Something Rhymes with Purple - kê-tsiap

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

What’s small and red and speaks with a husky voice? A hoarse radish! (groan!) And Purple People, that’s what we have on the table for you today.  We are exploring the condiments box so pull up a chair and get ready for some spicy chat!   We’ll learn how a fishy trade with South East Asia gave us one of our most beloved red accompaniments, before we stop off at Branston Lodge in Burton-upon-Trent to taste one of the most popular pickles around.  Elsewhere, Gyles takes us on a saucy tour of the Houses of Parliament and Susie explains why being 'mustard' is a compliment you should be happy to receive.    We’ll hear from some wonderful Purple People in this week's correspondence and Gyles finds inspiration in the nation's favourite brown sauce for today’s poem.   We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: [e-mail]   We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple   Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus club via Apple Subscription, simply follow this link and enjoy a free 7 day trial: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823   Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:   Äugend and Addend. - In a simple equation, (e.g. 3+4) The first number is the augend and the number that is added to it is the addend.  Amatorculist - Someone who trifles with your emotions and leaves you heartbroken.   Hirquiticke: a horny teenager; "one past fourteene yeeres of age, beginning to bee moved with Venus delight" (Henry Cockeram, An English Dictionary, 1623)   Gyles’ poem was: Mary Wilson - On the Death of Harold Wilson   A Somethin’ Else & 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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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello and welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple, the podcast about words and language. And it's just a general chat between me and my co-presenter, Giles Brandreth, about everything from meeting the queen to what you put on your chips, which is particularly relevant actually to today's subject, Giles. It is. We're on episode 177, which is amazing because we're going to touch on something that I can't believe we haven't touched on before because they are part and parcel of my everyday life. They are the condiments, salt and pepper and everything like that. And I'm very much got them in my head today because I've come to you, Susie, fresh from the This Morning studio. International listeners, I should explain

that one of the things that I do is I pop up on a morning television program in this country called This Morning. And this morning, we were trying out condiment-flavored ice cream. Yes, ice cream that tastes like tomato ketchup, ice cream that tastes like mustard, ice cream that tastes like Worcestershire, or is it Worcester? We'll discuss that later, sauce. It was extraordinary. And with some of it, when we didn't know what it was, we thought, oh, I can't cope. And then we were told, oh, well, actually, it's a Bloody Mary ice cream. Suddenly thought, oh, yes, it's much nicer than I realised. Interesting. What about horseradish? Did you try one of those? There wasn't a horseradish

ice cream. Is that your, I mean, do you love horseradish? I love horseradish. And even though I'm a vegetarian now, but I will have it, you know, I will often have the Sunday roast with everything but the meat and love it, especially with the condiments. Mint sauce, another favourite. And tartar sauce. Oh, yeah. I think you are allowed to eat horseradish, even if you are vegetarian. It's not actually made of horse, is it? No, the horse bit.

Basically, it goes back to the use of horse to mean anything quite large. So a horseradish is a particularly large and strong kind of radish. So nothing to do with anything equine. Very good. Very good. Well, we know that. What's small and red and speaks to the husky voice? A horseradish. Now, no jokes. Let's get down to etymology. If you're new to the podcast, basically what happens is this. I love language. I love words. And I love Susie Dent because she is, in my view, the world's leading lexicographer. She'd dispute that, but she can't dispute the fact that she is a very distinguished lexicographer, has loads of degrees, as well as loads of admirers and also has access

to something called the Oxford English Dictionary, which she always calls the OED. People who've tuned in before and not known what the OED was, it stands for the Oxford English Dictionary. But the version you have it is not one that we can get in a library. It's online, isn't it? Yes, it is online and you can get it in a library because libraries have subscriptions to the OED. So yes, you can access it there. If you're part of an academic institution, you can access it or you can buy a personal subscription. I'm not sure how much that is actually. It might be quite expensive, but I would definitely recommend going down to a local library because I'm pretty positive that they will have it there. And is it a sort of dictionary that is growing day by day? Do they add things to it all the time? They do.

So often because it's a historical dictionary, as you know, Giles, so it starts with the very earliest meaning of a word and the earliest printed record that has been found to date of that meaning. People tend to think it's sort of, you know, located in the past and it won't have the newest terms in it, but that's not true at all. There's a vast team working both on site at Oxford University Press and also around the world. They have readers always looking for what we call anti-datings. So earlier printed records of words that are in the dictionary, and they're

often putting out appeals to ask people, please, can you help, for example, with disco or discotheque? Did it mean a dress first or did it actually mean a music library? That kind of thing. So it's a fascinating piece of ongoing research and actually a huge and really important enterprise. Let us begin at the beginning with condiment then. What is the earliest known use in the English language of the word condiment and where does that word come from? Well, the word itself goes back to the Latin condimentum. So it is actually, you know, pretty old. And obviously we've been having spices and salts and mustards and pickles for a very, very long time.

So condimentum and condierate meant to pickle. So it first came into English around the 14th century, I think. So it's been with us for quite a long time. into English around the 14th century, I think. So it's been with us for quite a long time. So to pickle was salt and pepper, which to me are the fundamental condiments. When I'm sitting at the table and I say, kindly pass me the condiments, I mean, pass me the salt cellar and the pepper pot. But they are not pickled. No, but it can mean a pickle. So for me, a condiment is anything that accompanies a dish. So we've talked about horseradish and tartar sauce and that kind of thing. Those would also count as condiments to me.

And the original Latin word, condimentare or condiment, what was it again? Condire is to pickle and condimentum meant spice. So, okay. So to pickle and to spice, that's where the word comes from. And originally Latin, but it's been used in English since when? Yes. Let me just double check. I think, I think pretty sure it is a late middle English. So this is what I'm doing for the regular purple people, listeners. They will know exactly what this sound means. It's tapping of my keyboard to look in the OED. So yeah, late Middle English, 1400s. And the first record that we have is this condiment is easy and jocund. Yes, that's nice, isn't it?

And jocund means it's fun, doesn't it? Jocund means something jolly and nice. It's lively. It's cheerful. Oh, it's got a mmm and does a little something for your tongue. Yeah. Oh, I want a jockhund condiment. Do you have a favourite condiment? Oh gosh, if I have to have a favourite, what could I not live without?

Well, I don't think this would be my choice now, but when I lived in Germany on my year off, so I was an au pair before I started university and I au paired for a Finnish family in Bonn. I was just living just outside in Bonn by Goldersberg and I really, really miss Branston Pickn by Goldersberg. And I really, really miss Branston pickle. So when my family came to visit, that's what they brought with them at my request. I don't think that would be my choice now, but I do still love a bit of pickle and cheese. How about you? I suppose Marmite doesn't count as a condiment, or perhaps it does.

Not sure. When I'm on my low carb diet and not eating any bread, for breakfast, I tend to have a little bit of cheese. If I can find it, a bit of avocado, some tomatoes, maybe an egg I boiled the night before, half of that. And I spice it up with a spoonful of marmite, which I know is not sold around the world. It's very popular in the UK. And I know they don't have it really in America, except in shops that specialise in selling English things. I also like mustard. I like grainy mustard.

I like German mustard as well. I'm not sure everybody would actually think that it is the sort of the real kind of mustard because it's the sort of thing that you'd have on hot dogs, etc. But I have to say I do love the German Zenf or mustard. It's that kind of, it's not French mustard. It's not bright yellow. It's a sort of sort of darker slightly sludgy brown i'm not selling it very well but it's delicious very mild can we start with the origins of of mustard yes please so it comes from must as it was originally prepared with grape must and grape must is grape juice before or during fermentation. And it essentially was, I think originally probably the idea was something moist. So moisty was probably how it started. And then it was influenced by that idea of must because it was originally prepared with that. So I think moisty and must came together to produce musty. You're putting a funny face there because, of course, moist is the word that most often comes up as people's least liked word in the English language. Yes, moisty is even worse, I have to say. It's not jocund.

It's not. And we have so many expressions to do with mustard. Let's get to those later because there are quite a few condiment-imenty idioms so the moutarde is the french for mustard yes mustard comes from the actual combination of the must and the ard take me through that again yeah moutarde moutarde is just a well it's just it's a suffix in french so we took it over and i think moutarde itself, I don't have my French etymological dictionary open, but that also is related to must, the grape must that was used originally in the making of mustard. So we kind of took the odd bit and then had the sort of mout become must, because as you know, we quite often play around with foreign words to make them more familiar to

us. I start with condiments with salt and pepper, whether they are condiments or not, I call them condiments. Salt, pepper, fundamental. Salt is fundamental. Where does that come from as a word? Yes, well, so much has been said, hasn't it, about the importance of salt in history and in language as well. As I say, we'll come to idioms involving things like this a bit later. But salt itself simply goes back to the Latin because for the Romans, it was particularly useful. But also it's related to the German salt, old Saxon salt. I mean, there's cognates, as we would call them, relatives in every single language. But the

importance of it, as I say, goes back to the Romans. Well, it was at one time a kind of currency, wasn't it? Well, yes. I mean, a lot of debate over whether Roman soldiers really were paid in salt or whether or not they used the money that they were given quite often for their allowance of salt, because it was considered so important, of course. It was prized for its use in the preservation of food long before we got fridges in our kitchens. So a lot of debate over salary and whether that

is actually related to the Latin salus, salt. We think it is, but there are probably a few myths out there as well. And lots of salt appearing in surprising words. Salad, for example, has also got salus, that Latin word behind it, because salad was originally a plate of salted vegetables. Oh. My wife won't eat boiled eggs or tomatoes without a touch of salt. She says tomatoes and eggs require, require salt. I'm very keen on pepper, particularly black pepper from a pepper mill.

Yes. What's the origin of pepper? Lovely word. Yes. Okay. This is a bit of a tongue twister. I'm going to get you to say it. So it's German, P, capital P, F-E-F-F-E-R.

Pfeffer. Pfeffer. Pfeffer, exactly. Pfeffer. Pfeffer, which is brilliant. Our pepper comes from the German pfeffer. It is related to that, but also in classical Latin, it was piper, P-I-P-E-R. But again, given its importance as a spice, less important, I think, in terms of food

preservation, obviously, and things, it has relatives in so many different languages. Why do salt and pepper, salt and vinegar go together? Salt and pepper, I can see. Salt and vinegar, that's become a thing. Potato crisps or chips, as they call them in some countries, they have to have salt and vinegar go together. Salt and pepper, I can see. Salt and vinegar, that's become a thing. Potato crisps or chips, as they call them in some countries, they have to have salt and vinegar. Don't ask me about the culinary coupling, because I actually don't know when they first came together. We'd have to ask a purple chef to tell us why it's such a sort of wonderful marriage. But I can tell you vinegar goes back to the Latin for sour wine,

venum and then acer, meaning sour. So I'm just going to look up and see when the first mention of salt and vinegar as a thing. When I was a child and used to go on holiday to Broadstairs, we would go to the fish and chip shop, which wasn't far from the railway station, away from the pier, and we would get fish and chips with salt and vinegar. And it genuinely was served in a proper newspaper, you know, it was folded newspaper, the fish and the chips. And the salt, there was a big sort of salt shaker that you could shake the salt onto it, and they would splash the vinegar on.

I loved it. No, I love it too. Nowadays, I just have it with the vinegar on i loved it no i love it too nowadays i just have it with the vinegar i have to say because i think i don't i really add salt to stuff now well apparently too much salt is not good for you my wife gets something called low salt yeah which i think is low in sodium and i remember when i used to get crisps in packets in the early days and you opened the packet and there was the salt it was was a little bit of paper, grease-proof paper in which the salt was. That was fun. You can still get those. Oh, can you? Go up and down your supermarket aisle, you'll still find them. Yes. Okay. So the first coupling

that I can find in the Oxford English Dictionary of salt and vinegar is 1914. And believe it or not, it's talking about Japanese food and boiled rice relished with salt and vinegar. Well, there you are. That's interesting. But, you know, I've no idea in terms of, as I say, culinary history, whether in fact they go back as a couple. Well, those who do know, purple people around the world who understand these things, please get in touch. Purple at somethingelse.com is where you write to something else is spelt without a G. Yes.

Mayonnaise, would that count as a, it's certainly a compliment to a food, but is it a compliment? I think so. I mean, I love, I love a good mayonnaise. And I have to say, one shouldn't really be promoting particular brands, but Hellmann's mayonnaise, which you can buy already mixed, is, I love it. And they do Hellmann's Light now, so I don't feel so bad about it. They do vegan mayonnaise as well. So mayonnaise, origin is slightly disputed, I have to say.

So there are two popular theories for this. One is that it was named after Port Mahon on Menorca. So that's the first one because it said that mayonnaise originated from there. And there are indeed some records of it being spelt Mahon-ez. from there. And there are indeed some records of it being spelt Mahonais. Or the other theory is that it's based on Moïonais, which comes from an old French term, Moïeu, M-O-Y-E-U, which meant egg yolk, which of course is fundamental, isn't it, in the making of mayonnaise. So we don't know is the answer. I've always favoured the Port Mahon one and seen it as a toponym. But, you know, who knows what we may find out in the future.

Give me your argument, your reasoning for favouring that, because somebody has to make a decision. Why have you made that decision? Why does that make sense to you? I don't know. Well, maybe because I've been to Menorca and I don't know. There is Bayonets as well, B-A-Y-O-N-N-A-I-S-E, which also meant the same sort of thing. And Bayonne, as you know, is the name of a French town. So it just kind of makes sense as a toponym. But I think most people, including at the OED, say that the lateness of the word in French would argue against Port Mahon because Port Mahon was taken by the French in 1756.

And it didn't appear until a bit later. So who knows? Places do often play a part when it comes to naming a food. I'm thinking of talking about mustard, Dijon mustard, obviously coming from Dijon. Where does ketchup come from? Well, this is a really odd one. Is it American? You would think so, wouldn't you?

Because, yeah, we would always say it. As catsup or something. But what is it? I would say I've got that wrong. Catsup is actually quite relevant to the etymology, but believe it or not, it's Chinese. And it goes back to a word, ketchup. I'm not sure if I pronounced that correctly,

but it means the brine of fish, because that's exactly what ketchup, this sauce, was originally made of fish. Particularly, it was a spicy sauce made with fish brine. And it's believed, it's had quite a lively story actually. It's believed that traders from Vietnam took it to China and on to Southeast Asia and then the British would have encountered it there and then tried to replicate it at home. And it had lots and lots of different ingredients along the way before Heinz, I suppose, got hold of it and made it what it is today. Oh, we're saying that the original ketchup, I mean, now there are all sorts of ketchups, but the original, as it were, is the Heinz tomato ketchup. I don't know. I

imagine the original for us, but obviously it had lots of prototypes along the way because it did come from this fish sauce. Do you know the lovely little poem about ketchup? Of course, it now comes. I mean, I've loved the way ketchup is sold in different. When I was a boy, you would go to a Wimpy bar and there you'd find the tomato ketchup in a tomato. Oh, I loved those.

Do you remember that? I loved those little plastic, just fake tomatoes. And they had mustard also in a kind of yellow, the equivalent looking like, and I love that. But now they sell their ketchup in a plastic bottle that is upside down already and that you squeeze it out, which is not for me satisfactory. And it being upside down is confusing. I loved the old fashioned glass ketchup bottle. Oh, and you can still get those too. Oh, can you? Yes, you can. Because I can then revive my favourite poem written in the 1960s. It goes like this.

Shake and shake the ketchup bottle. None'll come. And then a lot'll. I like this one too. While you were doing your poem, Giles, I have been doing a little bit of investigation. And I can tell you that there was, in fact, your poem, Giles. I have been doing a little bit of investigation and I can tell you that there was in fact a commemorative Prince of Wales ketchup made from elderberries and anchovies, obviously

not the current Prince of Wales. Jane Austen liked mushroom ketchup. And in 1812, the first recipe for tomato-based ketchup came about. And that was from a Philadelphia scientist who's credited with developing it. And he wrote that the choicest ketchup came from love apples. Do you remember? That's what tomatoes were called because originally they were thought to be aphrodisiacs. Les pommes d'amour. Yes, exactly. So the word ketchup, which I assumed was a late Victorian, earlier 20th century word, is at least 200 years old or more.

Oh, yes. I mean, we're looking back really to imperial China. So it is incredible. And apparently as far back as 300 BC, you will find texts talking about pastes that obviously weren't ketchup as we would know it today remotely, but they were made from fish entrails and soybeans and that kind of thing. it today remotely, but they were made from fish entrails and soybeans and that kind of thing. So those pastes eventually became the fish sauce that the Chinese so loved that British traders developed a taste for, and then eventually the tomato version that we enjoyed today. From fish sauce, we're going to go to HP sauce, but to get ourselves ready for that,

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Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit rogers.com for details. We got you. Rogers. This is Something Rhymes with Purple, where we're having fun in the world of condiments. And we're talking about our favorite sauces and pickles and ketchups.

And we were talking about how old the idea of a ketchup is going back to imperial China hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And I said we talk about HP sauce as well. Can we do that? Do you know all about HP sauce? I'm an authority on this subject. Okay, tell me, because I know it stands for the Houses of Parliament. That's as much as I know. For those who are not British, HP sauce has been around for a long time since the end of the Victorian era. And it has been and continues to be a very popular brown sauce that people use in the way that some people use tomato ketchup. They put it on almost anything. And indeed, I think there is now an HP sauce ice cream. I'm not sure I'd go for that.

It's called HP sauce because on the the label there is a picture of the houses of parliament and that's how it's been marketed since it was invented in 18 it was first put on the market in 1895 as hp source the houses of parliament source it was invented by someone called frederick gibson garten he came from nottingham and he called it hp source apparently after hearing that they'd begun serving it in the Houses of Parliament, a brown sauce like it. So he made many other similar products, including Daddy's brown sauce. I was going to say, isn't it called OK sauce as well? Or is it OK Daddy's? Yeah, no, there are variations on it. HP and Daddy's are still the

two biggest sellers of this kind of brown sauce in the UK. We'd love to know from other people in other parts of the world what your brown sauce is called there. And it became, when I was young, one of the first British prime ministers I was lucky enough to get to know was Harold Wilson. This is before your time, but he was prime minister in the 1960s. He was Labour prime minister. was prime minister in the 1960s. He was Labour prime minister. The Conservatives had been in for a long time under first Winston Churchill, then Anthony Eden, then Harold Macmillan, then Sir Alec Douglas Hume. And after about 13, 14 years, in came this new Labour prime minister called Harold Wilson, riding on the white heat of the technological revolution. And he was a man of the people who wore famous Gannocks raincoats, smoked a pipe.

I think privately preferred a cigarette or a cigar. But anyway, in public, he smoked a pipe and he loved HP sauce and was often photographed having his egg and bacon with some HP sauce

or his chips and chop with HP sauce. And it got the name, the nickname, Wilson's Gravy in the 1960s because there was an article in the Sunday Times which quoted his wife, Mary, saying, if Harold has a fault, it's that he will drown everything with HP sauce. That's incredible. And they still, I mean, I was a member of parliament in the 1990s.

And certainly then HP sauce was, I was going to say, freely available. It wasn't freely available, but I think it was subsidised. So we got HP Sauce in those days. I have to ask you, though, if you have some veggie sausages, Giles, and some mash, which would you go for? Ketchup, brown sauce, or neither? I would go for Branston pickle. Oh, with sausages? With sausages, yes.

Gosh, that's a new one. More with the mashed potato. Can I tell you, the combination of Branston pickle and sausage. I cut a little bit of sausage and a little bit of mashed, but there's nothing nicer in the world than over-buttery mashed potato. And to add a little piquancy and edge to it, Branson pickle. That's what I would choose.

I would go with mustard and brown sauce. Oh, well, it takes all sorts. If that's what you serve me when I come round, I'll not complain. Good. Okay. I love veggie sausages. I want to ask you about Worcestershire sauce as well.

Well, before we do that, we've touched on pickle. Yes. Because Branson pickle. We, we've touched on pickle. Yes. Because Branston pickle. We don't know where pickle actually comes from. That's the first thing. I think it might have something to do with picking in an old sense of pricking or piercing. But the first use of pickle as a noun is from 1440 as a spicy sauce served with meat.

Branston. Nothing to do with Richard Branston. It isn't a virgin pickle, is it? No, Branston. I assume it's an acronym. Yeah. There must have been a Mr. Branston or Mrs. Branston once who pickled them and marketed. Do we know?

Can you look that up instantly? I can look it up. Okay. Tell me. Apparently, in 1922, Branston Pickle was developed at a place called Branston Lodge in Burton-on-Trent. And its attributed inventors are Miss Evelyn and Miss Irmentrude Graham and their mum. Oh, I love it. They don't get the credit they deserve.

No. That's fantastic. So it's a place name, which you mentioned Worcestershire sauce, and that also is a place. And there is controversy over Worcestershire sauce, whether it should be Worcestershire sauce or Worcestershire sauce. Yes. Because I'm old-fashioned and a traditionalist, I think correctly it's Worcestershire sauce. That's what I say. It's abbreviated to Worcestershire sauce. I agree.

I mean, it's a condiment originally created in the city of Worcester, which is in Worcestershire. And it came about, I think, in Victorian times. The creators were pharmacists, John Wheelie Lee and William Henry Perrins. So that's why people, one of the most famous brands to this day still is Lee and Perrins Worcestershire sauce. And it's been a generic term, I think, since 1876, which there was an, I mean, this is of interest to me because, as I think maybe you know, my son is an intellectual property lawyer. I'm fascinated by all this sort of thing. And there was a very famous case in the 1870s. It got to the High Court in the UK, where the judges ruled that Lee and Perrins did not own the trademark for the name

Worcestershire. So though they created the original Worcestershire sauce, other people can have, you know, do things created in Worcestershire. Lee and Perrins is theirs, Lee and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, but you could have your own Worcestershire sauce that isn't Lee and Perrins. So there you go. Okay, that's interesting. Do you remember, we talked about this when we were, I think, talking about the history of various food items. And we talked about how the first recipe, or at least the first product of that recipe that you talked about that the local chemist, Mr. Lee and Mr. Perrins, took from apparently a British nobleman who'd sampled some delicious sauce in India. Apparently that concoction had a really disastrous taste initially and everybody hated it. So they bunged it in the cellar. And then three years later, someone came across it and decided to

taste it. And it was salted anchovies, garlic, cloves, tamarind, onions, and chilies, and a few extras that have remained secret to this day and apparently it tasted delicious and so they had accidentally done what the indian chefs had failed to mention on the recipe which was to leave the mixture to mature or mellow one of the two speaking of indian recipes india is where we get the word chutney from isn't it yes it's chutney and a word from an indian language uh chutney is and i do have say, I do love chutneys as well. Yes, it comes from the Hindi chutney. So it's a really strong, hot relish,

at least it originally was. And you've got fruit and herbs and flavoured with chillies and spices, etc. Wonderful. Now, look, there are lots of phrases. I mean, they're fundamental to us, condiments. Yeah. But there are lots of phrases

that we brought them into the language. Keen as mustard. Cutting the mustard. I mean, where do those two come from? How does that happen? Yes. Cutting the mustard sounds very odd, doesn't it? It simply goes back to the use of mustard to mean something that was hot. And so much as slang would have it these days was really, really good. So something mustard was slang for cool, great, sassy. Sassy also comes from saucy and in turn comes from salt. Again, goes back to that same Latin word because the original sources were very salty. So mustard was an adjective of approval. And if something cuts the mustard, it's the same as saying it's kind of up to them. It's a bit like saying up to snuff,

really. It means it cuts it. You know how you might say someone cuts a fine figure or they've really made it? It's used in that sense. So nothing to do with actually physically slicing through some frozen mustard or similar. Somebody who cuts the mustard would definitely be sitting above the salt rather than below the salt. What's that phrase about, above the salt, below the salt? Yeah, it was all to do with class separations at dinner parties. And essentially, the favoured guests were sat nearest the hosts at any grand banquet. And the salt would be placed almost as a kind of demarcation on the table so those who were kind of at the... I mean, I don't think it was literally used as a code in that way,

but those who were furthest away from the hosts were also furthest away from the salt. And so they were below the salt. They were not quite so worthy or noble. There's so many phrases involving salt. Take something with a pinch of salt. I mean, we know what it means, but how does it come to mean that? Yeah, that's one of my favourite etymologies. And it goes back to a story that was written up by Pliny the Elder, the historian from centuries ago, who said that there was a king, he was called King Mithridates. It might have been the fifth, I'm not sure. Hang on, let me just look that up. I can't remember whether he was the fourth or the fifth. This is why people tune into the podcast to discover whether it's Mithridates the fourth or the fifth. I prefer preferred V. His father was a bit of a bore. I'm going to take this with a pinch of salt. The VI.

It was the VI. Oh, Mithridates VI. What period would this be? Well, it was written up in AD 77. So the story goes that the king had built up his immunity to poison by regularly swallowing small doses of different poisons. And he would take lots of different poisons with walnuts and figs all ground together, and then he would add a grain of salt to make the mixture more palatable and easier to swallow.

So if you say today, oh, I'll take that with a pinch of salt, you mean, oh, I need something to help that go down because it's really unbelievable. It's great that, isn't it? So this is literally, I mean, about 2,000 years ago. A long, long time ago. Whether or not this is true, we don't know. But as I say, it was recorded in a history book. And so it's from there that the idiom crept into our language. Salt of the earth. Why is somebody the salt of the earth? Yes. So that's a biblical phrase, isn't it? The salt of the earth. Why is somebody the salt of the earth? Yes, so that's a biblical phrase, isn't it? The salt of the earth. How well do you know your Bible? Well, I used to know it

quite well. I feel I did when I was a child. I went to church several times a week and I loved listening to the Bible, the King James Version particularly. Where does the phrase salt of the earth, where is that first used? So, salt of the earth is from Matthew 5, 13. It's used in allusion to that your old man was the salt of the earth. So somebody who is reliable, strong, and honest. I've got the original, well, I say the original, the King James version, which for me is the beautiful English. Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Well, there you go. Extended metaphor, that one. Yeah, I like that one. Well, as we can see, there are so many

idiomatic uses of spices and condiments that arguably have been much, much more important to life than we would consider them today. Today, we consider them to be delicious add-ons, but actually they were very fundamental to life, especially salt. And if you have anything to add, please do get in touch. We would absolutely love to hear from you. Purple at somethingelse.com. I think we've got a bit of correspondence to cover, Giles. We definitely have. And if you don't get in touch touch we'll feel you're rubbing salt into the wound and i think the origin of that is very obvious because it just must be so painful yes you think it'd be quite healing though oh it's good for you is it well i know that if i have something in my eye if one of my kids has something in their eye if you prepare a saline

solution let it cool down and then wash your eye out with it. It can be incredibly soothing, yeah. Okay, but whatever you do, don't try putting a pinch of your salt in your eye and blaming us. Correspondence, who have we heard from this week? We have heard from Elgin Sayer, who has written in to say that he's noticed his niece,

who's 12 and lives in London, say, sorry, I did it on accident instead of by accident it's very confusing says Elgin as it makes no sense to me and seems to majorly distress her grandmother I've not heard on accident before and was curious if you know where it comes from have you heard that Charles no but I can believe it do you know what I think it's because we are older as is Elgin by the sounds of it, and much older than his niece, who's only 12, because on accident is becoming increasingly common amongst younger generations.

And what they're doing is they are riffing off on purpose. So you do something on purpose or you do it on accident. So the correct version at the moment is definitely by accident. That is the standard form. That's what you will find in dictionaries. So Elgin and his wife are spot on there, but we'll have to wait and see whether on accident actually makes inroads. So many of these mistakes, and I use quote marks there, progress and become the right versions. So two siblings, one says you broke that toy on purpose. The other replies, no, I didn't. It was on accident. That explains it. Yes, exactly. How intriguing. Well, it makes

sense there. It does. It absolutely does. Well, our next piece of correspondence is from Caroline Westbrook, who's in South London. Hi, Giles and Susie. I was cleaning my kitchen the other day. I wondered why we brush with a brush and we mop with a mop and we vacuum with a vacuum cleaner, but we sweep with a broom. Why is the same word used for the noun and verb in the other instances and not in that one? Hoping you can clean this up for me. Many thanks. Oh, broom, broom. Why don't we broom with a broom? Brilliant question, Caroline. Thank you so much for being in touch. Do you have an answer to that? Well, yes, I can simply say, and it kind of confirms what I often say to countdown contestants when they come up with something and it's not in

the dictionary, I'll say to them, well, I bet it was in the historical dictionary. And that is true with broom as a verb as well, because we did want to broom the floor very simply instead of sweeping it. But then sweeping became the term of choice to clear something away with a broom or a brush. But you know what? That too has been around since the 14th century. So sweep is actually older than broom. And broom had about three centuries of use as a verb before sweep eventually took over. Why that happens, Caroline, I have absolutely no idea. It is all down to democratic choice. I can't give you an answer as to why it took priority, and I wish I did, but we unfortunately can't penetrate the minds of those living in the Middle Ages, but that is what happened. But she's got a very penetrating mind nonetheless.

If you want to get access to the brilliant brain of Susie Dent, do drop us a line. It's purple at something else dot com. You every week come up with three words for us that are unusual, but are real words. What have you come up with this week? Yes. One day I am very tempted to come up with three that I've entirely made up to see whether anyone can spot them because enough people say to me on Twitter, I don't know if you've ever wondered what are each of those two respective quantities called? What's the five called and what's the six? If you haven't, you can turn away now or turn off. But if you have wondered, the first number is the orgend, A-U-G-E-N-D, and the number that is added to it is the addend.

Ooh, I might've got addend because it sounds like something that's being added, as in addendum. The orgend and the addend. How intriguing. Orgend goes back to the idea of something being increased. So augerate and latter meant to be increased. So that's your kind of base sum that's going to be increased by the addition of another one. So it's just actually made me think though, what if it's five minus four, would it still be called the org end? I need to go and investigate because it's not going to increase, it's going to be decreased. Leave that one with me. That's why I love this podcast because I go away with homework. My second one is, well, it's a really clumsy term, Giles, but I think it might be quite useful for a lot of people, not least those

who have recently departed from Love Island. It's an amatoculist. So it's got ama or amat, A-M-A-T, and then O-R-C-U-L-I-S-T. So if I said amat, you'd know what I was talking about. Amat is amat, is what I'd say automatically. It's all about love, isn't it? And am amatoculist is what Samuel Johnson described as a little insignificant lover or a pretender to affection. So, it's essentially somebody who trifles with your emotions and then leaves you heartbroken. Oh, that's a very good word, an amatoculist. Amatoculist, yes, a very good word. An amatoculist. Amatoculist. Yes, exactly. Wonderful word. Good.

And then the third one is really odd to look at. You'll find it in an English dictionary from 1623, one of the first. And it is, okay this English dictionary as one past 14 years of age, beginning to be moved with Venus delight. So in modern terms, I think it really describes a horny teenager. Very good. Very useful. Well, quite useful. Well, no, no, for horny teenagers listening, they can now sound a bit respectable by using the word. Well, that can be their handle on Tinder. Oh, gosh.

Okay, here's my poem. And we were talking about H.P. Source earlier, and that led me to thinking about Harold Wilson, who was very fond of H.P. Source. And I'm going to read you a poem by Mary Wilson. And I was very lucky when I was young to know both Harold Wilson and Mary. And Mary was a fine poet, as well as being a lovely lady. And her husband, Harold Wilson, was born 1916, died 1995. She was also born in 1916,

but lived to 2018. She lived to be 102 years of age. Anyway, Harold Wilson was twice British Prime Minister. In his final years, he suffered from dementia. He's buried in St. Mary's Old Churchyard in the City Isles, where the Wilsons had a much-loved holiday home. And this poem was written by Mary on the death of her husband. And I think it's a lovely poem. It's called On the Death of Harold Wilson by Mary. My love, you have stumbled slowly on the quiet way to death, and you lie where the wind blows strongly with a salty spray on its breath. For this men of the island bore you, down paths where the branches meet, and the only sounds were the crunching grind of the gravel beneath their feet, and the sighing slide of the ebbing tide on the beach where the breakers meet.

Oh, that's just so wistful, isn't it? It's wistful, it's evocative, it's touching. And she was a special lady. And because she had the, in some ways, the disadvantage of being the Prime Minister's wife, she was rather teased about her poetry when she first published it. People didn't take it or her seriously, but she was much admired by, among others, John Betjeman. And she was a good and interesting person. And as you can tell, she wrote with feeling, sincerity and a wonderful way with words. Yeah, beautiful. Well, we hope you loved this show. I certainly learned a lot and I'm going away with quite a few things to investigate.

And I hope it has got you thinking very much as well. You can find us on at Something Rhymes on Twitter and Facebook or at Something Rhymes rhymes with on instagram but you can of course email us to purple at something else dot com and if you would like some more purple we do have the purple plus club don't we giles we do very much so we talk about all sorts of things from rude words to great poetry exactly and it's ad, which some people like. Yeah, exactly. That's available. But we're still available here, free and forever.

Something Rhymes with Purple, It's a Something Else, and Sony Music Entertainment Production, produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells, with additional production from Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery, Jay Beale, and... Well, do you think he's a herquitic? I think he's past that now. He's an... I can't say it.

Amatoculist. He should be so lucky. It's gully.