. Yeah, as people that's a very useful it is quite useful now isn't it if you are really biting your tongue you've kind of pretty much got used to the fact that you are talking to a very restricted number of people every day and uh let's face it you know we're all on top of each other sometimes arguments may flare dentiloquy is speaking through clenched teeth dentiloquy this obviously got the dent meaning teeth in there too and finally um do you know what the dot above the i or the j is called is it a diuresis oh that's brilliant well, but there is a plain English term for it, which is a tittle. And you know, when we talk about having something to a T

down to the finest point, that T stands for tittle. So you might have got something just right and down to a tittle. Let's leave it at the tittle. I've got a quotation for the week for you. I like to offer something wise and wonderful, so I can't pick my own brain. I go to a quotation for the week for you. I like to offer something wise and wonderful, so I can't pick my own brain. I go to my bookshelf and look up something. And I've been

reading, the great dictionary maker was Dr. Johnson, Dr. Samuel Johnson, but he also wrote a book called Lives of the Poets. And I've not read it from cover to cover, but I've dipped in. And I was dipping in last night to the chapter on the poet Alexander Pope, and I came across this, which I thought was rather good. It's really about anger, about vanity, about powerful people in the world, and it just, well, I pondered, and I thought I'd share it with you. The man who threatens the world is always ridiculous, for the world can easily go on without him, and in a short time will cease to miss him. I like that. We will miss you for the next few days, but we'll be back with another episode next Tuesday. Please remember, two million people have downloaded, well, we've had two million

downloads, which is exciting. That is because we've got 50 and more episodes that you can dip into. So feel free to begin at the beginning or just, you know, dip in whenever you want to. And do keep in touch. You can tweet us, email us at purple at something else dot com. Dumpling Round with Purple is a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Steve Ackerman, Grace Laker and the heavily bearded Gully. And you know there's a tittle on his eye. Hello, I'm Jay Rayner and I host the Out to Lunch podcast where I take fabulous guests out for lunch and grill them to a turn.

For now, whilst lockdown reigns supreme, we're staying in for lunch instead and we've got great company. Fascinating people share only the best takeaways with me over webcam. Great food, an insightful conversation with the likes of Gary Neville, Sharon Horgan, George Ezra and Dieter von Teese. Have you ever had a cream pie in the face? No. So if you like me, enjoy food and are missing restaurants, subscribe to Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner, available wherever you get your podcasts.