Something Rhymes with Purple - Foolhappy

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

This week we’re having a much-needed sift through all your fabulous emails that came in over the Christmas period and dedicating the whole episode to your linguistic head-scratchers.  We find out why lumbago no longer has our backing, the sharper origins of the phrase ‘can’t hold a light to’, and what a fugitive has to do with an explosion between your legs. Plus we go hunting for Dudgeon and Low Dudgeon and discover an interesting link between the different seasons. The work goes on! A Somethin’ Else production.   We love answering your wordy questions on the show so please do keep sending them into [e-mail]  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple  If you would like to sign up to Apple Subs please follow this link https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823 and make sure that you are running the most up-to-date IOS on your computer/device otherwise it won’t work.  If you would like to see Gyles and Susie LIVE and in person on our Something Rhymes With Purple UK Tour then please go to https://www.tiltedco.com/somethingrhymeswithpurple for tickets and more information.  Susie’s trio:  Scamander - to wander around without a specific purpose in mind Pigritious - a bit slothful and lazy Clumperton  -old term for a clown or clod hopper 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

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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 We'll see you next time. Annex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Hello and welcome to rather a special edition of Something Rhymes with Purple. It's special for two reasons.

One, I've decided that every week I want to ask special questions to my special friend, Susie Dent, about things that crop up in the news, words that come along and appear. And somehow I've read about them in the newspaper and I think, oh, I don't know about that. And I think the only person in the world who does know about that is my fellow verbaholic, my fellow word lover, Susie Dent. How are you, by the way, Susie? Hello, I'm fine. I am wrapped up in my teddy bear coat, as you can see, Giles,

which has become a permanent fixture. I just wear this everywhere. It's my comfort blanket, just as words are my comfort blanket as well. So, yeah, this is going to be slightly stressful. I'm not sure I'm going to have the answer for you, but give it a go. It's going to be very easy, actually, because this one's certainly going to be very easy. I read in the newspaper the other day that there's a new word that has got into one of the dictionaries.

I think it is, in fact, the Oxford English Dictionary, where you used to work years ago. And the word is trousered. Now, I always felt that trousered, something was, you trousered your money. You put your money in your trousers. And that was what the meaning of trousered was. But I read in the paper that trousered now has a new dictionary definition, slang, chiefly British and Irish and Irish English. It means drunk or intoxicated. Do you know all about this? Yeah, well, only in that there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of synonyms for being

drunk that go back centuries. It's one of the biggest areas in slang and always has been. And so, to be honest, it doesn't surprise me that anything that is an adjective that we stick ed at the end of somehow becomes another word for being drunk. And I think possibly that's what's happened with childhood because I can't... Sorry interrupt but you're absolutely right you can say anything like blathered it means yes or even your name is dent dented could mean dented absolutely how interesting and people you know I got completely xed last night people will know exactly what you mean but you're right 1865 was the first use of trousered and it meant to put money in your trouser pocket or to accept money in a way that was morally slightly dubious. Or it simply meant to be dressed in trousers, obviously.

But so many of them actually, etymologically speaking, are a little bit elusive. And I had a really good chat with the slang meister that is Jonathan Green who I've mentioned on the podcast before and I've spoken to him about synonyms for being drunk before and he said don't go anywhere near etymology when it comes to slang because you're in a it's a losing game because it's very very difficult to get to the bottom of it but you know I don't know do you drop your trousers when you're drunk possibly do you lose your trousers um i've no idea quite what the impetus what all the inspiration was but um you know exactly what it means when you hear it well happily i don't get drunk because i don't drink but another jonathan who you also know jonathan

dent no relation who i think now works at the oed he comes to the conclusion that trousered that Trousard was popularised by the Glasgwiesian comedian Billy Connolly. And he made it popular in the 1970s when he began using the word in his routine. So he is giving him credit for that. Well, I hope that Billy Connolly is also credited in the dictionary itself. And, you know, so often it does. It's funny, I was looking at proppers the other day and I was saying, give him his proppers, which people now abbreviate to props. And it means your due credit. Give me my props. And there was some debate as to whether Aretha Franklin, thanks to her R-E-S-P-E-C-T

song, should actually get the first credit for it. Because for a while, the OED gave it to someone else. And there was a lot of discussion, a lot of debate and they said yes actually this probably was the first record of propers being used in that way. So Aretha Franklin has now got her name in lights in the dictionary. Wonderful. Well there you are. That's our first special new feature and if you're a regular listener to Something Rhymes with Purple you will know that I bow to no one in my admiration of Susie Dent. And my plan is each week to come across an interesting word in the newspapers or something I've heard on radio or TV and challenge her with it without giving her any

pre-warning, just to show you that she really is as brilliant as she really is. Well, if I don't know the answer, in some ways that would be fun too, because we can get the purple people on board. And that's the other special element, because we haven't just got the purple people on board, we're thrilled. This podcast now has been going for a couple of years. We are lucky that we have had literally millions and millions of downloads, and we have listeners across the world. And as a new feature, when they get in touch with us, which they do, we get brilliant emails week in, week out from around the globe. And as a new feature, when they get in touch with us, which they do, we get brilliant emails

week in, week out from around the globe. We're actually going to occasionally hear their voices, hear the people who are corresponding with us. So thank you, Purple people, for keeping us on our toes,

for being in touch, for being part of the Purple community. As you know, if you want to communicate, you email us. It's simply purple at somethingelse.com. Something is spelt without a G, just to be perverse. Susie, let's have the first question.

And I think it's one that takes us back to the basics of the origin of the podcast, because this is going to be an episode we devote to you, the purple people, and the queries and questions and comments that you've sent in. Yes, and that really is often our favourite part, isn't it? Because we've been doing some live shows and we get some questions from the audience at the end, a Q&A. And again, you know, it's if I know the answer, great. If you know the answer, great. If not, it's just a lovely form of debate. And so this, I have to say, is my favourite bit. Well, the first one comes from Lina Burea. I hope I've got that right, Lina. She's a teacher of English from Russian, so it might be Lena. And she's thrilled to listen to our stories about words and share them with her

students and colleagues. But she says she thinks she's missed a story about the origin of our podcast's name. Why is it called Something Rhymes with Purple? Well, we often talk about this because something really does rhyme with purple, even though the assumption is that nothing does. And we have two, don't we, Giles? Well, we have two words that rhyme with purple. Let me give the context of all this for newcomers to the podcast. A couple of years ago, more than that now, my wife said to me, are you doing a podcast? I said, what do you mean a podcast? She said, well, everyone's doing a podcast.

Are you doing a podcast? I said, well, I said, well, no. She said, well, you should. You know, you've got to be ahead of the curve. Everyone does a podcast. What are you going to do a podcast? I said, the only thing really I'm passionate about, as you know, is words and language. And I don't really, I mean, I love words and language.

And I thought, well, actually, I know someone who knows really everything there is to know about words and language. And that is my friend Susie Dent. And people listening around the world may not know that Susie is a household name, originally thanks to a television program called Countdown. And that's where, about a quarter of a century ago, I met the then very young but already very brilliant Susie Dent. And we became friends, and we discovered we had this mutual love of language. So I thought, I'm going to do a podcast about words and language. It has to be with Susie. She was up for it. We met,

and I said, let's call this podcast. We were told it has to be a zany name, you know, as in my dad is writing a porno. It's got to be something a little bit different, quirky, that makes people think. So I thought, I know, nothing rhymes with purple. And then Susie said, but something does rhyme with purple. That's how it began, I think. Yeah, actually, I can't take credit for that. I think it was one of our production team who said, why not call it something rhymes with purple. And what rhymes with purple that's how it began i think yeah actually i can't take credit for that i think it was one of our production team who said why not call it something rhymes with purple and what

what rhymes with purple so we have two words we have um herple h-i-r-p-l-e which is to walk with a limp particularly sort of if you've had a long walk in which your handspur and handspur is an old word meaning that you're just a bit sore so that's herpal to walk with a limp and there is also kerpal which is the rear part of a horse's rump so it's the the rump of the rump does anything by the way rhyme with silver that we know of um we have milver don't we which um is yeah silver is is one where i think there are actually a few so the one where we don't actually have very many and milver by the way is someone who shares a love of a particular subject. So you and I are Milvers in that we are lovers of words and wordplay.

In fact, occasionally we get drunk on language and then we're Milvered. There you go. Very nice. But the one that everybody says is orange, isn't it? That nothing rhymes with orange, which, which of course could be our next incarnation. There is sporang, I think, isn't there, that people often talk about. And sporang is a rare version of sporangium. And a sporangium is a sort of spore capsule, if you like, on plants.

Oh, so something does rhyme with orange. Yes, but it is quite old. I'm not sure sporanger is still used. The last, I'm just looking here in the OED, the last record for Sporanger is 1872. Oh, well, I mean, I can almost remember 1872. Genuinely, it is extraordinary. So, Lena, that's the background.

Thank you for being in touch. Who next have we got to hear from? Oh, I think it's somebody actually we can hear. A question from Tony Doyle. Hello, Susie and Giles. Loving the podcast. When I was younger, I used to hear people complaining about their lumbago, something you don't seem to hear anymore.

In fact, it used to feature on TV comedy shows. Ooh, me lumbago. I suspect it refers to back trouble, but wonder what its origins are. Many thanks. Keep up the excellent work what its origins are. Many thanks. Keep up the excellent work. Tony Doyle. How wonderful. This is a new system. We can now hear people. Tell us all about lumbago, the origin of lumbago, what it means, where it comes from. Well, one of my new playthings at the moment is the British Newspaper Archive, because in the course of my writing my next book I've been consulting various headlines and newspaper articles etc and it's brilliant and

I did a quick search for um lumbago and Tony is totally right I mean from right from the 19th century there are a lot of remedies advertised for lumbago and rheumatism and sprains, a universal embrication, which reminds us, of course, of brand-rest pills. So lots and lots of remedies for them. And I don't quite know why lumbago has fallen out of use. I mean, that's obviously the way that language evolves, really. But I can tell you that it goes back to the Latin lumbus, meaning loin. It was a hip or a loin it's an ancient ancient origin so there are lots of what linguists call cognates so similar words in lots of different languages whether it's russian or slavonic etc and the vikings as well had something quite similar so that's where it goes back to so fairly simple you know simple i suppose if you've got a pain in

your loins but one thing i did discover which i't know, is that the lumbus, meaning loin, might be behind the sensual Brazilian dance, the lambada, because you were loin to loin. There are other theories available, but I quite like the idea of that one. I love it. The lambada, loin to loin. Oh, that's fantastic. I mean, who ever thought that we could get an erotic charge out of Lumbago? I don't know. There you go. Purple is the place to come. Absolutely.

Okay. Next question is from Chris Caprice. Hello, Susie and Giles. I heard today that the expression, can't hold a candle to, fill in the blank, is derived from a status jab reference to Link Boys. Is that true? Purple with patient peak. Chris. Well, what did Chris say?

Purple with. Purple with patient peak. Oh, I love that. That's not Chris Capris. I hope we're pronouncing the name right. I love his accent. Where do you think Chris hails from? There was a slight Canadian burr to it. Canadian or North American? Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm his accent. Where do you think Chris hails from? There was a slight Canadian burr to it.

Canadian or North American? Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But we love it. And it's actually a great question as well. First of all, he talks about link boys here. So have you heard of a link boy? I haven't.

And I think possibly it's safer to say that I haven't. What is a link boy? Okay, so link boys, you'll find reference to them in Samuel Pepys' diary. So you go right back to the 17th century. And you'll see that link boys were boys who were employed to carry a link. And that was a torch made of wax or tallow or pitch that lit the way for passengers. So obviously this was before street lighting. So they would carry a torch and show people wherever they were going.

I assume that you paid them for your destination, a little bit like you might a taxi. The link bit is a slight mystery, but it may be that the material for torches was made in kind of long strings and then divided into links or segments. But that was a link boy. And so it makes sense if you're holding a candle to someone, you were actually looking back to that idea of lighting the way by holding a torch probably a bit more general than that I would say in terms of its origin holding a candle or can't hold a candle to someone Chris because for centuries you know people learn skills and trades through apprenticeships and master workers would employ young men rarely young women women, unfortunately, that showed promise, and they'd let them work as their assistants. I mean, apprentices we still have today.

But in the era before electricity, so these craftsmen who worked at night or in slightly poorly lit areas would need their apprentices to hold a candle or a lamp for them to illuminate their working space. And so to hold a candle for someone was to work under them, probably as an apprentice, but the idea of inferiority came in. And so they became to be people seen as completely, you know, lazy or lacking in potential. So if you can't hold a candle to someone, it means you can't even hold a torch for someone. You're not even fit to hold that subordinate role. And so it really is an insult. It means that, you know, you just basically don't deserve to be here because you are so inferior.

It's lost some of its sting, unfortunately, but it was quite biting at the beginning. I think it has lost its sting because I would have thought that it would be, I mean, I could say, I can't hold a candle to you when it comes to linguistics, Susie. Meaning, truthfully, you know more about this and I can't, I don't shine as bright a light as you do in this field. But you're telling me that in origin, it was much more insulting. Yeah, it was much more about subordination, whereas I think today, as you say, it's much more about praising someone else rather than belittling yourself. But originally, it really was that, yes, you're just so below me that you're not even fit to hold my candle. But I love the idea of link boys.

I've forgotten all about link boys. But as I say, they're in Samuel Pepys's diary because yet again, I have begun this year by reading Samuel Pepys's diary from the beginning to my wife every night. Oh, how lovely. I read out loud. And we've done this over the years. And we never get beyond a few months. So she's heard the same opening, as it were, months, several times. And she always falls asleep.

But I think it's quite a good way to get to sleep. It's fascinating stuff. It's a wonderful world, the world of Samuel Peep. So when we get to the first link boy, I'll be particularly intrigued. And I'll be able to explain to her, she dozes next to me, what a link boy is. Do you think it could possibly be? I see what they do now. As it were, you come out into the street, it's pitch dark because there's no street lighting

and the moon may not be shining that night and you need to go from your part of the city to another part of the city. You need a link boy to light the way. But could it be somebody linking you from one part of the city to another? Yes, absolutely. That's also a very plausible etymology, I think. Well, I wish I could listen in to your Samuel Pepys' readings every night. Well, what I might read to you, because I love diaries of every kind, and I have various favourite diarists who I read. I'm always going back to Virginia Woolf,

who's one of my favourite diarists. But I've recently discovered the diaries of Sir Roy Strong, who is still with us. Brilliant in his 80s now, but famous when he was young for being the director of the National Portrait Gallery and then the Victorian Albert Museum here in London. But he's been keeping a diary all his life. And I love reading. It's a wonderful, before you go to sleep,

the joy of a diary is that usually the extracts are quite short and you can actually take the day you're on and see how somebody else lived that day a few years before. So I recommend diaries as bedtime, bedside reading. Let's take, have we got time for one more before we take our break? One more letter from a purple person? I'm sure we do. And we have another voice note, so this is brilliant. This is from Ian, Ian Armet. Dear Susie and Giles, can I start off with a happy 2022? May this year be even more purple than the last. Another lost in translation, trying to help my Colombian husband navigate the confusing intricacies of the English language. A rather thankless task, if you ask me. I understand how the word season can be used to describe our yearly seasons of weather

and also a set of television episodes. But why is it also used as a verb when cooking and when we say someone is well seasoned have they simply grown better through the passing of time or have they got just the right balance of metaphoric salt and spices to make them perfect forever purple ian armett oh love that ian. Isn't that fascinating? Fascinating question. And I think well-seasoned could be another euphemism for being drunk. Oh, he's well-seasoned. Totally.

What I love, because Ian's saying he was telling his husband or trying to explain something to his husband. Quite often, this is when the best questions come up. I remember Rachel Riley on Countdown saying how Pasha, her husband, had gone out with a shopping list to go and get things. And he'd come back and asked what desiccated coconut was because he'd misread the desiccated coconut. And they had a whole discussion about desiccate versus desiccate. So quite often, as I say, the inspiration for some great discussions. And Ian actually got the answer halfway through his voice note there, because the reason we season food is that it does go back to the idea of fruit particularly ripening and being made more palatable by the influence of the season. So the more the

season goes on, the more the sweeter, I suppose, the fruit or the vegetables become. And so the idea is that when we season food, we are adding flavour in the same way as the seasons add flavour to our food that is growing naturally. Just season itself goes back to a Latin term, which meant sowing. So it was the time of sowing, if you like, which is how the year was demarcated. Lovely. That's a wonderful answer. Thank you. By the way, what is the difference between desiccated and desecrated? To desecrate is to, as it were, ruin, spoil. Yes, to kind of destroy something sacred, really.

Whereas desiccated goes back to, saccaria goes back to the idea of being dry. So desiccated, it means totally shriveled and dried up. So desiccated coconut is the dried form. Good. You see, you get all the answers on Something Rhymes with Purple. There'll be more after the break. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations.

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something that makes me curious. Join me every Wednesday as we set off on a stunning journey of curiosity on a new subject and dive into the archive of more than 370 episodes. Listen to Getting Curious wherever you get your podcasts. We're back and we've got more inquiries from purple people around the world and this week we're hearing them in person. Who's this next one from? This is from Chris Jones and yeah he's got something quite interesting I think for me. Hi Susie and Giles I'm a security guard in a theme park and recently discovered your podcast. I've been listening to them as I patrol the park with my dog and I've now finally worked through all the episodes in order. I love learning about the origin of words and phrases but I'm curious as to what Susie means when she says

the work will go on in terms of the Oxford English Dictionary's attempts to establish the etymology of words that are currently unknown. What is involved in this? Is it almost a chance thing with researchers stumbling over things due to the vast amount of information they read, or do individual researchers have a more targeted approach pulling at threads of words somehow and working back through time how far back can they go thanks very much for all your hard work chris and katie the dog what a question first of all chris what a job a security guard in a theme park can you imagine going around a theme park at night that's the stuff of horror movies well it certainly is the beginning of a hitchcock film i feel don't you chris is going around katie the dog is going

yes with lots of hair standing on the end yeah something sinister comes down the helter skelter anyway but thank you chris and um i just having listened to all of them in order is is a real feat and we really thank you for that and for being such a loyal purple person. So the work will go on. Yes, it's something that I kind of blithely say without explaining it. You're absolutely right. And I often describe those working on the OED as word detectives when it comes to etymology. But I think archaeologists might be in some ways a better description because they are constantly digging for new evidence. And it happens in lots of

different ways. First of all, the OED has thousands of readers right across the world who are given certain texts to go through. And they read those texts and they compare words that they come across with the existing evidence in the OED and check that actually the OED is still giving the earliest record and the correct sense for that particular period in time. So they're doing a sort of constant cross-check, if you like, and looking for what the Oxford English Dictionary and in lexicography is called an anti-dating. So an anti-dating is when you find an earlier date than the one given in the dictionary for a particular word.

And I know recently, Giles, I mentioned to you Plowman's Lunch, which was part of an appeal by the OED because they knew that Plowman's Lunch had been around for quite a few decades, but the earliest record they had was from the 1960s. So they do come up with specific challenges and they send those out to the readers, but there are also readers who are simply looking and hoping for the sort of fortuitous appearance of a word that, you know, might be earlier than one given the dictionary, might have a sort of slightly earlier sense. When it comes to etymology, they also have specific challenges. So if an etymology is given in the dictionary as origin unknown, there is the challenge. They will keep digging away to see if they can

find any more evidence that might explain where a particular word comes from. So it is, I would say it's both prescribed and free flowing. In other words, sometimes it's just chance and good fortune and other times it is the result of a very specific challenge to come to something. And it is the sort of best job in the world really, because you are literally digging around in the linguistic undergrowth and the linguistic underground to try and find something. And it really does give you a buzz when you find an earlier instance of a word, for example, than the one given in the dictionary, because you think, wow, I've just antedated that by 20 years. Another one I remember was a bad hair day. just antedated that by 20 years. Another one I remember was a bad hair day. That was another one that the OED put out as an appeal because they knew that the evidence they had was not the earliest. So that's what I mean by the work goes on. And you should know, Purple People,

that Susie Dent is in close touch with her former colleagues at the Oxford English Dictionary. So if you come up with something that isn't in the dictionary or an earlier date than they give for the use of a particular term or word, you can let us know here at the Purple People and it will be passed on to the right authorities. You could find that the Purple People are making a mark on the dictionary. Isn't that right? Absolutely, yes. That's totally right. It is an entirely democratic thing. And so please, yeah, they were always very, very open to, well, not only new suggestions, but also, you know, the evidence that people have gathered, because in some ways they absolutely rely on that. So thank you. And thanks, Chris. And please give Katie a hug from us. Our next query comes from Adelaide in South Australia. us. Our next query comes from Adelaide in South Australia. Hi Susie and Giles. Recently I was thinking about the word fugitive as I came across it in a scientific context where it there means

a release or irregular emission of a gas or vapour to atmosphere. Surely this has some connection to the meaning of fugitive in the sense of someone on the run or in hiding from the law. I'd love to know about the origin of the word and how it came to mean both things. Cheers, Hannah van Niekerk from Adelaide, South Australia. Oh, I love meeting people called Hannah because Hannah's one of those names that's a palindrome. And I love wordplay. You know, we haven't done an episode recently on wordplay in games.

I think we must do that. Maybe for April Fool's Day. Anyway, that's by the by. What is the answer to this? Tell us all about the word fugitive and its being used in a scientific context. Well, it's really interesting this because I didn't, I'm not a scientist and clearly wasn't paying attention at school because I hadn't really heard of fugitive used in that sense.

But it makes total sense. And they are, Hannah, entirely linked. So we have to go back to Latin, of course. The fugitivus, which then came to us, as Latin often did, via the French fugitif. I can pronounce that one a bit more easily. Ultimately, it is all about fleeing, taking flight, running away. And of course, if you're a fugitive, you are going into exile, you're leaving the country, you're disappearing to avoid the law and escaping

the notice of the authorities. Ancient route, this one, but in science, science obviously if something is fugitive then it is it is fleeting or it is flying away or it is as hannah explains emitting a gas or a vapor into the atmosphere so it is all about flying and you'll find that also in centrifugal the adjective which actually means flying off or coming out from a center and the centrifugal force is one that appears to act on a body that moves in a circular path so it's kind of directed away from the centre around which the body is moving and there also in medicine used to be something called a febrifuge not sure if it's used in modern medicine but that was a medicine that reduces fever so febrifuge in French was driving fever away. So again, the idea of pushing it out and making it fly off and away. This explains something that I pondered all my life.

Well, since I was a little boy, there was a Latin teacher at my prep school called Major Deutsch, who did not approve of the use of the word fart. And he would call the breaking of wind a fugitive. Isn't that intriguing? So this is obviously the same thing. He maybe also knew about science. And so he said that fart was a rude word, that you should call it a fugitive, a fugitive emotion.

I wasn't allowed to use the word fart either. I'm sure we've talked about this. I know I have mentioned recently publicly that fart being one of the first words that I looked up in the dictionary was defined in my concise Oxford dictionary as a minor explosion between the legs. So there you go, that was the official dictionary definition. Fortunately, the next question is about a rather more high-minded word, the word aspire, and this comes from Sally. Dear Susie and Giles,

Sally. Dear Susie and Giles, to aspire to something means to hope to achieve or get something. But aspire also means to breathe in. Are there two separate routes for these two very divergent meanings? Keep up the good work. Sally. So aspire is linked to breathing very, very much because breathing is kind of inspired if you like countless words in English, including inspire, because they all go back to the Latin spirare, to breathe. And if you inspire someone, the idea is that you breathe into their minds and their soul, which I think is lovely and very poetic. The spirit also goes back to spirare, to breathe. The spirit being the breath of God and so of life itself. That's how it was seen originally. And to aspire to someone is to breathe towards it. In other words, you put your efforts towards achieving it, if you like. So it's almost like

we're panting with desire to get there um we have to respire or respiration that's obviously to breathe again and again to perspire is to breathe moisture through the skin per meaning through and i love this one conspire to conspire is to huddle or breathe together, to plot some intrigue. So you can imagine people literally in a huddle, all breathing together and whispering whatever their plot might be. But the best of all of these words for me is one that I frequently tweet, actually, because I always want to bring it back. And that's suspire. And to suspire is to breathe out with a sigh. Gorgeous, isn't it?

I love it. Next question comes from Octavia Pollock. Dear Giles and Susie, I'm proud to be a purple person and only wish I could remember all of Susie's trio for more than a few days. I was at my parents recently with my four-month-old poodle puppy, Tiffin,

whom Giles met at his Petworth talk and their 12-and-a-half-year-old whippet, Eddie, was not impressed by the excitable ball of fluff who wanted to play all the time. Eddie spent most of the time in high dudgeon, which made us wonder why there is no low dudgeon or, indeed, just dudgeon. Can you explain? All best, and thank you for a wonderful show, Octavia. Oh, well, I do now remember this wonderful poodle puppy, Tiffin.

Petworth, for those who are international, is a wonderful town in England, and they have a great literary festival. And I went there last year to talk about my autobiography, Odd Boy Out. Have you been to the Petworth Festival to talk about one of your books? I haven't been to the festival, but when I was little, I used to go to Petworth House all the time and we'd go and have pub lunch in Petworth. It was one of my absolute favourite places. It's a beautiful part of the world. Anyway, what is the answer? Very interesting. High dudgeon, but where is dudgeon? Where is low dudgeon? What's it all about?

Well, we've just spoken to Chris about, you know, the work goes on and i'm afraid the work goes on when it comes to dudgeon because nobody really knows where it comes from it's one of those fossil words ones that really only survive in kind of fixed expressions if you like and remember we've talked about wend wending one's way or the spick in spick and span um baited breath the baited there And dudgeon is another one appearing exclusively in high dudgeon. So high dudgeon is kind of really deep resentment or kind of sullen, sulky anger. But as I say, we don't know where dudgeon itself comes from. It's used in a different sense, you'll find in the dictionary, as a wood that's used for making knife handles. That doesn't

seem to have any connection with the dudgeon as in high dudgeon even though you might think it might be a sort of tool of such of malice or cruelty some people think it goes back to a welsh word meaning resentment but honestly the root is completely unclear and so it is a fossil and it is a really mysterious one at that so i'm really sorry octavia i can't tell you but I love the fact that it survived still um even though we're not completely sure how it got to us but this is exactly what you say the work goes on somebody one day may discover the origin of high dudgeon I mean dudgeon where does it come from oh how fascinating that's brilliant I realize I haven't done any name dropping this week this is my my moment for doing so. I got together before Christmas with Neil Dudgeon.

Do you know who I mean by Neil Dudgeon? No. He's a wonderful actor and he appears as the lead detective in Midsommar Murders. He took over from John Nettles a few years ago. And Midsommar Murders is seen around the world. So purple people may well, if they follow Midsomer Murders, they will know Neil Dudgeon. He is delightful. And I know Neil Dudgeon. So that's as close as I get to a high and mighty Dudgeon. It's Neil. Okay. That's brilliant. A couple more questions. Clive Fillingham has been

in touch from Perth in Western Australia. Hi, Giles and Susie. Loving the podcast from here in Perth in Western Australia. It's refreshing and entertaining. A word popped out at me when I was reading a book the other day, demonstrate. I wondered if demonstrate has anything to do with demons or vice versa. I'm guessing not, but it would be fascinating if they were linked in some way. Many thanks. Clive Fillingham. Not exactly linked to demons, despite the beginning of the word, but close because it's actually linked if you go far back enough to monsters so demonstrate and monster there is a sort of slightly tenuous but there is a shared root there so first of all demonstrate goes back to the latin monstrare to show so when you're

demonstrating something you're showing how it works monster goes back to the idea of an omen, either an evil omen or a divine omen. And it actually doesn't go back to Monstrare, but to a sibling of Monstrare, which is Monere, to warn. So a monster is warning of something. That was the idea, as I say, of a sort of, you know, an omen of some kind, a foreboding of some kind, if you like. And as I say, if you go back far enough, I think you will find a link between Monere to warn, which also gave us money, incidentally, and Monstrare to show. So yes, there is an ancient link there, but not to demons, just to monsters. One last question we've got time for. Is there a word for... Well, this is a question from Colin McKinney. Dear Giles and Susie,

I love something rhymes with purple. My question, is there a word for something being exactly right when it could easily be wrong? For example, when shaking a weak supply of pills from a bottle, exactly seven come out. Colin McKinney, Whanganui, New Zealand. Well, I did a bit of digging for this one, Colin, and it came up trumps when it comes to the OED, although I'm not sure because of our sort of

modern interpretation of the words it's going to work. But I love the fact that there was one in the OED from the 16th century, and that is fool happy. And fool happy is described as or defined as bringing about happy outcome entirely by chance or good luck so in the fairy queen by edmund spencer you'll find his fool happy oversight and then there's a reference in 1918 that says in that event we will be full happy lucky without judgment or pre-vision. So Colin, full happy is what the dictionary would give you. I think, you know, jammy maybe, serendipitous, providential, but I'm sure the purple people can do better, Giles.

I've come up with bingoid, as in bingo. Bingoid. You know, when something works out, you go bingo. So something that's gone right is bingoid. So, oh, boom, oh, bingo so something that's gone right is bingoid so oh boom oh bingoid the oid thing i'm wondering because oid for me even they have sort of android and things that kind of yeah i can see where you're going with that one actually maybe bingo would be better but maybe that's a euphemism bingo oh he's totally bingoed that was colin from wanganui in new zealand asking that is that i hope i pronounced it correctly.

What is amazing is we've had, you know, people from around the world get in touch. And if you have a query for us or a comment, or you've discovered the true origin of a particular word, do please get in touch with us. It's very easy. We're purple at somethingelse.com. Purple at somethingelse.com. Susie, it's time for your trio. Three interesting words that you'd like to, well, you'd like us to know about.

Well, I am often tweeted or contacted about a particular word and whether or not it's ever going to go into the dictionary. And it was a deliberate coinage to describe wandering around without a destination in mind and the word is coddywampling coddywampling i don't know whether it will go in the dictionary certainly quite a few people know it judging by the correspondence that i get but there is a word that kind of already sort of means that in the oed and that's scamander s-c-a-A-M-A-N-D-E-R rather, which means to wander around without a specific purpose in mind. It's slightly meandering, isn't it? Scamander. But I offer that along with coddywampling and people can take their pick. My next one completely describes me over the Christmas bubble period, particularly during that merineum that we often talk about, that sort of slightly

awkward bridge between Christmas and New Year. And that's pigricious, pigricious, which is P-I-G-R-I-T-I-O-U-S. And it just means just a bit slothful and lazy. And my last one, I just love the sound of this because he sounds like he belongs on the stage. Clumperton. A clumperton is an old term for a clown or clodhopper. Oh, I like that. Clumperton. A clown or clodhopper. Incidentally, speaking of clowning and clodhopping on the stage, we do still have a couple live podcast where we're actually going.

It's either to Newcastle or we're going back to the Cadogan Hall in London. So if you want to find out about our live podcasts, you just go Tilted Co, T-I-L-T-E-D, co.com, and you can find out where we're doing our live podcast next. Lovely. Do you have a poem for us? I've got a very short poem today. I've been dipping into a wonderful collection of poems by my friend Pam Ayres, very popular poet in Britain and indeed around the world. And she's done a collection of poems all about animals. And this one is rather sweet. It's simply called Fair Shares. I share my lawn with a couple of moles, share my carrots with a couple of voles share my earth with a worm or nine because the

land is ours not mine ah i love that pam is such an animal lover she's got yes just such integrity i absolutely love her and um she's often she often comes on countdown it's one of my favorites days when she sits next to me in the corner. So thank you for that. And thank you, Pam. And thank you to all the people who wrote in, and especially those who sent in voice notes. I hope that becomes a thing of the future.

But obviously, don't worry. If you don't have the tech to do that, please just keep writing in. It is, as Giles said, purple at somethingelse.com. And Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells with additional production from Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery, Jay Beale, and, well, he came in the end. Oh, yes, the old Clumberton himself. It's Gully!

Yay.