Something Rhymes with Purple - HOT BEEF!

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

This week, join Susie and Gyles as we unravel the lively history behind common exclamations, from the classic ‘phwoar!’ to the newer and expressive ‘oof!’. Uncover the linguistic journey that transforms mere words into powerful expressions, adding a dash of excitement to your language exploration. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Friended: Example: ‘He friended me’. Used as a verb. Seijaku: Finding peace in the midst of chaos. Humgruffin: A savage or terrible person. Gyles' poem this week was 'You're a Big Man, But You're in Bad Shape' by Roger Harvey And the poem read out earlier on in the podcast by Gyles was called 'Poem' by William Carlos Williams: As the cat climbed over the top of the jamcloset first the right forefoot carefully then the hind stepped down into the pit of the empty flowerpot A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience, and the Purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Wow! Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. I'm saying wow because we've decided today that we're going to talk about exclamations. Yes, cries like ooh, ow, ee, hee, ooh, ah, and lots of others. I was brought up on exclamations because in the 1950s, when I was a little boy, on television,

there was a weekly series, a kind of comedy drama, about a schoolboy called Billy Bunter. And Billy Bunter always had lots of cries like, Yaroo! Oh, crikey! I say you chaps! Anyway, this is me. I'm Giles Brandreth, full of exclamations. But your calmer presence is also with us because my co-host on this podcast is, as ever, the great Susie Dent. How are you, Susie? Hello.

Oh, I should have just said meh. Is that an exclamation or is that just a rude remark, M-E-H? I like to think it was an exclamation, really, because it is, as I always say, it's the three-letter equivalent of a shrug, isn't it? It's a verbal shrug. So maybe it's not an exclamation. You're not shouting it out, which is the root of exclaim.

But it is one of those pithy things. Exclamation is a simple word to explain. It is as in exclaiming. It's something you call out loud or it's a kind of instant expression of something. Is it an exclamation? Yes, it is really. I mean, I think May is probably a bit too depressed for an exclamation, isn't it? But I put it in there because it was popularized by The Simpsons. And you know, Giles, if I say the Simpsons, you will know what

other three-letter exclamation I'm thinking of in terms of being... Doe. Exactly. Doe. Well, I'm told that it's not Doe, but Doe. Colin Murray corrected me on this the other day, the presenter of Countdown. So I think it's got a sharp, short finish. But either way, he didn't invent it. So he definitely popularized it. But it actually preceded The Simpsons by quite a few decades. 1945, though, is recorded in the OED, expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out not quite as planned. Take us back to the beginning and the roots of exclamations.

I imagine that they've been part of language since the most primitive times. When do we think that speech was discovered? When do we think that people began not just grunting to one another, but actually exchanging information through language? Is there work done on this do we know oh no absolutely it's i mean the sort of noises of exclamations i think would have been there right from the start inevitably some of the earliest words that are recorded are all to do with you know the basics of life so you've got fire you have food you have words for fear i think for animals i, we're talking about at least 150,000, even 200,000 years ago. And of course, we have engravings everywhere as well and graffiti and things that are the kind of pictorial representation of language. So it probably did begin by people making different sounds, maybe imitating things around them or to convey things. And eventually that was converted into words as we would to convey things. And eventually that was

converted into words as we would know them today. And the word exclamation, is that quite old as well? Exclamation, if you look at its roots, is pretty old, yes, because it's from the Latin X, meaning out, and then clamare, meaning to shout, which is behind proclaim and all sorts of other things as well. Well, I gave you, to begin with, some of the schoolboy exclamations that I gained from reading the works of Frank Richards, the 20th century's most prolific writer. He wrote much of two magazines called Magnet and Gem, Schoolboy Yarns and Schoolgirl Ones as well. But he was mainly known for creating a variety of different schools, including most famously

Grave Rower School, where Billy Bunter and the other boys were pupils, and where there were these great exclamations, all of which now seem terribly dated, like YAROO, which I think is spelt Y-A-R-O-O-O. Yes, I think maybe just O-O, or maybe sometimes it was O-O-H, actually. And I'm pretty sure that that actually did begin. Oh, it's 1909. Yes, one of Billy Bunter's characteristics explanations. And it has got an H at the end of it as it is, you know,

represented in the dictionary. But I think lots of different varieties of those. So Frank Richards created the expression yaroo, did he? Yes. Well done him. Oh, roared Bunter as Ball Strode's heavy boot biffed on him. Ow, yeah, Yaru. That is the very first record that we have.

Excellent. Ow, of course. The cry of pain is an exclamation. Yes, ow and ouch have been around for an extremely long time. Ow probably is as an expression of sharp or sudden pain, early 19th century, I think. Ouch, probably. Look at the timeline for this, but 1838, so quite similar. Yeah, and interestingly, it says in the OED, my Bible,

it says that ouch was also given as a representation of a dog's bark in 1899. Have you ever heard a dog go ouch? I suppose, ow, maybe. Well, I have a friend who decided to name his son after the noise the dog make. And the son's called Ralph. Ralph. You just reminded me of a video that I did see on social media the other day, which was one of those pet cams where people can, I do find this a bit cruel actually, because I'm sure animals are deeply confused by an owner talking to their animal remotely and wondering where on earth this human being is and feeling even more lonely as a result. But anyway, some people swear

by it, but it caught on camera, the dog going up to the piano stool, climbing upon it and bashing out a few tunes, obviously very unmelodious ones, on the piano while howling at the same time on its own. I don't know if that's a howl of pain or a howl of joy, but anyway, it was very strange. So to count as an exclamation for our purposes of our discussion, we're really talking about one word, almost one syllable.

Well, no, not really, actually. No, some of the older ones are, you know, in our swearing episode, we talked about how exclamations were very often euphemisms for taking the Lord's name in vain, which was the real taboo at that time. It wasn't the swear words that we now consider to be the biggest profanities that are associated with bodily functions. that we now consider to be the biggest profanities that are associated with bodily functions. And so you'll find things like, by cock's bones, for example,

which is from the 1300s, or by cock and pie. And cock here is actually a euphemism for God rather than anything else. Although I think Shakespeare enjoyed the punning potential in that one. And another one, damn my diaphragm. Oh, I love that. That's love that 1700s and that's good

you know that has got damn in it because damn for a long time actually was considered rude as in the f word and it was written out as d hyphen hyphen n because again that was the sort of the big no no and why was it a big no no because it is a short version of damnation. Yes, because it's sacrilegious. And when you die, there was the option of heaven or hell. And if you were signing someone to damnation, people already believed in it, that you'd end up down there with the devil in the fiery furnace. Of course. Tarnation, which is one you would associate probably with cowboy movies.

And darn, darn it, those also were euphemisms for God. Then you had things like... Forgive me, forgive me. Darn, how could that also were euphemisms for God. Then you had things like... Forgive me, forgive me. Darn, how could that be a euphemism for God? Darn, well, sorry, used in a sort of profane sense. So profane, if you remember... Oh, darn is instead of damn. Darn is instead of damn, exactly.

Darn it. I'm with you. Yeah, so... Because I can see that, oh, crikey, which was used by the inventor. Oh, crikey, I say you chaps, oh, crikey. That is instead of saying, oh, crikey, which was used by the Abunda. Oh, crikey. I say you chaps. Oh, crikey. That is, instead of saying, oh, crikey. Similarly, cripes, which is from the early 20th century. That's another one.

Actually, Boris Johnson used quite a lot of these, doesn't he? Or have I imagined that? Oh, cripes. He's like, maybe he does. I think he might well have done. God's bodkins. That's a good expression, isn't it? God's bodkins.

God's bodkins. God's bodlikins for God's body. Zunes for God's bodkins. That's a good expression, isn't it? God's bodkins. God's bodkins for God's body. Zunes for God's wounds. Struth for God's truth. Remember all of these? I think we did cover these. Of course, we've touched on all of these. Yeah, we have.

Egad, man. Egad. Egad, sir. Egad is another one. So lots and lots of other ones. But the one that really surprised me in terms of its date, have you heard, you may not have done actually, because I'm not sure you mix in these circles,

but have you heard of squee? S-Q-U-E-E, squee. Have you seen that written down? No, I've not seen squee. Is this to do with people, drug circles? No, no. I'm trying to think of the world I'm not associated with. So it's kind of delight or excitement.

You'll find it on social media. So it's to give a sort of really high-pitched squealing sound, essentially. Squeal. It's like squeal. It's a shortened version of squeal. Yeah. So if you were to meet two people, for example, that you have stand, S-T-A-N-N-E-D. Do you know what I mean by you stand for someone it's like a sort

of being a super fan a stan you might ship two people if you want them to get into a relationship so you might say i don't know i ship cc denton george clooney for example that'd be lovely but stan was inspired by a song by eminem actually and it And to be a stan is to be overzealous and slightly obsessive. So I stan for Katy Perry, someone might say, for example. Inspired by Eminem because he wrote a song in the early 2000s,

might even have been 2000, about an obsessed fan who was called Stan. And so it just come to mean that in the dictionary. I mention that because it's a world that actually is quite full of exclamation and much of our new language, I suppose, is full of them as well because we've only got very short spaces in which to express our emotions. So the kind of really pithy ones and exclamation marks tend to get a good run in.

Well, pithy exclamation certainly worked in the 1920s, 30s and 40s with the advent of comics. Yes. Particularly comics that featured superheroes. Yeah. And indeed, in the 1950s, when I was a little boy, there was a comic called The Eagle. And there were more, which featured a character called Dan Decker. Yes.

And jokier comics like The Dandy and The Beano, where there was a lot of exclamations of different kinds, using, I suppose, the slang of the period, or did they invent words that then came bar to the currency? You get quite a lot of them. Now, I think they were already out there, so things like oo-er or grrr for dogs. So I think they were kind of, you know, they were sort of full of exclamatory noises, really,

that just absolutely suited that medium. You have vroom is another one. You will find sploonge, I seem to remember as well, which is kind of like, you know, explosions, really. So these were all wonderful. And I think they probably were around and then greatly popularized by these comic strips. And then, of course, you had all the ones that went with Batman. Were you a fan of Batman? Not really.

Okay. I mean, I was aware of Batman and Superman and Superwoman. I'm aware of them, but that really wasn't my scene. I was more of a Dandy Beano, Corky the Cat sort of person. Corky the Cat and Beryl the Peril. I think Beryl the peril would have had a few good ones as well so well batman lines you get things like holy nightmare or holy bunions and you know all sorts where does holy mackerel come from a holy mackerel is another one

i don't i think honestly it's just you can put anything in there and the odder and the more surreal the more successful it will be holy mackerel is actually quite a good one isn't it i think i suppose it's got anything to do with eating fish on a friday's friday but you never know holy moly holy moly is another good one now moly here is a euphemism for moses so another religious sidestep if you like and a word like that I do feel I've seen in a comic strip, like phoar, P-H-W-O-A-R, is that how you'd spell it? It is. And this one is first recorded in 1976. And I think this must be a reference to Tony Blackburn. Listen to this. So one of the wonderful things about the Oxford Intersectionary team is that they gather their evidence of language from all sorts of sources, as you know, from scholarly journals, text conversations, tabloid newspapers, broadsheets, you name it. Also, it seems,

from autograph books, because they are quoting an autograph inscription from 1976, which says, from 1976, which says, We love Mr. Blackburn's legs. Four. Cor. Wow. Few. That's hilarious.

So does that mean Tony Blackburn, if it is Tony Blackburn, who's brilliant, does that mean he wrote it himself? I mean, if it's an autograph book, it's not going to be someone saying that about him, will they? I don't know. We need to find out more. But anyway, that's the first record of four.

It's an expression of admiration, is it? It is. It absolutely is. And I quite like it. This is normally applied to women. I like the fact that this is being applied to a man. Absolutely. When it's applied to women,

some women, understandably, don't like it. And I have a story to tell of my friend, a great actress, Dame Eileen Adkins, who once went shopping at Harrods, which is a big department store in Nicebridge. And she went into the store and as she was going into the store, there were some workmen working outside the store. And as she went in, I think there was some wolf whistling. And indeed, one of the people who was doing one of the workmen went, and she went into this shop, not knowing whether to be flattered or rather annoyed by this. And she was in the shop and

she was actually, who do these people think they are doing this to me? Anyway, she came out of the shop and she turned up, she saw this group of men were working and she turned on them and said, now look, it's all very well. You're going for to me and wolf whistling, but I can tell you, you're doing this because you're compens, phoah, to me and wolf whistling, but I can tell you, you're doing this because you're compensating for your tiny little dicks. It was at that moment she realised she'd come out of a different door and was speaking to a group of workmen

who had never seen her before in their lives. Oh, how funny. Police, police. Police, exactly. Now, this will surprise you. Police has actually been around since 1893. And as in P-U-H hyphen L-E-A-Z-E, police. So that was brilliant.

Oof, which I use all the time. I picked this up from my teenager. Oof, that dates back to the 18th century. So actually, these ones that do sound quite modern as opposed to the you know douse my top lights strike me good looking and bust my gizzard which are other ones from centuries past they actually have a bit of history too that's amazing what does oof mean oof oh i do it if someone says oh i was walking out of school today and i tripped up you go oof uh because it's a little bit of,

I suppose, a bit of empathy at their pain, but also an acknowledgement of their mortification. So you don't use it off yourself. You use it in response to somebody else's embarrassment, usually, which is good. This is one for you, though, before we finish. Dash my wig and trouser buttons. I love it. Dash my wig and trouser buttons. Well, that's, I mean, that's damn fine-o as far as I'm concerned. It's brilliant. Oh, that's a brilliant one. Yeah, damn fine-o. That's Victorian for damned if I know, but damn fine-o in one way. Oh, is that what it's for? Yeah. How interesting. I thought it would be

short for damn fine thing, but it's damned if I know. No, damned if I know. What about dog bite my onions? but it's damned if I know. Damned if I know. What about dog bite my onions? Yeah, that's one for the eccentric people amongst us. From 1950s, I have absolutely no idea what inspired it. As I say, the madder, the better it seems to be,

which is brilliant. Let's take a break. Have we had a break yet? No, we haven't had a break yet. You're breaking up. You're breaking down. You're breaking out. But we haven't had a break yet. Douse my top lights, strike me good looking.

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That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. We're back. Hot beef. I love their phrase, but it is an exclamation. What on earth does it mean?

Where does it come from? Well, this is a slightly different one. This is the kind of shout that was intended to rouse other people. So in 17th century London, you might have heard this being relayed literally around the city because it was the hue and cry that was raised by anyone who'd just been mugged or pickpocketed. So if they'd had their wallet stolen, they would cry hot beef, which was rhyming slang for stop thief. And the reason I love it, it is probably down to this that we talk about having a beef with someone today when we have a bit of a grievance.

I learned so much. It's a brilliant story, that one. And people want to learn more. We've had some interesting letters this week, including one from one of our younger listeners, who is Bea. She's 11 years old and she loves learning languages. She loves reading. She loves finding out about interesting words. And I think she's sent us a very intriguing letter. Susie, can you read it to us? I certainly can. It says, I love learning languages, as you say, reading and finding out about these words. My teacher from last year introduced me to your spectacular podcast oh well thank you b she says i was wondering if you could possibly explain the roots of at least one of these words

flocking knocking a hippolyfication ultra crepidarian rogitate and mumpsmas i think these have all been one of my trios in the past she says i know that flocking knocking a hippolyfication means to be of no value or worthless but where does it come from so she does be does know she knows her stuff because she actually has researched or listened to the podcast and um and heard us talking about these words and would love to know where they came from so she's absolutely right about floki noki nihilification and it means the act of estimating something as worthless. And it is essentially all, well, it's taking a lot of words, floccy, noccy, nihilly and pilly, which mean in Latin at a small price or at very little.

And these were all listed in a very well-known rule of the Eton Latin grammar, believe it or not. So it was a joke by public school boys who thought that they would put this together to make one of the longest words in the dictionary. So that's blocky-knocky nihilification. So it's an invented word, deliberately done. It absolutely is, yes. But is ultra-crepititarian, is that a made-up word too? Well, they're all made up, but is that a joke word? They are all made up. Well, this one is a lovely one. And I will often post this one on Twitter. And it means essentially giving opinions on matters that you know very little about.

And it goes back to a very old story involving a cobbler. Do you remember these? A cobbler who was observing a painting by the Greek painter Apelles. And he, first of all, criticized the sandal as it was in the picture, which was fine because that was his speciality. But then he proceeded to criticize the way that the leg was shaped in this painting. And Apelles overheard this and went to him and said in Greek, don't judge beyond the sole, which later on was rendered latin as ne ultra crepidam not beyond the

slipper or the shoe and so it is crept into the language as i say someone who goes beyond their own province and starts to encroach on other people so it's absolutely brilliant and very quickly on one i'll give one more that b mentions and it's a great question rogitate she mentions and rogitate is quite a useful one for all parents, particularly if you're going on a family trip with the children, because it's to ask the same question over and over or to make frequent entreaties. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? That will be an example of rogitating. And that is from Latin, where rogare or rogitare even is to ask frequently.

Regare is to ask, but rogitare or rogitare is to ask insistently over and over. Well, we must salute Bea and her teacher. She mentions in her letter Mr. Callaghan. And apparently together they often discuss the podcast and their favorite new words. And she says, Bea, I think my favorite is probably your episode, Raspis. All the episodes have got fun titles. Every day when I get home from school, I listen to your podcast. I love her.

I live in Munich, but I'm English, Spanish, and Dutch. This means that I love trying to find ways of linking English words to words from other languages, like, and is she right on this, escalator, which I think comes from the word escalar, which sounds like a Spanish word. Believe it or not, I think escalator came before escalate, which is really interesting. Or maybe it's elevator came before elevate, one of those two. It actually goes back to an escalade. And escalade means, and that's from French and from Spanish, the scaling of walls using ladders. So fortified walls, but she's absolutely right. It's linked to escalade, to scale, to climb in the Latin scholar, meaning a ladder. And absolutely, Bea, shout out to your teacher, Mr. nothing in it apart from this salute, as the best letter from an 11-year-old that we have yet received in the four or five years that we've been doing Something Rhymes in the Bubble. So if there are other 11-year-olds out there listening and you

think you could beat B, well, just drop us a line. It's purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com. We've got time for one more, maybe a voice note. Hi, Susie and Giles. The other day I used the phrase, that's not really my jam, to say something wasn't really my thing. And I wondered how this and the many meanings of jam came about. You can also eat jam, musicians jam, be in a jam, or you could jam something in. In fact, you could jam jam into a jam jar while jamming, if that's your jam. So where does this lovely multipurpose word come from? Thank you for a wonderful podcast. It's a joy to listen. From Tracy, a purple person in Melbourne, Australia. Oh, that's a jammy question. We love you, Tracy. Thank you for being that purple person in Melbourne. Oh, I didn't even

think about jammy, actually. That's wonderful. Jammy is another one where it's, I suppose, a bit like gravy. It's just something kind of sweet and nice. Well, I would just say, if you can, find a copy of Jonathan Green's Dictionary of Slang, because he has such a long entry for all the various uses of jam, particularly in slang, because it's particularly in slang that it has flourished. So we've been talking about a preserve called jam since the 18th century. And the reason we call it jam is because it is packed with fruit. And so it comes from the idea of jam meaning to cram or to squeeze something and jammy i think comes from the idea as i say of something sort of sweet and excellent um the original what a traffic jam

is very obvious a log jam was when loggers talked of jams of logs being floated down river so that's another one so we have the idea of a, which other ones have we got mentioned here? We have a jam box, which is a stereotype deck where you might jam, as in perform a bit of a... Have you ever jammed, Giles? Can you describe jamming to me? Jamming session where you improvise in the jazz way. Yeah, you improvise in jazz or blues. Yeah, we get together and we go...

We're jamming. We're jamming. We're jamming. Yes, you are jamming there. And I think, again, the idea is of producing something sweet. Now, why actually mean sort of improvised, I'm not completely sure why it sort of went in that direction. But it's all really about pleasure, about getting advantage. There's lots of things in slang where they talk about hustlers, you know, people who are just on the make,

I suppose, and trying to sort of get jam that way. There's lots of extremely rude applications of jam, which I won't go into. A jam bussy is a police car. Oh, why is a jam bussy a police car jam bussy is a police car jam that must be rhyming slang right i think because jam tart is an attractive woman i'm going to look up the jam bus i'm reading quite a lot here from um from the dictionary of slang from jonathan um you've also got an expression that I really like is, do you want jam on it? In other words, stop complaining and stop being so demanding. And you might also be accused of putting jam on your egg. So wishful thinking, it'll never happen. So Giles, if you keep talking for just a little minute, I'm going to look up why jam butty. What I'm going to do is I'm not

going to keep talking. I'm going to read you a short poem because it contains a word, jam closet. And I'm assuming the jam closet is a cupboard in the kitchen where you keep preserves. The reason is the little poem I'm going to read you is by William Carlos Williams. And the other day on the podcast, we were talking about Susie's book, which contains words that make you happy. It's a brilliant children's book, but it's about happy words. And we agreed, Susie and I, that one of the things in life that makes us happy is our cats. We love our cats. And this is a poem by a great poet, William Carlos Williams, which is simply called Poem. As the cat climbed over the top of the jam closet, first the right forefoot carefully, then the hind stepped down into the pit of the empty flowerpot. And with that little poem, you can literally see the cat climbing about so carefully, can't you? You can, can't you? That is beautiful. I'm lost in the entry for jam,

but I can tell you that probably when you talk about the musical jamming, it goes back to the 19th century use of jam for a crush. Again, the idea of cramming or squeezing together, which then came to meaning a party. So the idea of pleasure, of sweetness, of people getting together and having fun, particularly through music, then grew from that. But I cannot find out why a jambotti was a police car, so I'm going to keep on that one. But I remember the idea of a jam butty. It's a sandwich. It contains jam, isn't it?

Oh, yes. I mean, jam sandwich, it's just so comforting. And I'm afraid, in my view, you have to eat it with white bread, which may not be so good for you. I don't know. But white bread, too much butter, loads of jam. Oh, I love it. Also, one of my favourite jokes from my childhood was one strawberry saying to the other strawberry, if we hadn't been in the same bed together, we'd never have got into this jam. Okay. I absolutely love this. Time now, Susie, yes, for the trio of words. These are three words

that you think are intriguing you'd like to share with us um yes not so much intriguing because i think well intriguing to me but i think that would be more obvious i tend to choose quite obscure words don't i but i have picked out a few from my book which i hope will be interesting if not intriguing so the first is the use of friend as a verb, as in he friended me, which sounds extremely modern. And there are a few social media platforms where you can friend someone and you can unfriend them. But believe it or not, it was Shakespeare who used the word friended to mean make friends with. He verbed it. And we have been doing that ever since. I like the idea of friending someone. It's one of

the examples of verbing that I quite like. The second one, another beautiful untranslatable, Sejaku, S-E-I-J-A-K-U. Now I've mentioned this to you, Giles, I know before, because rather than taking yourself away for recovery and solitude, it is all about finding peace in the midst of chaos. So there may be noise and commotion all around you, but somehow you can just tune out and you can find just the sort of serenity that you need within it, which is quite something. And I mean, I'm not I think you probably have to work at this a little bit. And the third one is humgruffin, not a particularly happy word. It describes something as the opposite of being matutinal, which means happy and cheery in the morning. If you are humgruffin, you're the sort of person that will plodge to the kettle and really doesn't want to speak a word to anybody.

Three good words, followed by one good poem. The other day, I shared a poem with you by Roger Harvey, who is a Newcastle poet. He wrote a wonderful book called Poet on the Road, which was a kind of intimate travelogue of his reading tour across the USA. And I think the poem I'm going to read you must spring from that.

Oh, we're getting another poem. Oh, lovely. I was giving you that cat poem just to pass the time of day because the word jam closet was in it but this is the poem i thought of sharing with people because it's a fun one it's it's basically about an englishman in america and he's meeting an american and well see what you make of it the poem is called called You're a Big Man, But You're in Bad Shape. He hadn't seen Get Carter, didn't know the line,

but my Michael Caine impression went down perfectly. I mimed the glasses. Sure, a man eats well out here, and how's your queen? I told him I hadn't seen Her Majesty recently. Love the tweed, but where's your umbrella?

I said it hadn't been raining when I left. You ever been to Scotland? Aye. Some Scotch folks live in the valley, so far from home. See you at dinner. Two steaks and Caesar salad, ice cream and beers, if a little guy like you can fit round them. I said I'd try and thought, you're a big man, but you're in bad shape. So there you are. That's excellent.

Very beautifully read as well. Well, thank you to everyone who has joined us today for some, well, some more wordy forays as the kind that Giles and I love. And I hope that you have too. Please remember, there is the Purple Plus Club where you can listen ad-free and you will find some bonus episodes on words and language. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production produced by Naya Deo with additional production from Naomi Oikoo,

Anna Newton, Chris Skinner, Jen Mistry, and, well, I mean, honestly, Strike Me Dead, Dog Bite Me Onions, Bust Me Gizzard, Anna Newton Chris Skinner Jen Mystery and well I mean honestly strike me dead dog bite me onions bust me gizzard dash my wig and trouser buttons who is it Susie? oh damn my diaphragm it's Richie

hot beef and I don't mean that in a normal way