Something Rhymes with Purple - Hepeating

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

Recorded live in front of a sell-out crowd at Newcastle’s Northern Stage theatre we’re celebrating International Women’s Day and taking a close look at how the vocabulary we use changes when talking about women as opposed to men.  After delving into some canny Geordie phrases and highlighting the historic work of a local unsung linguistic hero, we discover why some words, such as bubbly and airhead, are only ever used when describing women. And we look at the journeys of words like harlot, buxom, and hussy and how, over the years, their positive origins have been cruelly adapted.  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: Barleyfumble – an old Scots word meaing ‘truce’ Ruelle – the space between the bed and the wall Amplexus – the mating embrace of a frog and a toad 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. Something else. Welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple, live from Newcastle's Northern Stage. This podcast is coming to you from a beautiful theatre,

which was called the Gulbenkian Theatre when I first visited it, but has been redone, refurbished. All the seats are now in purple. We've got a quality crowd, a packed house, totally full, including my sister-in-law, Pat, who lives in Newcastle. You have 25 members of your family here today, is that right? Well, I have Pat and 24 of her friends. And I also have my wife keeping a close eye on me, Susie.

I know, Michelle's here, that's lovely. So Susie Dent is here, and we are in Newcastle. Is this the home of the language called Geordie, or is that the accent, or what is... It's everything. It's everything. What is the origin of the word Geordie, or is that the accent, or what is... It's everything. It's everything. What is the origin of the word Geordie? Do you know? Oh, my goodness. There's so many theories for this. Well, I think our audience might know better than us. But one of the theories is that during the Jacobite Rebellion,

so this is in 1715, when James Stewart wanted to regain the throne, people said that the people of Newcastle supported King George from Hanover. And so they were called Geordies because they were his supporters. That was one idea. But most actually people think that it comes back to a term for coal miners who were called Geordies, perhaps because they used George Stevenson's safety lamp, which was in competition with the Davy lamp.

So it definitely was. Geordies were pitmen at the time. So which line does the audience here prefer? Those who favour the idea of it being to do with the king, King George, say aye. Aye. Those who think it's the pitmen of yore, say aye. Aye. Thank you. No contest.

Will you tell the people at the dictionary how that works? I absolutely will. I'll get them to change it immediately. That's what they say in Geordie land. And are there Geordie words? Is there a Geordie language? Oh yes, I did think long and hard

about trying to do the accent, but I just can't. I'm afraid. But yes, there are just, there's some brilliant ones. How do we, how do we mon, isn't it? How do you say it? How do we mon? How do we? Oh, I love, we've got a whole chorus. This is great. It's like having a Greek chorus here. Hadaway man Hadaway man isn't it how do you say it Hadaway oh I love we've got a whole chorus

it's like it's like having a Greek chorus here do it all do it again again Hadaway man one two three Hadaway man oh but I just love some of the words

like nebby for nosy you haven't told us what the last one meant what does Hadaway man mean oh well that means just you're joking right it's just like oh come on oh really Hadaway man oh? Well, that means just you're joking, right? It's just like, oh, come on. Oh, really? Hadaway Man.

Oh, you're joking. Every time I do it, it's Welsh. I come out as Welsh. I know. And then I get people wanting to cancel me for cultural appropriation. I do apologise. But my wife was born in Swansea, so I feel I'm almost allowed to do that. Okay, Hadaway Man.

Give us another one. I love that. And I also love canny because I think you use canny for, like nice you might call a packet of crisps canny right which is lovely rather than canny as in really clever as we would call it in kind of you know mainstream a tin of crisps would be a canny pringles nice one and what else i've written down some here so clamming clamming for hungry clamming for interesting because that goes back, that's a Germanic word. It's from clemen, which means pinched. You're kind of pinched with hunger.

Looking for your scram. Scram is Icelandic. Now, just hold on a second to that clammy. You're telling me that people in 2022 in Newcastle are using language, as it were, that in its origin, that word clamming, actually goes back a thousand years or more to Germany. It's a German, yeah, for clem, and Clemen, yeah, to pinch. Give me a couple more. The word sluggerbed also came, I think, from Newcastle, which just means really lazy person. Sluggerbed, I'm very familiar with that.

Yeah, are you? Because it's quite Shakespearean, sluggerbed. Sluggerbed, yeah, go on. Which is brilliant. We ought to ask our audience. Yes, shout out a few Geordie phrases and words. Fettle. Who fettled? Find fettle. Love that.

Find fettle. Use this as a verb. I'll fettle that. Use this as a verb. I'll fettle that, meaning I'll deal with that. Love that. Wonderful projection you've got, Madam. It's fantastic.

Have you come with your own microphone? I mean, that's extraordinary. So halfway back. I'll fettle that. You've got to watch out. There's competition in the house. No, I know. There was another one.

Another one somebody offered? Clarty, yes. Clarty. What does clarty mean? Mud. Plodging through the clart. Yes, obviously. Explain that to me.

Clarty. Plodging through the... So clart is mud. And then to plodge is to kind of, you know, trump. Trump. Definitely not trump. Tramp through the mud. To plodge through the clart is mud, and then to plodge is to kind of, you know, trump, trump, definitely not trump, tramp through the mud. To plodge through the clart is to tramp through the mud. Yes, it's just brilliant, plodging through the clart. Well, now, what is our theme going to be for today?

Today, we are going to celebrate, because this is going out on March the 8th. March the 8th, thank you so much. That is my birthday. Aww. the 8th. March the 8th, thank you so much. That is my birthday. Oh. And so this is going out on my birthday. And I happen to know my birthday, the 8th of March, coincides every year with International Women's Day. Women's Day, exactly. And that's what we thought we'd celebrate today. Oh. Sorry about that. Oh, I thought we'd be talking about me. No. Not today. Not today. No, you can talk about us. You, the majority of the world.

Am I right in thinking that about 54% of people are women? Oh, I don't know. Oh, I think so. Okay. Oh, and the number's growing every day, judging from the people I know. Yeah. So well done. Okay.

So that's what we're going to do. Good. Well, take it away. What do you want to say? We are going to talk about the words and the phrases. Can I ask you something first? The origin of the word women. Good. Well, take it away. What do you want to say? We are going to talk about the words and the phrases. Can I ask you something first? The origin of the word women. Women. What is the origin of the word women? I have an awful feeling it's going to come to something like wife man. No. Well, yes, but don't worry. Wife man. So,

a long time ago, the word for a man was aware, w-e-r, and the word for woman was wyf, W-I-F. So when you hear about fishwives, for example, in Chaucer, that actually just meant woman. It didn't mean that she was married. So the wife of Bath was simply a woman of Bath. She wasn't a wife necessarily. And wer for man is as in werwolf. It's a man-wolf. A man-wolf, exactly.

But that wer gradually faded away. And Matt, we're actually going to, let's hold this, because we've got a brilliant letter at the end that asks for something very similar. So let's hold that thought. Do you see, this is quite educational. This is how we got the grant. Those of you who are here, this is worth 15 PCD points.

Personal development. And those of you who are doing GCSE, well done. You're learning a lot from Susie Dent. Go on. Well, I hope so. Before we start and look at how women are represented in English, I'm going to look at one particular woman who really contributed to linguistics,

but I think she's often forgotten, and she's a native of Newcastle. Anne Fisher. Anyone know about Anne Fisher? No. Her name has really been lost. So she was actually born in Cumberland herself, but she married Thomas Slack, who was a publisher and bookseller from Newcastle upon Tyne. This was the kind of 1750s, but she published something, I'm going to read this now, because this is one of the longest book titles I have ever heard of. Okay. It was called A New Grammar, colon, being the most easy guide to speaking and writing the English language properly and correctly. Wonderful.

Yeah. And the reason it was so significant was, first of all, and I'm afraid this does happen quite a lot, her work, which was really, really important and used, basically used examples of poor English as she saw it to teach what might be the right, right way of doing it. So it was quite prescriptivist in a way. It was telling people how language should be used. But she also pointed out that Latin rules from, you know, 18th century Latin grammars and textbooks were useless when it comes to modern language. So she was saying this even in the 18th century. And that, you know, that's fantastic because do you remember when we

all used to get worked up about, well, some of us, the split infinitive, you know, to boldly go, et cetera. That is based on, I think, one, it might even have been an Eton grammar, one grammar from a long time ago. People say, well, it's not great. You know, stylistically, it's quite sort of poor. And that was that. That was all it needed for people to say,

no, yeah, that's a complete no-no. So these arcane rules were quite often made up by one schoolmaster. So you're saying there's no problem with the split infinitive as far as you're concerned? She's so relaxed. She's, and honestly, almost casual with the split infinitive as far as you're concerned. She's so relaxed. She's honestly almost casual with the language. Do you split your infinitives?

Very rarely. Oh, okay. Well, no, I like the idea of rules. I don't know why. I think a lot of people do. I mean, I just feel more comfortable with them. Some things I really do get hot about. I don't like a misplaced apostrophe. Yeah. No, I don feel more comfortable with them. Some things I really do get hot about, you know, under the collar. I don't like a misplaced apostrophe.

Yeah. No, no, I don't. I don't. People, you know, don't realise the value of the colon. I mean, I certainly do see it. But you know what I mean? People don't really. So I quite like words. That's fine.

But you are much more relaxed about them. I am. And you remind me that language is evolving all the time. I know people want firm government when it comes to language. But we should remember Anne Fisher today because she did a lot, and quite often, as I say, her ideas were nicked by other people and used. And actually, there is a word for that which was coined by a woman, I think she was a professor, a couple of years ago now,

and that is he-peating. And he-peating is when a man repeats something that a woman has said five minutes earlier and takes all the credit. Oh, that's wonderful. Yes. Is that a fact, William? People are going to be...

APPLAUSE You see, this is an afternoon where you have takeaways. You come away from this, you'll be using that for years. He-peating. It's much better than mansplaining. I don't really get mansplaining. I mean, I understand mansplaining, but I don't really get the word.

It's quite clumsy, isn't it? I hope you notice there's no manspreading here. No. Otherwise called scrounging, it used to be called. He-peating. He-peating. Yes. So, such a good word.

It is a good word. And is it now in the dictionary? And I didn't coin it. No, it's not in the dictionary yet. Now, how does that word get into the dictionary? We'll all be using it from now on. Well, hopefully we will, yeah. What's the journey go from being a word

that people like you are saying, we're enjoying it? Yeah. What's the trajectory from it being in the air to actually being a recognised word in the Oxford English Dictionary? It has to break free from its mooring. So it went wild on social media for a day or two and

everyone was saying this is absolutely fantastic but then it has to be picked up without reference to its beginnings and the fact that I've said it was coined by means that it's not quite broken free and we're not using it in you know readily understood mainstream English so that's key it has to be used in lots and lots of different places by lots of different people and to last a significant amount of time as well, and then might go in the dictionary. But it's still a word. It doesn't mean it's not legitimate. Yeah, well, I think it's legitimate and deserves to go in the dictionary. Yeah, I agree.

Good. Okay. Words associated with women. What do you mean by that? Okay. So this is a list that I've given Giles here because over the last few years, there's been a bit of an effort to ditch words that we only ever use in association with women. But actually, it's going to take a long time, I think. So, Beyoncé famously spearheaded a campaign to ban bossy because when did you ever hear of a man being called bossy? It's always women. And she said, I'm not bossy, I'm the boss. I thought that was great. And so I put together a list and we don't have to linger over these, but it's just to kind of make you think. So I remember talking to

a group of business people who were non-native speakers of English and just showing them an example from Oxford's databases of the word ambitious essentially and ambitious if you look at the definition in the dictionary it's actually really positive it means you want to go places you are aspiring to be better to progress etc if you look at what goes with ambitious in I mean basically lexicographers have the best gig because what we do is we look at these goes with ambitious, I mean, basically, let's have the basket, because what we do is we look at these huge databases of current language, and it could be tabloid newspapers, it could be text conversations, chatroom conversations, transcriptions of eavesdropping on the streets, scholarly journals, you name it. They're all fed

into these billion-word databases. If you look up ambitious, A, it's normally women who are called ambitious. And it's usually quite negative if you say, oh, she's really ambitious. The idea is that she's not a very nice person with it. Would you get that sense? And actually, etymologically, that's quite interesting because the word goes back to Roman political candidates who would, first of all, wear these glistening white togas to symbolize their integrity white was pure and that's why they were called candidate because the latin candidus means white ladies will know another candidate uh reference there as well candida so those are the candidates

and they would walk around ancient rome um showing they're swishing around in their togas trying to attract votes. And ambire, which gave us ambition, means to walk around and walk about. So it always had an edge, ambition. But I don't know, I think if you were to say he's really ambitious, it has got a slightly different note in my head to she's really ambitious. Is that just, yeah? Yeah, I understand totally. I love ambitious people full stop so that wouldn't apply okay ambition i'm quite comfortable with what about breathless would you say a man was ever breathless oh yes oh okay i don't want to be cancelled so i have to suppress it now when i'm

with you the erotic charge that's in the air. I just know. Breathless. No, I don't think so. But I will tell you one, we were on air, A for ambitious, that came immediately into my mind, which was airhead. Yes. I've heard women described as airheads. I don't think I've ever heard a man described as an airhead. What about bubbly? Bubbly, I think that's quite a nice thing to be bubbly, but I agree. Would you ever say he's very bubbly? He wouldn't say he's very bubbly? Bubbly, I think that's quite a nice thing to be bubbly, but I agree. Would you ever say, he's very bubbly? He wouldn't say, he's very bubbly. Funny enough, when you said the word bubbly, I immediately thought of Barbara Windsor,

who was one of the sharpest cookies I worked with quite a lot. A really marvellous, wonderful person, but as sharp as they come. But she was always described as bubbly, and she did have a bubbly personality too. But you're right, absolutely. So airhead, bubbly, go on. Okay, bubbly. Frigid? Any man ever frigid? No. Oh, you're right. I mean, how interesting. Explain to me what frigid actually means. Well, frigid just means kind of cold, particularly sexually. So it's from frigid just means kind of cold particularly sexually so it's from frigidus meaning that you know gave us frigidaire the fridge that's why there's a d in fridge by the

way there's a d in fridge because of frigidaire because of the very popular american brand frigidaire and so that's why it would be a frig otherwise that's not so good yeah. That's not so good. Hormonal. Yes, you're right. Shrill. Shrill. She's making a point, isn't she, rather effectively. Strident. Strident, you're right. Frumpy.

High maintenance. Never high maintenance. Well, maybe, but, yeah, it's always, oh, she's really high maintenance. Shall all the men in the room get up and leave now? No, we love you. We love you. But it's just quite interesting. You are making the point very effectively.

Sassy. Sassy is from saucy. It's a kind of American riff on saucy. Now, why do you think this has happened? I mean, you make the point brilliantly. I agree. None of these words are words that you associate that normally come together with describing men.

We must on another week, if there is an International Men's Day. Yes, November the 19th, as Richard Herring will tell you, whenever it's International Women's Day on social media, about a million men will say, when's International Men's Day? Well, since International Women's Day is on my birthday, why don't we have International Men's Day on your birthday? It is November the 19th. Oh, see, it is? Oh. So we will, for that, we'll do a programme then.

And for that, I'd like you to look up words that are associated with men that also have a negative connotation. Because I think there may be words about men, like bullying, that are linked with men more than with women. Maybe. I mean, I don't know, but you make the point. What does this tell us? It tells us that, well, it's just, I mean,

language always reflects us, doesn't it? It's a snapshot of where we are and what we're thinking. And if you look at a lot of words that are applied to women, like strumpet or harlot, those were originally applied to men, believe it or not and then they switched because if you look at the sort of slang timelines of words words for women start off being quite innocent quite often and then they really take a downturn so a really good example of this is housewife do you remember we i think we've spoken about this on the pod before so housewife

was the woman of the house so remember the weef being've spoken about this on the pod before. So housewife was the woman of the house. So remember the weef being the woman. So she was the mistress of the house. And it was shortened to hussy, S-U-S-S-Y, which of course became our hussy. So a hussy for a while was simply a housekeeper for a long time. But then, no, she's got to be promiscuous with it. So hussy went one way and housewife went another. And of course, housewife also became a bit of a pejorative for a while too. So they often start off this way. Buxom is another really, really weird one. So a buxom man in the 15th century was simply very obliging and compliant and a good employee. So it goes back to the German big sum, meaning pliant, bendable. But for some reason, being obliging was then attached to women

who were sort of quite curvy and becoming, because it was a good quality for women. And then it became exclusively kind of quite voluptuous. Yeah, the buxom wench. Yeah. Do you ever have voluptuous men? No. Well, you do, but you don't call them that. No. I think it's very intriguing.

Now, this is one of my wife's beefs. You have a male waiter. Do you want me to tell you where beef comes from? I love this one. Yes, carry on. The male waiter is called a waiter. A female waiter is called a waitress. Some female actors like to be called actors. Others think, well, what's wrong with being called an actress? And my wife says, if you're going to change it, why are the women so keen to change to have to change to actor? Why can't the men all agree to be actresses? Why is the female word considered the negative word? They always have been sort of afterthoughts, those suffixes. So if you think about et as in E-T-T-E, it was kind of implying something little. So, a cigarette is a little cigar.

A kitchenette is a little kitchen. A maisonette is a little house. A suffragette is a strong woman. Yeah, well, suffragette actually was used against women. So, it was used by newspapers to kind of demean the people at the beginning. And so, they called themselves suffragists originally. But because that became associated with militancy, they decided, no, we're going to reclaim this

and call ourselves exactly what was used as an insult against us. So, yeah, so they called themselves the suffragists. So the E-double-T-E is a kind of diminutive, so it's a lessening of. Yes. And you're saying the similar sort of thing with the E-double-S, are you? Oh, well, slightly, yeah. Authoress.

Yeah. Poet, poetess. I think that's very much a matter of taste, isn't you? Oh, well, slightly, yeah. Authoress. Yeah. Poet, poetess. I think that's very much a matter of taste, isn't it? Yes, it is. I know a lot of actresses who are senior actresses who've been quite comfortable being actresses and think if it was, you know, good enough for Peggy Ashcroft and Vivian Leigh,

it's certainly good enough for me. My wife's point is, though, if we're going to insist on changing it, why are we having to, as it were, abandon the female version and go to... I take her point, yeah. It's an interesting point, isn't it? I do take her point. I think perhaps it's because linguistically people are trying to be more neutral.

We're tackling gender neutrality, for example, in lots and lots of different ways, and we're struggling with pronouns and things. And language is kind of making an effort to catch up. So it's imperfect, I would say. It's really interesting. Can I tell you where beef comes from? Oh, I want to hear where beef comes from. And then we ought to take a quick break, wouldn't we? I know.

So in 19th century England, Cockney rhyming slang for stop thief, if someone had run away with your fob watch or whatever, was hot beef. So they would cry, hot beef, hot beef, meaning stop that thief. And so beef became a term for a kind of griev, hot beef, meaning stop that thief. And so beef became in turn for a kind of grievance or complaint. Isn't that brilliant? I think a round of applause

for Susie Dent. She's brilliant. We learned so much. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick?

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Why do you want to be comfortable? Julie Bowen. I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to Something Rhymes with Purple, where we are talking about the language relating specifically to women in honor of International Women's Day. The 8th of March. Coincidentally, my birthday. And indeed, there was talk during the commercial break that maybe the thousand people gathered here at Northern Stage

would like to sing a song in recognition of this special occasion. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Giles. Happy birthday to you. Oh, it's lovely. Thank you. Yay! Well, all over the world, we're celebrating my birthday,

but we're also celebrating International Women's Day. Yes, and we've been looking specifically at words just before the break that are applied almost exclusively to women. And I thought I'd also give you some examples of words which began quite neutrally, in fact, quite powerfully when it comes to women, but then which took a bit of a downward turn. And then I'll give you a few notes of optimism at the end if that's all right okay I'm ready for that we always like a bit of optimism at the end okay so I mentioned that harlot for example was once used of men and then it was used of women and I mentioned hussy which went from meaning a housewife to someone who was promiscuous and well well, you can attach all sorts of labels. And this is reflected in lots and lots of other words in English. So take a mistress.

Mistress was the female equivalent of master. So a mistress was a woman with control, with authority. And it came into English with that meaning after 1066 and the Normans. But from about the 17th century, it meant a woman other than a wife with whom a man is in a relationship. So it lost that sense of control altogether. In fact, it was more about giving away control to a man. So that's a fair example of how a lot of these words have gone. Similarly, madam. Okay, so madam, female equivalent of a sir.

We still use it as a term of address, of course. Dear sir or madame, yeah. Yeah, but from the 18th century, these are the dictionary definitions. A conceited or precocious girl or young woman, a hussy, a minx. Minx is another one, isn't it? Alternatively, a kept mistress or prostitute, and then from the late 19th century, the female manager of a brothel. The madame What is the origin of the word madam originally, though? Where does madam come from as a word? So, madam comes from French. Well, of course, they have madame and they have mademoiselle.

And in terms of the French etymology, I think it goes back, and this will make sense in a minute, to the Latin for mother. I think it's rooted in the mater, M-A-T-E-R. Governess, okay, from governess. If you think about a male governor, what control and authority the male governor has. A governess is somebody who quite often was a spinster and who then had to go and work to teach children in house because she wasn't married. So she, again, did not have the control. That's not a stronger one for me because I think the governess

is in control of the children. So she is a female version of a governess. In terms of social status, quite low, I would say. And I mentioned spinster. Okay, so bachelors obviously have all the fun.

You think about all those, you know, gay bachelor in the old sense. And, you know, they have fantastic carefree life. Yes, see. For listeners of the podcast, Giles is making all sorts

of quite lewd I'm not I'm not I was trying to look like a sort of bachelor you know doing a bit of bachelor acting yes okay um but a spinster was someone who had to spin yarn for a living because again she had no husband to rely on. So she was literally a spinner and then a spinster. Bachelor, was it ever applied to women as well as men, a single person? What does bachelor come from? As in the degree, you have become a bachelor of arts, but what is the word bachelor? Well, it's linked to a baccalaureate, actually. And there was a bit, I have to say, it's a bit complicated to go into now, but there was a bit I have to say it's a bit complicated to go into now but there was a bit of a misunderstanding in terms of the Latin words at the beginning but baccalaureate was associated with a laurel wreath that was won at athletic competitions and other competitions

in ancient Rome and ancient Greece so that's the baccalaurulis but also it became a term for a young knight a novice knight so again one who was unattached if you like knight, a novice knight. So again, one who was unattached, if you like, and was a novice and so not mature is the idea. Do you know, to confirm this or not, I was told that in ancient Greece at the original Olympic Games, the athletes didn't wear any clothes. Oh, that's not so much at the Games. Well, maybe they didn't at the Games,

but certainly when they were training, it was all about the body aesthetics. So they would want to show off their rippling muscles. And you remember where muscle comes from? No. One of these things I tell you, Giles. So musculus goes back to the Latin musculus, meaning a little mouse.

Oh, yes, I do remember that. Flex your biceps, it looks like a little mouse running up and down your skin. So musculus meant little mouse. And yes, in ancient Greece, so they would tone, they would work out in the buff, showing all these beautifully, you know. And that's why we get gymnasium, because gymnasium means to exercise naked. Exactly. That's what I was thinking. Gymnasium means exercise naked.

They did this naked dancing. And as Robert Helpman, the great choreographer, observed, not an attractive thing, naked dancing. Because, you know, the trouble with naked dancing is that not everything stops when the music starts. Any more of these words? Tart. Tart. So tart was simply a word of endearment and granted there were some really odd terms of endearment centuries ago. So pig's knee was one of them, which was actually not pig's knee, but a pig's eye. So calling your sweetheart tomorrow, my pig's eye, would have been the ultimate term of endearment. Bully goes back to the Dutch, bulle, I think is how you pronounce it, a lover. And then it was kind of a sort of swaggering lover and then a braggart and then the sort of hector that we think of today.

But yeah, so tart was short for sweetheart really um that's the idea and then it became a woman of immoral character again this is revelatory so a tart is a sweetheart and just to add that note of optimism because i know we need to move on but there are lots of words that are wrapped up in women and quite often it goes back to the idea of a mother so you have metropolis which was the kind of mother city of an urban area so that goes back to the latin martyr even an amateur which is from the latin amare meaning to love because an amateur does something for the love of it rather than for money that goes back to ama meaning a mother in some languages as well. And my favourite, well, matrix is another one. The matrix is from mata as well. But mata, as in M-A-T-T-E-R, the mata, the substance of life,

that goes back to the Latin for mother as well, because everything comes from the mother. I love that. I love that. But I think what's interesting about this, I'm taking all the points you make about the demonisation, the sort of downing of women in the language, but I don't know that the answer is therefore to neutralize the language or neuter it. What we need to do is raise the standing of these words or change the... Well, language is very secular, so some of them may come

back and quite often women do reclaim them, you have to remember, too. Oh, give us an example of that. So things like Jezebel, for example, or bitch, my bitches. Like my daughter will talk about, it's slightly jokingly, but she'll talk about my bitches. Meaning her friends? My girlfriends, yeah. So we are reclaiming things bit by bit, I would say,

but it's quite a long road. Well, that's really very illuminating. How are you celebrating International Women's Day? What does one do? What are the celebrations? Your birthday, I'm going to be coming to your party. You are coming to the party. Cupcakes will be served.

I love a cupcake. What's your favourite cake? Red velvet. Red velvet. Red velvet cupcake, if that's okay. That's okay. That's what I'll be having. Red velvet cupcake for you.

We've done an episode on cakes, haven't we'm sure there are by the way i know people have come to the show today discovering some people are discovering the podcast for the first time there are 150 or so episodes in the back catalog which you can dip into and uh if you are listening to this around the world we have listeners literally all over the world and you would like us the particular themes that you'd like us to explore do drop us a line send us an email it's the address is purple at something else dot com and have people been in touch for this certainly have yes this is one of our favorite bits really of the podcast because we do hear from from you and this is from matilda wittard who has introduced her mum to the podcast and she

has a question which neither of her parents can answer the plural of human is humans however the plural of man and woman is men and women why then is it not human um is the origin of the word human different to man and woman even though they are all obviously interconnected so thank you to matilda and i mentioned earlier i would come back to this because a man was all human beings for a very long time. So a man actually has relatives in German. So if there are any German speakers here, you may say, man macht das und man is das. And that means one does that and one eats that. So one in a completely neutral way, and it's spelled M-A-N. As in mankind. Which means all humanity, doesn't it?

Yes, but in recent decades, women have objected to that mankind because it implies male sort of dominion. At the beginning, it didn't start that way, and neither did women start as a kind of add-on either, etymologically. So man meant all human beings, just as a deer meant all animals. And this is before we began to differentiate different kinds of food. And meat meant all food, do you remember? And green meat with vegetables, which I love. Sometimes being with Susie, it's like being at primary school, because she says occasionally, do you remember? It's just because i'm so conscious the fact that you're probably thinking yeah yeah yeah no i love i can i say i and the truth is

you have to hear things several times yeah just because you know it so well and often you have to tell me four or five times before you get it into my head okay but matilda is absolutely right in that they although ultimately they go back to words meaning similar things, they did come to us from different roots. So human came to us from the Latin homo, H-O-M-O, meaning man or human being. And man comes back to that German, man, der Mann, M-A-N-N. So they came to us by a different route, one through the Romance languages and one through Germanic.

And that is why we have different plural endings, if that makes sense. That's brilliant. Thank you, Matilda, for being in touch. Great name, Matilda, isn't it? Oh, it's brilliant. Who else has been in touch? Well, do you remember in a recent podcast, we had a wonderful email from Trevor Aston. And he asked if there was a moment to describe that very brief silence, that sort of pause after a performance ends and before the applause starts, which is just this sort of silence. That moment.

He wanted a word to describe that moment. He did. And we couldn't find one. I think I came up, there was a word in the OED, but it wasn't particularly exciting. So we put it out to the purple people to see what you could come up with. And we had some fantastic responses. So have you got the favour there i have phil in rushton in north hance has suggested rather a good one

audible awe along the same lines sticky o'hagan from uh wanganui wanganui wanganui yeah new zealand you know they have three official languages in new zealand guess what they are the three official languages in new zealand maori they are, the three official languages in New Zealand. Maori. Correct. English. Correct. The third is an official language now. Anybody got any idea?

Sign language. Sign language. Well done. Sign language has recently become one of the official languages in New Zealand. And we're campaigning for it here too, which is brilliant. Isn't that interesting? Brilliant. Good.

Okay. So Sticky came up with all plaws, applause, A-W-E, all plaws. Very good. El-Elise sent in a couple, the best of which was an inhal-elation. Oh, I like that. So it was breathing in of elation. Oh, I like that. An inhal-elation.

Inhal-elation. Inhal-elation. That's the one I like most. Go on. And John Spurlock from Pennsylvania went down a more classical route with requiet, with a nod to the Latin requiesit, so stillness. Okay, I'll do them one by one, and you give a little cheer to the one you like the most.

Is it audible? Is it applause? Is it requiet? Is it inhalation? Totally objective response there. Inhalation. Because it reminds me of ululate or alulate, which is to howl, isn't it? Alulation. So that is brilliant. And that one came from Ella Lee. So thank you, Ella, for that. And this is the brilliant bit where we get to ask people in the audience for their questions. And we already have one in advance from Glenn and Lucy from Whitley Bay.

Where does the phrase crocodile tears come from? Oh, that's so good. Yeah. Glenn and Lucy from Whitley Bay, are you here still? There they are. Oh, you are still here because sometimes people ask the question in the first half and then bugger off in the end. Well done, Sting. Whitley Bay. Oh, and the lights have come up, so we can see you.

Whitley Bay, I've been there, very beautiful. It's where my grandparents went for holidays. Very nice. So Crocodile Tears, Fake Tears, in other words, goes back to real records from probably about four or five centuries ago noting that crocodiles when they eat their prey they do actually cry and so they thought this was just fake tears in order to kind of lure their prey but actually what uh Scientology not Scientology what scientists think believe is that it's to do with their anatomy, essentially. And when they breathe in, they eat their prey. And then as they are eating, they breathe out and somehow that fills their tear duct. So they are literally crying as they are eating.

But the legend became attached to it that they are crying fake tears in order to seduce their prey and bring them nearer. So that's where that comes from. But it's centuries, centuries old, as so many of the animal idioms are, actually. Any other questions? Yes, any other questions to the audience? Have we got a roving mic? Possibly. And if not, just call it out and I'll repeat it so the microphone picks it up.

Yes, person here. Do you know the origin of the Geordie dish of Stottie cake? The origin of the Geordie dish of Stottie cake. The origin of the Geordie dish of Stottie cake. Stottie cake. Yes, it's a bread roll. So the bread roll for dialectologists or dialecticians is the standard test for how quickly a regional vocabulary changes. And sometimes it's as little as 20 miles.

But there are so many different words for bread rolls up and down the country. So we call them rolls where I come from. are bats they are stotties they are croggies I think balm cakes and lots of different things and I don't actually know where stottie comes from the OED my bible says they don't know where it comes from but I am looking at a bakery site which says and this seems to be corroborated it goes back to a term to stot, which in local Geordie vernacular means to bounce. Is that right? Yeah. So are they very pluffy? Are they very bouncy?

Yeah. There you go. Or a bouncy bun. That's very nice. We like that. Any more questions? We've got a microphone. Yes, there's a question here in maybe the fourth row here,

the person in red. My husband is always quoting Heavens to Betsy. Oh, yes. I wonder where it comes from. Oh, Heavens to Betsy is what the lady's asking. What's the origin of that? Where do you come from, madam? Whitley Bay. Yay!

Why didn't we save ourselves a lot of time and trouble by just going to Whitley Bay? I agree. I agree. Now, I'm just double-checking to see whether, in the sort of few years since I last spoke about this, whether anyone has discovered who Betsy was, and the answer is no. And we have done a whole episode on names, haven't we?

So no-one quite knows who Betsy was. We call these things minced oaths. So things like Gordon Bennett, who actually was a real person, or Jiminy Cricket, which is a euphemism for Jesus Christ, or Jeepers Creepers, likewise Jesus Christ, or Gore Blimey, God blind me. They're minced oaths. And we think Heavens to Betsy was a minced oath.

But I wrote something quite recently for the Radio Times, just a little thing about flipping Ada and flaming Nora. And I got so many letters back from readers saying, I know who Ada was. Apparently, flipping Ada was a musical actor. She did lots of somersaults. So she really did flip. And so they think that's where flipping Ada came from. But no one quite knows about Heaven's Debatsy, I'm afraid. Good. Okay. So in every podcast episode, if you haven't heard, I just choose three words from usually a historical dictionary or an obscure dictionary that I really love.

And they probably won't be of any use whatsoever in daily life, but I just love them because they just tell us something, I think. in daily life, but I just love them because they just tell us something, I think. And what we do in these shows is we ask you to submit your definition, what you think this word means. And my first word, and Giles doesn't know the meanings of any of these, is a barley fumble. So we have had, from Joanne Byrne in Gateshead, someone who's too much to drink and falls over on the way home from the pub uh lindsey dickinson from walls end all sent so there's an alternative expression for looking for a needle in a haystack for example looking for my keys this morning was a ripe barley fumble and this i absolutely love this is from liam who who I think I met. Liam Gordon from Newcastle, who says,

what Theresa May did in her youth. That's very good. A barley fumble. Yes. And you're going to, well, we're going to vote on that? Shall I give you the real definition? Give us the real definition. It's simply an old Scots word for truce.

And that's another one really interesting in dialect, truce, what you used to say when you reached, when you wanted to say peace in a game. I used to say pax because I went to a posh convent. Well, it wasn't very posh, but I went to a convent. What did you used to say if it was like truce? I think I said, oh, I give up. White flag. Or maybe you didn't know you said I surrender.

Okay, so phoenites was another one that people used to say. We say skincheese. Skincheese? Skincheese, okay. Well, that'sainites was another one that people used to say. We say skin cheese. Skin cheese? Skin cheese, okay. Well, that's what it is, Scott's word for a truce, but personally, if I was to be allowed to pick, I like Liam's What Theresa May Did in Her Youth. I think everybody liked that, so we're going to give him the t-shirt.

Well done, Liam. Okay, well done, Liam. Okay. Okay, I can already, yes. This is a Ruelle, R-U-E OK. Go on, Nuala. Yes. This is a Ruel, R-U-E-L-L-E. Now, the first one is just brilliant. This is from Amy, who I also met in the break. This is Ruel, the instant remorse experienced

after picking up a woman's magazine. That's so good. Oh, it's so clever. Claire from Whitley Bay. Yay! Says, Ruel is... Have I got this right? Geordie Law? Ruel. Geordie, Ruel. Ruel.

Ruel. Ah. Ruel. Ruel. I'm so stupid. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. I'm so stupid.

Okay. Ruel. Ruel. Ruel. I ought to explain to people who are listening, when people ask questions in the audience, we, of course, didn't understand them. We had somebody standing nearby holding up a big sign

saying what they were saying. Not at all. You do have a lovely rich burr here, don't you? So, well, gosh, they are genuinely all brilliant. Not at all. You do have a lovely rich burr here, don't you? So, well, gosh, they are genuinely all brilliant. So if you would like to vote on the Instagram most experienced after picking up a woman's magazine. Yeah, that's the one, that's the one. Or Geordie Ruel.

Yeah. Very good. What is the real, I'm going to guess that the real meaning is something to do, it's from the French, Ruel, it's going to be a small road, a little pathway. Yeah, it's actually a really useful word, this one, I think. It's the space between the bed and the wall. Oh.

Wait, because in the nobility, the rouelle was the space where all members of the serving staff would gather in the morning and be given their instructions for the day. So they would all gather and have the sort of meeting by the monarch or the nobleman or woman's bed, and they would be given their orders. That was the Ruel. They would stand in the Ruel. Stand in the Ruel. Anyway. I'm so sorry we are running out of time because you won't be able to hear my story about Max Bygraves and the chamber pot. Oh, next time. Which is my Ruel story, but tune in another week and we'll tell

it i think it's wonderful okay um it is brilliant that that one goes to claire well done claire and this next word is amplexus amplexus and selwyn thompson from killingworth says amplexus is an upmarket in car stereo system as an amp in alexis and effie from whitley bay says Amplexus is an upmarket in-car stereo system. That's an amp in a Lexus. And Effie from Whitley Bay says, Amplexus is being both ample yet flexible. So do you like the upmarket in-car stereo system or being both ample yet flexible? What do you reckon?

Yay, that's the one. Good, Effie, well done. Excellent stuff. I can tell you, Amplexus, you'd never have guessed this. Amplexus is the mating embrace of a frog and a toad. You're joking. No, should you ever need it. The mating...

Embrace of a frog and a toad. Well, if you're writing a... Ogden Nash probably would have found that very useful, people who write... The mating embrace of a frog and a toad is an amplexus. This is why people tune into this podcast. They also, some of them, tune in because I, at the end, always read a little poem, a favorite poem of mine, because I love poetry and I love the way poets just have fun with language. And one of my favorite poets is a friend of mine, Roger McGough, lovely man. And last week, I went to an event where he was celebrating

his new book called Safety in Numbers. Carol Ann Duffy described him as the patron saint of poetry. I'm going to read a short poem about language, really, and it's by Roger McGough. It's called Tensions. Why is the past tense? All that unfinished business and no going back. Why is the present tense? Having to make it all up as it goes along? Why is the future tense? The weight of expectation and time running out. And it has. Yes, because that's the end of our podcast. We've had a wonderful time with you marvelous people here in Newcastle. And thank you for the Whitley Bay congregation coming over. It's been very special.

We love meeting the purple people. We do. And maybe we'll go international. If you're a purple person in Australia or India or North America, we'll come and see you one day. Meanwhile, every Tuesday, there's a new podcast. Yes, and something rhymes with purple. This is something else production.

It was produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells alongside Sam Hodges from Tilted for the live shows. Additional production comes from Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery, Jay Beale and, well, the beardy, weirdy, really. Golly. Twas in a restaurant they met, Romeo and Juliet. He had no money to pay the debt,

so Romeo'd what Juliet.