Something Rhymes with Purple - Glisters

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

It’s time for fake tan, sequins and your dancing shoes today, Purple People because Susie and Gyles are waltzing into the world of Ballroom Dancing…. One, two, three, One, two, three… We’ll be tripping the light fantastic as we explore the Waltz’s scandalous origin, cha-cha-cha-ing into the latin dances where Susie and Gyles prove it takes two to tango as we explore the Paso Doble and Charleston.   Gyles will jitterbug us into the days of his school disco despair whilst Susie shares times of being footloose and fancy free with her favourite dancing memory. If you have a questions about ballroom dancing or anything you would like to share with Susie and Gyles, please email [e-mail]  A Somethin’ Else production.  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple  Susie’s trio:  Grobble - fumble about in the dark with the hand  Sticklebutt - Headlong, with great impetuosity   Grumptious - Feeling a little irritable  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something Rhymes Strictly Come Dancing, which is a very clunky way of saying that Giles and I are going to talk about ballroom today because we are in the UK in Strictly Come Dancing season. It's a hugely popular ballroom dancing competition where celebrities are paired with professional dancers to compete for the glitter ball trophy. And it's fair to say that it absolutely takes the nation by storm, captivates everybody, no matter what age. And it's leading me to the inevitable question after saying hello to Giles, as to whether he's ever been asked to compete. Hi, Giles. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in the world. Thank you for joining us, purple people.

Well, Susie, the answer, the short answer is yes, several times. I thought so. You say, of course, Strictly Come Dancing captures everybody's heart. It doesn't. Millions tune in, millions and millions and millions. It's one of the most watched programmes in the UK. But some people loathe it, can't stand it. The sequins, the phony glitz and glamour.

Some people really hate it. Just bearing that in mind, just to give it some context, I do love it. In fact, this last week, I was a guest on something called Strictly It Takes Two. It's so popular in this country. It's on BBC One. On BBC Two, in the early evening, five nights a week, they have a kind of spin-off show. And I was a guest on that with Ranveer Singh,

who took part last year, and with a friend of mine, the sometime child star, Hayley Mills. Oh, yeah. Yeah, who the older listeners will know immediately who I mean. Hayley Mills was a huge international star in the late 1950s, early 1960s, won an Oscar. Films like Tiger Bay, Whistle Down the Wind, Pollyanna, The Parent Trap. She became huge.

Anyway, she turned up on Strictly It Takes Two. And we were celebrating the show. I have said no to it in the past and would again for the reason of vanity. I couldn't face the humiliation of being the first person out. In my head, I'm Fred Astaire. In fact, I'm Fred Flintstone. I mean, I just can't move my feet. I have no sense of rhythm. I've attempted to dance a couple of times in pantomime. I remember a routine I did in Cinderella with the great Bonnie Lankford, who's a brilliant dancer. The first time we did it, you know, in front of the audience, having rehearsed it for weeks.

She ended up facing front, I was facing back. She thought that was very funny, keep it in. The next night, I couldn't manage to face the wrong way even. I then started facing the right way. Hopeless, hopeless dancer. And the idea of being booted off at the end of the first week is just humiliating. So I'm sparing myself the embarrassment. What about you? Have you been asked? And what have you said? No, I don't think I've ever been asked officially. We have on

Countdown, the show that I work on, we have had a few strictly or members of the strictly professional crew. So we've had the lovely Anton Dubek on, for example, and he kind of asked me whether I would like to go on. And I said, absolutely not. For the reasons that I can only ever dance if it's completely dark and no one can see me or if I'm very drunk. And I don't think either of those would be possible on a Strictly Come Dancing. But the thing that I think would alarm me most of all is just remembering the choreography. I have no idea how people remember how to do these things. But for anyone who has young kids at the moment, they will know that the TikTok dance crazes are equally compulsive for the sort of younger generation. And somehow they managed to get them within three or four watches. And then they just sort of perform these

things, which can actually be quite complicated. I'm absolutely in awe of those. So, yeah, I think we have, in that case, four left feet who won't be going near the Strictly Come Dancing floor. But we wanted to go there today, A, because obviously it's such a big thing in the UK at the moment, but also because we haven't really talked about dances and dance styles and where the names of the dance genres come from. So that's what we thought we would have a look at today. It's a very good subject to touch on. And you said, of course, we're going to go to the ballroom, but also we're going to go to Latin.

Because a lot of the dances that they do on this are Latin American dances. Latin, I think, being short for Latin American. And then maybe some of them have Latin in the language as their roots. You talk about it being a UK phenomenon. And of course, it was based, Strictly Come Dancing, on an earlier program, which was simply called Come Dancing, which I remember from my childhood was much more genteel. And now it's gone global. I mean, I love the show and I love dancing. And I did once go to a fancy dress party dressed as a handbag so that people would dance around me and

they did all right I love that that's fantastic so Susie if we begin in the ballroom the ball the dance ballroom what's the origin of that well some people will tell you that it may be because the sort of early dance floors were quite circular these kind of grand, wonderful rooms. If you look in the OED, it will tell you that it's actually probably from ballet, which was an old French verb meaning to dance, in which case there might there be a sibling with ballad and music, etc. But as we know, balls were incredibly important in the social calendar and still are actually in universities, aren't they, up and down the land. If you go to a ball, it's something very special. Well, let's begin with the ballroom dancing. We can come on to Latin later. Ballroom dancing,

the most famous, the most obvious is the waltz. What is the origin of the word waltz? Yes. So we think of it as being quite stately today, don't we? So it's been around since the late 18th century and it began in Germany and Austria, which is why it's called the waltz, because the word comes from waltz in German, which means to revolve. So anybody who's been to a funfair and goes on the waltzer will know that it will probably make you feel sick because it's spinning around so much. Then its popularity grew into England and North America. But when I say popular, it was quite scandalous because

moralizers really worried about it. It was a bit like the twerking of its day in the 19th century. And the London Times, this is in 1816, commented on the new dance that all the kids were wild about and said that it had previously been confined to prostitutes and adulteresses and blamed its introduction on some worthless and ignorant French dancing master. So dripping with condemnation there. And same in North America. The Southern literary messenger asked, can our beloved wives and daughters, beloved because still uncontaminated by foreign corruptions, can they suffer themselves to be continually whirled about in all the giddy, exciting mazes of the licentious waltz, like so many French or Italian opera girls, without impairing or losing all self-respect? Can I say how completely I understand this?

Yes, I completely, I'm almost sympathetic to it, because until the advent of this kind of one-on-one dancing that the waltz epitomizes, what you had was country dancing, group dancing, team dancing, Scottish dancing, where, as it were, it was a communal activity. People at the ball would line up, all the boys on one side, all the girls on the other, and they would go through a kind of ritual dance where people were dancing as a group. Can you visualize the kind of dancing? I can. Yeah. You know, people still do. It's very popular. Like line dancing or something. Like line dancing or Scottish country dancing. You know, the Gay Gordons, different kinds of Highland dance. And that was a charming communal activity. Then what happened was the advent of this kind of intimate one-on-one dancing and maybe some people took advantage of it people obviously enjoyed the the closer contact one person with another person but it did the the downside of it is that it meant that if you weren't somebody that people wanted to dance with you then suddenly

became a wallflower which is another expression that we i associate with the ballroom somebody who a wallflower is sitting against the wall nobody is going to ask them to dance whereas previously everybody who went to the dance could take part of the dance suddenly uh you know people are paired off so that's my take on it what do you think of that oh that's no that's really take on it. What do you think of that? Oh, that's really interesting. I mean, I find it fascinating what has been considered taboo in centuries past. So tea drinking for a while was considered to be an absolute no-no for the male members of a household. You know, they should not permit the women of the household to drink tea because they thought it was scandal broth. They thought it encouraged gossip and all sorts of sort of swapping of licentious tales. So it's quite extraordinary, isn't it?

That something that today, I mean, I think on Strictly Come Dancing, the Waltz is one of the most stately and sort of elegant dancers. But no, it was seen as being, as you say. Can I salute that phrase, scandal broth? I love it. I'm not going to refer to a cup of tea as a cup of tea ever again. I'm going to say, fancy a little scandal broth with me? Well, it's funny because we now talk about spilling the tea, don't we?

Certainly in the lexicon of drag culture, to spill the tea with a capital T is to exchange gossip. Very good. Okay, well, anything goes, except when you dance the waltz, you've got to get it right. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, twelve. I was never any good at the waltz. And the Viennese waltz,

what's the difference between a waltz and a Viennese waltz? I know they have it on Strictly Come Dancing. They have both of them. What's one and what's the other? I think, I'm not an expert on this, but I think that if you can't do the sort of standard waltz, I think you'd struggle with the Viennese

because it's a quicker version and you spin around a lot more. So there's more waltz and there's more revolutions. Well, let's stick with the ballroom for the moment. Charleston is a ballroom dance? Yes, it is. I love the Charleston. I mean, this is one that if I had to do one dance on Strictly and risk everything, this is the one that I would do. I just think the Charleston. I mean, this is one that if I had to do one dance on Strictly and risk everything,

this is the one that I would do. I just think the Charleston is fantastic. Does Charleston come from the town of Charleston in America? It does, yeah. Capital city of Charleston County in South Carolina. So it's 1923. So it was developed in the 1920s. And it's just got those fabulous sidekicks isn't it from the knee you can see by my ridiculous jazz hands here that I get quite excited by the idea of doing the Charleston I'd have to be very drunk though I think I can see them because we're looking at each other on Zoom

so won't you Charleston with me look I'm actually moving my shoulders now it's working it's working so we've done the charleston what about the cha-cha-cha cha-cha-cha yeah that's kind of you know the timing of the music isn't it and i think it's it represents the sound of the feet when you dance the two consecutive quick steps cha-cha-cha um and you know people will often say cha-cha-cha anyway in time to music won't they so i think it's

all about the sound that one so it's an onomatopoeic word? Onomatopoeic. What does it date back to? The cha-cha-cha is the 1950s. So quite late with that one. The jive? Yeah. So the jive first appears in the 1920s. And again, I think you'd be quite good at a jive personally. But that one has got a slightly sort of interesting history, actually, because jive originally meant sort of chatter. So like jive talk was kind of lively, brisk chatter, but it was also chatter that could be misleading or pretentious. It was just kind of empty in some way. And so the jive as an adjective, it sort of meant not acting correctly, or it could be sort of deceitful in some way. So it had a sort of an interesting history. And then I guess, because if you're trying to deceive somebody, you are talking quite quickly and trying to sort of, you know, pull the wool over their eyes, it came to mean a fast, lively, sort of slightly tricksy jazz or a swing. And it first appeared as the title of a gramophone record by someone called Cow Cow Davenport.

So apologies, any jazz lover might know exactly who that is. And the title was State Street Jive. And when's that? That was in 1928. 1928? Yes. But it became sort of popular in the 1950s. I mean, I think of it as a kind of rock and roll thing going jiving. Okay. Have you ever done the jive? You must have done the jive. Well, I suppose in the 1950s, 1960s, there were school dances,

which I never really enjoyed because of this, this awkward thing of who do you ask to dance with you um you know this is why i favor scottish country dancing because at least it's all organized and everyone can take part no the agony of the school dance yeah standing around the walls my school you know all the boys stood together and all the girls separately stood together and then you nervously went forward and asked someone to dance with you and then you might might be rejected. The whole thing was all ghastly. No, it was awful. And line of boys, one end, line of girls, the other. I mean, there were discos.

Discos for me, school discos. So at least it was quite dark. Horrendous. Looking back. Really, really horrendous. What about the jitterbug? Have you ever done the jitterbug? No, I love the sound of the jitterbug.

It sounds a bit like a Charleston, doesn't it? Is it the same sort of era? Yes, it's kind of, it's performed to kind of swing music, but I think you can improvise massively to the jitterbug, which is why it might suit you or me. It would suit me, it would suit me, because I find it so difficult to remember the rules. The trick is, the reason that these people do it well,

and the younger people, is it gets into their muscle memory more quickly. They repeat a move and a few times it's into their muscle memory. My muscles are so, you know, atrophied that it would take weeks for anything to get into my muscle memory. So the jitterbug would be perfect for me. I could just sort of, I could just jitterbug about. What's the origin of jitterbug?

Well, jitterbug's quite interesting. So jitterbug is quite similar to the blues in one way. And I will explain. So the blues, if you remember, the music and the sort of feelings of melancholy, go back to the idea of being beset by the blue devils. And the blue devils were spirits that were meant to come and torment you, particularly if you were an alcoholic or were coming off alcohol and had the DTs, delirium tremens. And so having the blues was literally to be sort of

jittering and shaking with the DTs. And jitterbug was quite similar. So the first meaning of a jitterbug was simply a jittery or a nervous person. So if you've got an attack of the jitters, really. But also it could be someone who was jittery because of too much alcohol use or was kind of coming off and having the jitters as a side effect of withdrawal. It wasn't applied to dance until the early 1940s. But before then, a jitterbug was a jazz musician or a devotee of jazz. Before then, Jitterbug was a jazz musician or a devotee of jazz. And that was just in the 1930s. The 1940s for the dance, as I say, lots and lots of improvising, few standardised steps perhaps, but otherwise you just went for it.

The Jitterbug, it's my dance. Litterbug is what I hate. I hate a litterbug. Does Jitterbug come before Litterbug? I assume one is a spin-off of the other. Yes. Which came first? Jitterbug almost certainly and uh litterbug quite soon after actually late 1940 so the jitterbug had been

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This is Something Rhymes with Purple. We're on the ballroom. Latin, it's not obviously as in Julius Caesar Latin. I assume Latin dancing is, is it Latin American dancing? What is the origin of the expression? Yes, it refers to absolutely, as you say, Latin American dancing. And it's just simply become shorthand for all those dances that originated in Latin America, which, you know, let's face it, is probably the most productive, I I would say of all the sort of ballroom dances the rumba the samba the cha-cha we've already talked about so it's the rhythm and the style of music that is characteristic of Latin America and the sort of you know the wonderful broad

sort of I don't know spontaneous open to anything attitude that you will find there so it's all encompassing I would say of the spirit of Latin America. Well, tell me about the tango, first of all. Okay, you'd be good at the tango, because for the tango, you have to put on a really mean face, don't you? You have to really enact the narrative. So the tango in the 1890s was a Spanish flamenco dance. And once again, it was seen as being vaguely immoral. So it was cast with the flamenco dance. And once again, it was seen as being vaguely immoral. So it was cast with the flamenco as being quite sort of vulgar, if you like. And then the 1910s, 1920s, it became this ballroom dance, syncopated ballroom dance that has this slow gliding movement broken up by

pointing positions. You can always kind of point your arms, don't you and and just sort of as i say look very intent and quite mean but originally it was um a dance festival of gypsies and i say gypsy now with it with a capital g because it is a distinct ethnic label now and gypsy so-called if you remember because people thought they came from egypt and so were quite exotic which in fact wasn't the case. But so that's the tango. And the Argentine tango is just, or Argentine tango is just, is one of those, which I think is incredibly dramatic. As I say, you have to fulfil this wonderful role. You mentioned flamenco dancing. Flamenco is a place? So the flamenco, I think that's the late 19th century. And that is the, it was kind of Spanish again,

gypsy style of singing or dancing. It was known as the wild Spanish dance. And its flamboyance meant it was named after the flamingo, you know, with this bright scarlet plumage, quite sort of dramatic gestures. So that's where the word comes from flamingo flamenco dancing is because you're looking like a flamingo how wonderful i never knew that you actually look like a flamingo but you are as flamboyant as one certainly and and ablaze with

color what's the difference between a samba and a rumba uh so a samba is um no one quite knows where that one comes from i don't in dance terms this is why i would be absolutely hopeless because i would not be able to tell you what the difference is between a samba and a rumba um i can tell you etymologically speaking we don't know where samba comes from but the rumba is cuban spanish for a kind of party um which you can totally imagine um and again i'm doing my jazz, which you can totally imagine. And again, I'm doing my jazz hands, and you can see how uncoordinated I am here, Giles, because I can't even raise my hands in the correct rhythm. But yeah, samba and rumba. The samba is Brazilian.

I think it was ultimately, actually, of African origin. But I couldn't tell you what the difference in steps is. Are you telling me that nobody quite knows the origin of the word Samba no no um we think it's African in origin but no sadly nobody knows but if as a if there's a purple person out there who does know do let us know I mean feel free to get in touch purple at at somethingelse.com. I mean, have you ever, can you remember a good dance? Have you ever enjoyed a dance? You, Susie Dent.

Can you take me back to a moment when you were happy on the dance floor? Yes, I can. And actually, I was in a department store quite recently, and I heard the song by Cher, Do You Believe in Life After Love? I don't think that's the real title. And it brought me right back to a fantastic wedding that I went to in Copenhagen when I was young, free and single, had a weekend to myself in Copenhagen, stayed in a lovely hotel that was right by the harbour and went to a Danish wedding. And at this wedding, I don't know if this is the

tradition, but the bride and the groom also didn't leave till about six o'clock in the morning. And at this wedding, I don't know if this is the tradition, but the bride and the groom also didn't leave till about six o'clock in the morning. And then we went out for a wedding breakfast. But I remember a real moment of happiness, dancing to that song by Cher and just not having a care in the world. Yes. One of my last memories of being entirely carefree. And as you will know, when you have children, that kind of slightly disappears because there's always something to worry about. But just absolute spontaneity and freedom and that I could do anything I wanted. It was lovely. How about you? If there are people listening, you've just had a significant moment that may

affect your whole life. Susie Dent has revealed the truth that if you have children, the worry never goes away. Nor can I add does the exhaustion. Susie Dent and I, since we had children, and we are, incidentally, we're not married. To each other. To each other. We are not married to each other and never have been. But somebody was interviewing me the other day about this podcast, in fact, about our live tours, the live shows we're doing.

And they said the most frequently asked question when they went to look us up on Google was were were we married? Which was fantastic. It really pleased me. I told my wife this, and she said, oh, I'm very surprised. I thought it would be, is Giles Susie's dad? Thank you very much indeed. There we are. Anyway, I know I am old enough to be your father. OK, enough of this nonsense. I can't remember a magical moment on the dance floor, to be honest. At school, with a girl called Diana, we used to teach ballroom dancing. I don't know why, because I was no good at all at it. But she was very musical.

And that was quite fun. The school dances, I hated. Subsequently, I don't think I've had a special moment on the dance floor ever I just you just reminded me of the absolute horror talking about school discos and things not only with with the sort of you know the kind of lively dances not only were they a nightmare in terms of whether you were going to be asked or whatever but the slow dances at the end absolute worst where you're going to be asked for a slow dance? Yeah, none of that happens anymore, thank God. And the creeping hand. Oh dear. Oh, oh dear. Let's not go there. Also, at my school,

we had things called excuse me's. Do you know about excuse me? And then there was something called a kissing excuse me. And I think the excuse me is you could tap, there was a sort of boy's excuse me, then a girl's excuse me. And if if it was a boys excuse me, a boy could go up to somebody and tap them on the shoulder and get rid of the male and take over. And the girls, it was the reverse. May I cut in? Yes. But then there was something called a kissing excuse me. I don't like to think.

What kind of a school was that where they had a kissing excuse me? Oh, dearie me. Okay, let's move swiftly on to the Pasadoble. Do you know anything about the Pasadoble? Yeah, that just means double step in Spanish because it's very fast paced and apparently often played at ball fights, which is not at all my cup of tea.

But I think, Giles, if you're going to do one, either the Jitterbug or the Tango because I just think you could do that mean, mean look. And what about a spray tan? Would you ever have a spray tan? I would love to have a spray tan. I want all of that. I want all the help I can get. And the sequins, I love the sequins. Oh, sequin. What is the origin of the word sequin? Well, sequin, obviously, they're the small, really shiny discs that you sew on for decoration. But actually, first of all, they meant a very shiny coin because it comes from the Italian zecchino, which in turn goes back to an Arabic word meaning a dye or a sort of mould that was used for producing coins.

So from shiny coins to shiny decorative discs. But yeah, they were Venetian, I think, originally and gold. Well, speaking of all that glitters is not gold. Glitter. Glitter. Where does that come from? The glitter ball we have, things that glitter, glister, glitter, is the same word? Yeah, things have glittered since around the 14th century, I would say.

And it comes from an old Norse, so you would not associate the Vikings with glitter. But this is where it comes from. And they're with glittra, which I think simply meant sort of, you know, glistening or shining. And all that glitters is not gold. That dates back to at least the 13th century. But as you say, Shakespeare uses it as he used it as glisters, doesn't he? All that glisters is not gold. Yeah.

And that's just a variant of the word. And when we talk about something being glitzy, which Strictly Come Dancing definitely was, that was based on glitter, perhaps with a bit of ritzy thrown in. Good. Well, it takes two to tango. Ah, it takes two to tango. These dances have got into the currency of everyday expressions. It takes two to tango. Is it an old expression? Yes. So, takes two to tango means that you haven't achieved this on your own. And quite often, you would say, well, it takes two to tango. In other words, well, they contributed to this, often in a negative way. But that actually originated in a song of exactly that name,

written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning in the 1950s. Takes two to tango. I'd like to trip the light fantastic with you, Susie. It might work. If I dance with you, we'd laugh, and that would be a good thing. Tripping the light fantastic. What's the origin of that expression? Well, that actually goes back to John Milton and a poem he wrote,

and it's come and trip it as you go on the light fantastic toe. And fantastic in this sense means just extremely, well, quite extravagant, so quite sort of fancy, if you like. And to trip is to dance rather than to fall over, as you and I would do. Can you give me that line from Milton again? I'm a great Milton fan. I don't know the line. Come and trip it as you go on the light, fantastic toe.

I love that. That's fantastic. It's cool, isn't it? Yeah. Well, you've made me feel, talking about dancing, quite sort of footloose and fancy free. Ha! Footloose and fancy free. Tell me about that.

Just remind me of that song, footloose. So footloose goes back to the 1650s. So what it actually referred to originally was that of an animal that wasn't shackled, didn't have loggers on them, which were, you know, sort of, I don't know, kind of big blocks of wood that meant they were sort of hobbled or tied up,

so not particularly nice. And then to turn them footloose was to, you know, to liberate them. And so... So these were like slaves. These were people who were compelled to work and they were, or were they prisoners? What was the... Well, it was mostly animals, to be honest. And yeah, rather than people who were shackled, but still pretty horrible. And then the idea of that you were footloose, you were able to do as you pleased because you had been liberated. And Footloose and Fancy Free goes back to the 1870s. And the first record is from a gazette in Arkansas

and it says, Footloose, Fancy Free, but of marriageable age. Bit of a reminder that they better get on with it. Well, of course, that's what these early dances were all about, weren't they? These sort of dances that you have in the balls in novels by Jane Austen. It was a kind of marriage market where the young women and the young men were introduced. So the marriageable age element is quite important. Now, listeners, you're not likely ever to see Susie Dent and Giles Brandreth dancing in public. So I'm sorry about that.

But if you would like to let us know what your favorite dance is, or if you've got any queries about the world of dance, the origins of words in that, or if you want to share with us a happy moment from the dance floor, the time you encountered somebody for the very first time on a dance floor, please do let us know. You can get in touch, purple at somethingelse.com, and it's something without a G, purple at somethingelse.com. It's funny that I'm so inept at dancing when I love watching it. For me, seeing somebody like

Fred Astaire with one of his many dance partners on the silver screen is just to be swept away. And then there was also a team, a family called the Nicholas Brothers, who are amazing tap dancers. To watch old movies from the 1930s and 1940s of these people dancing is magic. And yet I can't do it. Shame. No, it's funny, isn't it? And you often tweet these little wonderful vignettes from Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, etc. And they're really happy-fying, I have to say.

Well, just need to close the curtains, Giles, and give it a practice. And anyone tuning in at this point will wonder what on earth we're talking about. But I, as I say, think you will be excellent at the tango. I'm sticking with that. Shall we have a look at some of the emails that have been sent in by the fabulous purple people? Yes. Who's been in touch this week? We have heard from Lauren in New Zealand, whose mum uses the word chore for a lolly or a sweet, e.g. shall we have a chore?

And she's never been able to figure out where it came from. And Lauren says, we're from New Zealand, so I'm wondering whether it's an obscure British dialect thing from back in the day that's been mixed in with the rest and the origin lost. So, Lauren, you've set me off on a trail here and I haven't reached the end of it because you mentioned a lolly and sweet. I knew that in Australia and New Zealand, what we would call a sweet, you call a lolly. We reserve lolly or lollipop for the things on sticks that you lick. And that's exactly where it comes from, the idea of licking in an old dialect verb.

But I did not know that a chore could be used for this. So I need to enlist the help, Giles, of the purple people, because I've never heard chore used for what the Americans would call a piece of candy and what we would call a sweet. I can tell you about the other chore. So that chore is linked to the word char, meaning a turn of work or an odd job. And of course, we had char ladies, didn't we, once upon a time? If you've got chore from char,

is it possible you could have chaw meaning something to sweet, to, you know, from a mixture of chew and jaw to chaw. Interesting. You know, something to pop in your mouth, something to chew on. It's an old portmanteau. Maybe. I mean, I don't know. I'm just throwing it up as an idea.

Well, we have lots of listeners in New Zealand, and so there may be some professor of etymology there, the Kiwi version of Susie Dent, who could get in touch and give us the answer, purple at somethingelse.com. I want to throw in something here, which is if you say that the door is ajar,

which is a really odd turn of phrase, isn't it? If your door's ajar, it's open. And that actually goes back to a different sense of char. It used to be a char, and a char was a turn. So again, if you think about a char being a turn of work, and that goes back to char, this char meant a turn or a sort of twist of some kind. So the door is sort of slightly turned inwards.

And that in turn is behind Charing or Charing Cross in, because Charing Cross is located at a turn of the river. Wow. When is a door not a door? When it's ajar. When it's ajar. Eleanor Tomlin has been in touch as the penny drops. What is the origin of the saying, when the penny dropped, and variations of it? I heard Salvador Dali would hold a penny over a tray when he went to sleep. He would wake up when the penny dropped and paint in the moment. However, the OED states it comes from slot machines, mechanisms becoming jammed, while Google refers to public toilets requiring a penny payment to use. What are your thoughts? She has more than thoughts, I have to tell you, Eleanor. Susie has facts. Perhaps

your enlightenment will make the penny drop, says Eleanor, a new person. Welcome. Yes, welcome. So you know what I'm going to say, Giles. I'll always side with the OED. And it says quite definitively that it was used in reference to the mechanism of a penny in the slot machine. 1939 and the Daily Mirror is its first record. But what did we used to use the pennies for? What did you get if you put a penny in the slot? Well, you would go to the fun fair and there'd be a whole load of machines

giving you various things. If you were a child, an innocent child like me, you might put your penny in, in the hope of when it clicked, you could pull a little table out and there you get a gobstopper or a sweet or a toy of some kind. Or even you put a penny in the hope of when it clicked, you could pull a little table out, and there you'd get a gobstopper or a sweet or a toy of some kind. Or even you'd put a pen in the slot machine, and then you'd have a chance, 10 seconds,

of working a kind of mechanical grab to attempt to catch a teddy bear. Yes, they never grab anything. And they never seem to grab anything. Or if you were a cheeky person like my father, you'd put the penny in the slot, and it would be a what-the-butler-saw machine. And you'd peer into a screen and there would be a cheeky little film of the lady of the house getting ready for bed.

And you'd be watching. So voyeuristic. Yeah, into her nightie or indeed out of her nightie. So there were all sorts of things that and of course, then the penny dropped. You then saw all this cheeky stuff and you're what the mutt, the saw machine. Yes. So the figurative idea, of course, is that a situation or a statement has finally been understood because the penny has finally dropped into the mechanism and you get what you came

for. And there was mention there as well. I think Eleanor mentioned that Google refers to loo's requiring a penny payment to use. That is where we get to spend a penny from, which is quintessentially British expression of going to the loo, you're spending a penny, because that's exactly what it used to cost. You, in your head, carry the most voluminous vocabulary of any person that I know. Would you share with us now, Susie Dent, three interesting words that you would like us to have as our take-home words this week? Yes. Well, this is not to be confused with my

statement that I can only dance in the dark, but it's kind of got darkness in it, and that's to grobble. And to grobble is old dialect for searching with the hand in any dark place. But by that, I mean your handbag, your pocket, you're just grobbling around looking for, well, usually finding fluff or worse, but actually you're looking for something really important like your train ticket. That's grobbling. It's a useful word to grobble, to fumble about in the dark with your hand. Another one? Now, if you do something sticklebutt in Yorkshire, you certainly used to do it headlong.

So really impetuously or with great impetuosity. And not to be confused with scuttlebutt, which is gossip. This is sticklebutt, headlong. And as I say, just not thinking, just going for it, which I think is what we need to do when it comes to dancing. And my third one is one of a huge lexicon that we have in English dialect for being a bit grumpy, a bit cantankerous, a bit just grumpcious. If you're feeling grumpcious, you are just a little bit irritable and probably irritating as well. Is it like grumpy, but shush at the end grumpy

grumptious grumptious so you've got a touch of the grumps you're grumpy exactly is it the same same origin dialect has loads of those um i can't actually remember i think this is up north where they also have things like carnaptious as well which is brilliant thank you to everyone for listening and please do keep your emails coming and we would love to know more and your experiences of ballroom dancing and of those particular dances that we touched on so please do get in such purple at something else.com something rhymes with purple this is something else production produced by lawrence bassett and harriet wells with additional production from steve ackerman gen mystery jay beal and he well he's here today i know golly grobbling away in the background