Something Rhymes with Purple - Matutolypea

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

This week we're playing word games. A Somethin' Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Up to $330 in value is a combined total of three available offers, each in accordance with the respective terms and conditions. Limited time offer ends October 31, 2024. Conditions apply. Visit rbc.com slash student offers. Something else. Visit rbc.com slash student offers. Hello, my name is Giles Brandreth. Susie Dent, what's your name?

It's E.T.'s Undies. That's a good anagram of my name. What is your full name? It is Francesca is my middle name. Susan Francesca Dent. Your parents were Dents. Yes. My name is Giles is my middle name. Susan Francesca Dent. Your parents were Dents. Yes. My name is Giles, wait for it, Daubney.

Oh, that's beautiful. Well, I don't know. It's not a good name. But let me explain in case somebody's coming into this podcast for the very first time. I love words. That's really why I'm here. I love words. I love language.

I believe that language is power. I've been a word obsessive, virtually a wordaholic all my life. And for a reason I'm going to explain in a qualified. It's just experience rather than qualifications. So I studied French and German at university. So German and French, they were my first loves. Came to English quite late, worked at Oxford University Press for a long time, even while I was doing Countdown, and worked on the English dictionaries. But yeah, I wouldn't say I've got know got millions of qualifications I just have been immersed in language since yeah since the age of four well what I thought would be fun to do today's podcast is have fun with words because this is all about words language how to increase your word power how to use this amazing way we have of communicating with one another words in a better more exciting more amusing way.

We call it Something Rhymes With Purple because something does rhyme with purple. And I used to think that nothing rhymed with purple. I thought that purple was a word like orange, for which there is no rhyme, is there? Not exactly. No, not exactly. I remember talking to Tim Rice, the lyricist, about this. And he had a few up his sleeve, but nothing perfectly rhymes with orange. I love playing games with Tim Rice. Oh, he's brilliant, has he?

He is brilliant. He's Sir Tim Rice. He is the only triple Oscar winner I know. Oh, really? I know quite a few double Oscar winners, some solo Oscar winners. He's got three Oscars. He's a genius lyricist.

He's also a delightful human being. And we were playing, we play word games together. And we were recently playing a fun game in which we were name-dropping, really. And the idea of the game was unlikely couples. Real people you'd introduce to one another that seemed an unlikely couple. And I told him how

to party not long ago. I'd introduced the British comedian Jim Davidson to the distinguished novelist Margaret Drabble. And how they'd got on famously, this unlikely couple, because neither knew who the other was. And I said to him, Tim, can you beat that?

And Tim said, I think I can. And he told me that at the 1970 premiere of Jesus Christ Superstar, Tim Rice told me this, he wrote the lyrics, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music. At the 1970 Paris premiere of Jesus Christ Superstar,

Tim Rice introduced Salvador Dali to Frankie Howard. Oh, that's superb. Oh, yes, no, Mrs. No, isn't it a marvellous idea? That is superb. That is a funny idea, isn't it? Well, we're going to have fun with words. Something does rhyme with purple.

Remind us what it is. Yes, that is the old dialect word herple, admittedly not on the tongue every day, but to herples, but with an I, is to limp, to walk with a limp. Well, we're going to stride into the world of word games now. Knowing that nothing rhymes with orange or silver, something rhymes with purple, let's play word games. I was brought up on word games.

And this is really what I wanted to ask you about your grandparents. My father was born as long ago as 1910. And that, of course, was before the age of radio, before television, before the movies had talkies, when families literally made their own entertainment. And my father was brought up in a world where, you know, they would stand around the piano in the parlor singing songs. And what did they do of an evening? They played word games with one another because what else was there to do? Yeah. Even the crossword puzzle wasn't invented until the time of the First World War. So when my father was born, you had to make your own entertainment. And so I was brought up on word games. When were your grandparents born?

Gosh. When were your parents born? Can you remember when your father was born? Yeah, well, my parents were born in the 40s. And I wouldn't say they were huge lovers of word games, but they were great lovers of board games. So we, not so much Scrabble, and I'll come to Scrabble later, but we loved, you know, all the traditional board games, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, etc.

So many, many happy hours listening to Peter and the Wolf, Prokofiev in the background playing word games. Also, just to come back to your Nothing Rhymes with Silver. This is relevant. Something does rhyme with silver. We could have called our podcast that. It's Milva, spelled silver with an M, and it's a person with whom one shares a strong interest in a particular topic especially that

of wordplay so there you go wonderful so we're a couple of milvers yeah milver mavens we're milver mavens and if you stay with us you'll find that in each of the podcasts we get a trio of words from suzy that you may not be familiar with, and that maybe you would want to slip into your vocabulary because they're just brilliant, and she is brilliant. Why don't we play a word game together? One of the ones we played that I got from my maternal grandmother, my granny Addison, who she taught me a word game called Donkey. Do you know this game? No. What happens is this. The idea of the game is it's a spelling game and we build a word together, but you mustn't end the word. You lose a life if

you end the word. How many lives do we have? You have D-O-N-K-E-Y, but we can do the short version, which is S-A-S-S. So we've got three lives. Can I just say, disclaimer, for someone who has spent 27 years playing a word game in the afternoons, I am terrible at most of the others. I have avoided Scrabble all my life because people assume I will be too palliative at it. I'm not. And of course, I'm not because I don't play it. We will have a whole podcast about Scrabble because, as you know, I'm the founder of the National Scrabble Championships. And I think I'm the president of the British Association of Scrabble Players.

Okay. So I shall put you right. Please do. There may have been a palace putsch, a coup, between the making of this podcast and its being disseminated around the world. So Donkey is a word game that people can play. You can play it, as it were, on the tube, going in.

If your podcast is broken down, you've actually got to communicate with somebody. You can play it with strangers. You can play it, as it were, on the tube, going in. If your podcast is broken down, you've actually got to communicate with somebody. You can play it with strangers. You can play it with your kids. It's intergenerational. It's a game to play in the car. It's a spelling game. And you all know the words which are pitfalls, which have sort of common traps, I would imagine. If you've

played it a few times, maybe. But maybe not. You've got, you know, the whole Oxford English Dictionary rattling around in your head. Yes, you have. I'm going to cheat. So, maybe. But maybe not. You've got, you know, the whole Oxford English Dictionary rattling around in your head. Yes, you have. I'm going to cheat. So, no, don't cheat. The idea is, three letter words don't count. You mustn't be the person who ends a word. And you've got to be thinking of a real word

at the time. Okay, here we are. The Milver Mavens giving it a go with the game Donkey. I'm going to begin. D. A. U. Okay. I'm going to begin. D. A. U. G. H.

T. E. R. Daughter! Oh, no, no, no, no. You know where I was going. Boom, boom, you've lost a life. You're a naïve ass.

You know where I was going. I was going with the advert. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say, totally. That's where I was going with that. No, she's lost. You mustn't end, yeah. I was going to say totally. That's where I was going with that. No, she's last. You mustn't end the word. Oh, this is more fun than I realised.

I had nowhere to go with that. You had nowhere to go? I don't think you did have anywhere to go with that, did you? I don't think so, no. You start the next game. Right. You have to think about the number of letters, don't you? Look, how many words are there in the dictionary?

Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Half a million. M. O. T. T. L.

Is there no double, there's no M-O-T-T as a word? I don't think so. Good. I've got this. In a historical dictionary, anything is possible. No, I don't think so. You're right there. M-O-T-T is a word. I don't think so. Good. I've got this. Okay. Well, mind you, in a historical dictionary, anything is possible. No, I don't think so. I think you're right there. M-O-T.

Have I said, what did you say? I said L. You said M-O-T-T. I've said T. L. Oh, my goodness. I. Have you got a word in mind here?

Mottling. Oh. You challenged me. Therefore, if there is a word, mind here? Mottling You challenged me Therefore if there is a word mottling You lose Of course there is Because we're allowed verb inflections aren't we? So that's from mottle

Very good So you are not an AS I'm about to win this Because if I win If you lose three lives No because I've got N Now Haven't I?

Did you have L? This is going really well I'm sorry It's over Why? Because you challenged me You This is going really well. I'm sorry. It's over. Why? Because you challenged me. You challenged me and it was a false challenge. You failed.

You failed. All right. I'm losing my lives. I'm on O already. I'm moving on to N now. No, no. We're playing ass. I'm going to go three rounds with this.

You're on A, S. And you've got one more life. All right? All right. Start again. P. N. E. U. N. E.

U. M. A. T. I. No, I just want to do something clever here. U, Matt, T. I know where you're going. I know where to do something clever here. Pneumatic. I know where you're going.

I know where you're going. N. Challenge you. Yeah, I think you might be right. I told you I was rubbish at road trips. She couldn't accept the defeat with pneumatic. Well, no, I was going to do pneumothorax, you see, but it was my turn.

What would pneumothorax have given you? Oh, that's interesting. Well, if it's there. Sadly, I don't think there is. No, there isn't. What did you think pneumothorax was? In terms of what it means? Yeah. Oh, well, it's

an anatomical term, isn't it? Which I'm now furiously looking up. So, pneumatic. Pneumatic, I get there. It's the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity. That's where I was going with that one. But it wouldn't fit with the letters, is that right? Well, it wouldn't, no, because you... I've forced you down the wrong path. So, you see, that's the idea of the game. It's very clever. It's where I was going with that one. But it wouldn't fit with the letters. Is that right? Well, it wouldn't, no, because you...

I've forced you down the wrong path. So, you see, that's the idea of the game. It's very clever. It's quite a fun game. And I'm terrible at it. No, you're not terrible at it. I've been playing it for 60 or more years. Yes.

You, frankly... But you actually have to calculate word length before you start, don't you? But not before you start, because it could go in any... I suppose that's true. When you get to about letter four or five is when you start playing. Oh, that's donkey done and dusted. Before we play my next game, my most favorite game,

the game that could change your life, let's have a quick break. I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And this is Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. We are a new show breaking down the anime news, views, and shows you care about each and every week. I can't think of a better studio to bring something like this to life.

Yeah, I agree. We're covering all the classics. I don't know a lot about Godzilla, which I do, but I'm trying to pretend that I don't. Hold it in. And our current faves. Luffy must have his due. Tune in every week for the latest anime updates and possibly a few debates.

I remember, what was that? Say what you're gonna say and I'll circle back. You can listen to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats.

What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan? a yes a nice tan sorry nope but a box fan happily yes a day of sunshine no a box of fine wines yes uber eats can definitely get you that get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Let's do another one here. This one I think you'll find easier.

It's called Alpha. And basically the idea is to, and this is a very good game. How well do you sleep? Not brilliantly, if I'm honest. This is the game for you. Okay. Because... This is the word game called...

I mean, do you have difficulty getting to sleep? No. Or do you wake at six in the morning and then can't get back to sleep? No, I wake about three in the morning. And then can't get back to sleep. Yes. Getting to sleep's okay. Pre-dawn grief.

What time do you go to bed? Well, my youngest gets up very early, so I tend to be asleep by ten. Fine. It's very boring for our listeners. No, it isn't. No, everybody, forgive me, everybody has sleep issues. Everybody. You get to bed, do you wear socks?

No. Oh, you sleep in socks. I don't tend to wear anything, but okay. But socks, I wasn't asking about anything else. So socks help you sleep? Yes. Socks, you've cozy toes. Cozy toes is what you need.

And you sleep on your side or on your back? Side. Yep, that's okay. So you sleep on your side, and then getting to sleep is relatively easy at 10. Yes, you go fairly deep. And then you wake at 3. Welcome to the sleep podcast.

Yes. No, you wake at 3. I wake at about 3. And then you go to the loo, and then you come back to bed and lie there wide awake. I just lie there. And what are you worrying about? Oh, you know, everything gets magnified. Actually, genuinely, there's not one consistent thing.

There's a great word for this, which also can be used for early morning grumpiness, and that's matuto lipia. Matuto? Matuto, meaning morning. Lipia, L-Y-P-E-A. L-Y-P-E-A. And it's grief of the dawn.

And I like to apply it to that sort of terrible anxiety that you get when you wake up really early. Matuto lipia. Matuto Lipia. Matuto Lipia. Grief of the Dawn, yeah. It sounds like also somebody's name. Oh, I knew her once, Matuto Lipia. Matuto Lipia means fear of the dawn.

Yeah, well, it means grief. It's melancholy. So you have the middle of the night blues. Yes. You're not alone, can I say? No, I'm sure. Millions around the world listening to this saying, yeah, we're with Susie Dent, we're with Susie Dent.

So work games can help. Now, the point is this. Okay. What do you do in those circumstances? You want to get to sleep. The stomach is churning. The head is churning. Everything you say is completely exaggerated.

You lie as still as you can. You do two things. You breathe slowly in and out. You then, like pushing clouds out of the way, you push all extraneous sounds out of your head. Everything you push away, you actually physically do it, you push everything away, and then you play Alpha. Alpha is this little game where you go from A to Z,

thinking of words that begin and end with the same letter. And you try to get longer and longer words every night. So let's say you were going to begin with A. Anaconda. Anaconda. That's better than mine. I was going to go with amnesia. Okay, I like that.

No, but anaconda. Anaconda's an animal, kind of snake. Snake, yes. Amnesia is something you want to forget. Yes. So sometimes it's quite fun to play the game using words that are relevant amnesia you want to forget the things you've been worried about is the act of forgetting isn't it yeah whereas anaconda maybe it's that this tells you the kind of nightmares you're having a snake is coming to eat you the anaconda

so i'm simply sleeping anyway so then you get B, a word that begins and ends with B. The longer, the better. I can only think of baba ganoush, and that doesn't work anyway. It doesn't work at all. Baba ganoush is not, it's going to end with a B. Yeah, yeah. Baobab. Baobab?

Yes, B-A-O, B-A-B. B-A-O, B-A-B, B-A-O-B-A-B-B-A-O, baobab. And what does it mean? Baobab is a tree also called monkey bread or the Ethiopian sour gourd. I like it. And how many letters is that? Six. Six.

Well, you get six points, which is good, you see, because we can do it competitively. Okay. By the way, if you are not sleeping alone and you've got somebody else lying next to you who is also awake, suffering from matutulipia, because they've got dread, fear, middle-of-the-night depression, you can keep each other company by playing the game competitively. So, so far, I would be one ahead because I think am no, Anaconda, you might be one ahead. Maybe one letter longer than Amnesia. Amnesia is seven letters long. But with my word, bedaub. Nice. It's the same number as you, so six.

So we've each scored six. Okay. Okay. C. I'd go for the Irish crack. Crack. C-R-A-K. No, C-R-A-I-C.

C-R-A-I-C. It's an Irish word meaning. Crack. It's just, oh, the crack. The crack. It means the humour. It's the fun. It's the amusement. It's the atmosphere in the room. Yeah. We went to the party. Great crack.

It's a lovely word, isn't it? Yes. And it's an Irish word? It's an Irish word. I famously declared very loudly on Countdown that I love crack. Meaning, of course, that I love that word. But anyway, that's another story. Yes, that's mine mine but it's only five I'm not sure that's pretty good

and is there a funny accent on the I in crack could there be sometimes in Irish yes there is in the Irish there's a diacritic above there but not in English

well you've scored five there I'm going to try and beat you I'm sure you will with cyclonic you've practiced this yeah I have practiced this to be honest

I get eight points for cyclonic. C-Y-C-L-O-N-I-C. D, what's the longest word you can think of, beginning and ending with D? And you can see when you're lying in bed, this is quite fun to do this, because the alphabet is there. You're climbing the stairs, and it forces other things, all those traumas, all the worries about the mortgage and should you have taken out the second mortgage

and the person lying next to you. God, why are they lying next to you? What did we get into? Oh, dear. Can this go on for much longer? Discombobulated. Brilliant. But there must be longer verbs.

You just need a past tense, basically, don't you? Oh, my goodness. I only had dedicated. Oh, OK. Oh, I might have won this then. Dedicated, desiccated, discombobulated wins it completely. Excellent. Discombobulated.

You have moved into the lead. E is for what? Beginning and ending. Erudite. Very good. I've got everyone. F. F.

That's hard. F. Not that hard. Faff. Oh, what's faff? As in faffing around. That's a legitimate word. Where does hard. Faff. Oh, what's faff? As in faffing around. That's a legitimate word. Where does it come from?

Yeah, it's only four. I don't think we know, actually. I love it when there are words where the etymology is unknown. Yeah, so it's etymology. I'm looking at the OED, as always. Oh, no, they do know, actually. This is lovely. It's from the dialect faff, meaning a puff of wind, as the noun, or the verb, to blow in sudden gusts. Oh, to faff. dialect faff meaning a puff of wind as the noun or the verb to blow in sudden gusts

oh to faff to faff so it's a proper word going back to flap idly in the wind isn't it to faff about and it's been going along for how long 1570 how wonderful the word faff which sounds so modern

is in fact goes back to the 16th century yeah Shakespeare was faffing I think faffing about, though, to fuss or dither, is, yes, 1874. The joy of knowing you, if I may say so, Susie Dent,

is you... Well, this is from the OED. I know. Yes. But you are the conduit of the OED. And I think there's another word you introduced me to, which I, obviously,

I knew the word bumpf, B-U-M-F. The origin of that, because at school, we all stood by papers being bumpf. Okay, I just the word bump, B-U-M-F. The origin of that, because at school we always drew about paper as being bump. Okay, I just have to tell listeners the trajectory that our conversation took. Before we came on air, we were talking, as one does, about arse ropes. Arse ropes being a very, very old word that was used in the Bible, translation of the Bible, which meant the intestines. And I absolutely love it because it's just so direct.

So it's an old word for the intestines. Yes, arse ropes. My arse ropes. I'm having problems with my arse ropes. My arse ropes are letting me down. Or my arse ropes are terribly knotted. Exactly. Yes.

Exactly. Anyway, so from arse ropes, we then went to arse wisp, which used to be a sort of synonym, I guess, for a slang for loo roll. Or lavatory paper. Or lavatory paper, whatever. Toilet paper, yeah, exactly. Arse wisp. Or bathroom stationery, as I believe in refined circles in the

1950s it was called. Oh, have you not heard that? Oh, we've run out of bathroom stationery. Anyway, you call it that. Whereas in your house they were saying, oh, the arse wisps. The arse wisps. We weren't actually saying that, but anyway. Play some more Peter and the Wolf, would you? I'm looking for the arse wisps. The arse wisps. We weren't actually saying that. But anyway. Play some more Peter and the Wolf, would you? I'm looking for the arse wisps.

Anyway, let me finish. So from arse wisp, we came to bum fodder. And bum fodder was, particularly in the army, that was slang for toilet paper. And from bum fodder, we get bumf, i.e. completely inconsequential bits of information. This is why the world is turning to something rhymes with purple. I mean, no, it is, because where else would you discover that? You really wouldn't. Okay, so we've got down to F.

The word beginning and ending in F. You're beginning to doze off now. No, I said faff. Am I beginning to doze off? Faff is good, no. You're supposed to because it's getting you to sleep. My word is a bit longer, fluff. Oh, nice.

I hope someone's keeping tally here. Yeah, I'm keeping tally. And you are. We're neck and neck. G next. G. Oh, I keep coming up with these short words. You can share them.

Well, it would be glug, but... Oh, I like that. I'm graduating to something better. Are you? Graduating. Oh, of course. Verbs, verbs, verbs. That's ten letters. er, er. I'm graduating to something better. Are you? Graduating. Oh, of course. Verbs, verbs, verbs. That's ten letters.

Yes. Okay. Can I change my mind? Yeah. Guzzling, then. I like guzzling. That's very good. Would gas guzzling be allowed?

Or has it got a hyphen in it? I don't think so. I think for that I need to look in a modern dictionary, actually. Do you want me to do that now? Nah. Because it's bound to have a hyphen, isn't it? I think it would. H, H, H. Beginning and ending in H do that now? Nah, because it's bound to have a hyphen, isn't it? I think it would.

H, beginning and ending in H. Huzzah. Huzzah. That's an exclamation. Hyphen in Gascuzzler. Huzzah, yes. Hurrah, huzzah. And where does that date from? That is, I love this definition in the Oxford English History, huzzah. To shout, huzzah. Huzzah!

It's from 1683. They are carousing and huzzahing like mad devils with their roaring companions. Well, I've got a hunch you're right. Okay. Hunch. Hunch. Nice.

Get it? H-U-N-C-H. But it's shorter than yours. Mine is only five letters whereas huzzah I think is six. Okay. Should we stop there? A bit worried about I.

Well, you may have to stop there because can you think of one for I? Because I can't. Um... And when I play this game. What's the plural of ibis? I'm almost always asleep before I get to the letter I. Oh, nice. I love that.

Leave that one with me. I might try to come back to it. That's okay. And I can't come up with J either. I'd love to say zhuzh, because no one ever knows how to spell zhuzh. I'm asked about that all the time. Well, the dictionary will give you Z-H-U-S-H, but I don't think it does it.

I don't think that does the trick. So you can have that little debate. Now, one of the problems of getting to I and J, if you get to take it too seriously, your stomach begins to churn. You think, my goodness, have I got these? So I then know that there no an I and J in my book, so I go straight on to K, and I have kayak,

and then I do L, I have longitudinal, and I can do them for lots, right the way down to Q, which there may well be a Q word, but I don't know it. Okay, so... I like that game. Wait, can you think of anything with Q? Not off the top of my head, no. No, game can you think of anything with Q not off the top of my hand no

I can't think I've got regulator for R succinctness for S tournament for T nothing for U nothing for V window

nothing for X yellowy for Y and the joy is the last letter and this by then you are asleep Z

Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z are asleep. Zed. Zzzz. Yes. And that's allowed, isn't it? Yes.

As a word. Zzzz. Here we go. I've got something for you. Sorry if I sound distracted. I love this. Have you heard the word ululate? Ululate.

Ululate, yes. Or ululate, yes. Yes. And that's making a sound, isn't it? Ululating. But how does it end in U? Well, it doesn't. But the actual noun from it, U-L-U-L-U, is a wailing cry or a wail of lamentation.

A U-U-L-U. A U-L-U-L-U. U-L-U-L-U. It says U-L-U-L-U, U-L-U-L-U, U-L-A-L-U, U-L-U-L-U, or U-L-A-L-U-L-U. You do that so charmingly. I know. That's my pronunciation guides. I think I've got it.

I bet you, when you start playing this, I've solved your problem. I've solved Susie Dent's insomnia. Well, that's solving a problem as well. Well, but that's not going to help me go to sleep, I think. I think you will find playing this game in bed, going from A to Z, words that begin and end with the same letter is fun.

It's educational. We didn't know al-yul-yul before now. No. And we've got ziz as well. We can work out the spelling of zhuzh. We learn a lot. Yes. So don't fall asleep immediately.

Just remember that game for late tonight when you are suffering from matu. Say it once more. Matutu lipia. Good. I love word games, and I did a book with my daughter and grandson called The Lost Art of Having Fun. And we put in it dozens and dozens

and dozens of word games and they're fun to play with the family and I think they're particularly good for people who suffer from insomnia. The other one I love doing, and I'm just going to give you one little test on that, is I love playing anagrams. And I just take a word and you have to rearrange the letters. Give me a country. I'm going to give you the word regalia. And you've got to give me a country.

Take made from the letters in regalia. Algeria. Well done. That didn't take you long, did it? You're so clever. What about Englander? What would that give you? Englander. Englander. Rearrange it to give me a country. Something land. Greenland. Greenland. That's very good, isn't it? Yeah. So I've given you two of those. Give me three of your words. What are your trio for today? Okay. Well, I'm going to start with the word giggle mug. Actually, if you don't mind me saying, Giles, I think you might be a bit of a giggle mug. What's a giggle mug? A giggle mug is somebody who is forever smiling, but's a catch so this is this is where I apologise in advance

but a giggle mug is somebody who has that smile on their face all the time and actually is really annoying oh

I'm not saying no I'm not saying you're really annoying but you know when you're sort of you're not actually feeling it and then

you bump into somebody who's just permanently cheerful and you say oh you're such a giggle mug anyway I just love that word people dread coming round

to my house because they think I'm going to be wearing a party hat and inviting them to play party games. It's great. Your glass is always helpful. I like that one. So that's a giggle mug for anybody who, as I say, is constantly chirpy and actually might send you in the other direction. So apologies for that. Or might have a broken heart.

You know the famous story about... Of the giggle mug know the famous story about the clown Grimaldi? I know. I know the clown. Joseph Grimaldi was a great English clown and famous in pantomime, early pantomime, around the 1800s. And he was probably the most famous entertainer in Britain in the day. And it was hilarious. Filled the Drury Lane Theatre. Thousands of people came to see him and laughed at him.

But unfortunately, he suffered himself from depression. And famously, he went to see a doctor. We'd never seen him. We recommended a doctor. And he went to see this doctor and said, hello, I'm suffering from, I'm really unhappy. I'm suffering from depression. Went through all his problems.

And the doctor said, right, really, I'm really unhappy I'm suffering from depression went through all his problems and the doctor said right really I don't know how I can help you I mean you know how to cheer you up I suppose I would recommend you go and see

the great Grimaldi and he said I am Grimaldi how wonderful yeah so there we are so there may be there may be reasons

we giggle mugs the way we are yes or it also may be that we're just generally happy because what are we going to be unhappy about? Well, I think that's lovely. I think that is lovely. And I'm just being a grumptious about it all. Right. Okay. So, I was just wondering

whether to sideswove my planned second word and give you coulrophobia, which is a phobia of clowns because I think you do have it. Oh, that's good. How do you spell that? It's C-O-U-L-R-O-phobia. Very specific for clowns. What's the origin of this?

Well, I think because the Greeks didn't have clowns as such, I think it comes from the Greek for just a sort of entertainer,

possibly, you know, some trapeze artist, that kind of thing. People have a real terror of clowns. Johnny Depp, famously, has real... Really? Yeah, and I did too. I hated him when thing. People have a real terror of clowns. Johnny Depp famously has real... Really?

Yeah, and I did too. I hated them when I was little. And these are the clowns in makeup, as it were. These are not funny people. Yeah, these are the ones with the kind of evil smiles, I find, who make lots of noise. And who are wearing clown makeup, so white face and red nose and sort of strange eyes

and the funny costumes, the huge feet. You don't have to think about Stephen King to know that they're utterly terrifying. Coulrophobia. Coulrophobia. So that's my last minute. And also they don't make you laugh. When I was a child, people listened on the radio to something called The Goons. I listened, week in, week out.

Didn't laugh once. No, it's kind of slapstick though. Don't you think it's verbal slapstick? I'm not really into slapstick, I think. It just did not make me laugh. Anyway. You know, slapstick comes from the fact that clowns actually did slap a stick on their thighs in order to make a sort of noise. I think I did know did not make me laugh. Anyway. Do you know slapstick comes from the fact that clowns actually did slap a stick on their thighs in order to make a sort of noise? I think I did know that. Yeah, there you go. And also, I was taught by

an elderly actress, because I used to be an actor many, many years ago. Not very successful, as you know. I've told you the story of the first time I played Hamlet. I've told you this, haven't I? I don't think so. Oh, I have. Is this a true story? It's a true story. It was a disaster. It was a real disaster. What happened? How old were you?

Well, I was young. Too young, clearly. But anyway, I played Hamlet. The audience didn't like it. They actually threw eggs at me. Yeah, I mean, they threw eggs at me. There's a pun coming up here. Yes, you're right. Where Donna's Hamlet came off as omelette. Boom, boom. So gullible. Right. Anyway, no, the point is,

the actress said to me, speaking of slapsticks, that what you need to do if you're an actor is you begin the applause in the wings before you come on. So you begin the applause yourself, you clap yourself on, people join in. If people in the audience clap, on you come. Okay. All right.

Cooler, I love that. Coolerophobia. Coolerophobia. And my last one, little origin for you here. I think of myself as being a slightly a slight anomaly really i don't know whether that means i'm geeky or nerdy or whatever but just slightly different and i'm a bit of a maverick and i love the story behind the word maverick because it goes back to the name of samuel augustus maverick who was a u.s politician but crucially he was also the owner of a large herd of cattle

in texas and he left his calves and his cows unbranded we don't know why perhaps he just thought it was cruel perhaps he just couldn't be bothered but the result was that his cows would wander around into neighboring fields and nobody knew who they belonged to because he refused to brand them and so all the neighboring farmers called him uh a maverick really and he was indeed a maverick by name but he was also one by nature and that's how we got maverick in do you know the current sense one day on our something rhymes with purple podcast we are going to do a whole dedicate a whole program whole podcast to people like that what are they called ma No, people who give their name to the language. Oh, eponyms.

Eponyms. People are eponyms, like boycott. Nicotine. Nicotine. Is that named after a person? Jean-Nico. Yeah.

There we are. Wellington, as in the boot. Yes, sandwich. On and on and on. So many. And in fact, we're talking about Joe Grimaldi,

Clown Joey. People often refer to a clown as a Joey. Do they? I don't know that. Oh, I think they do. Other than kangaroos. But why are they called Joey's?

Because of Joey the Kangaroo, of course. Really? Yeah, famous kangaroo. You're joking. I am. But Jumbo, Jumbo does come from Jumbo the Elephant. Jumbo, Jumbo, you know, just Jumbo the Elephant. Jumbo the Elephant.

Yes, before Disney. The word Jumbo comes from Jumbo the Elephant, doesn't it? Yes, it does. Absolutely. Poor thing, poor creature. Anyway. jumbo comes from jumbo the elephant doesn't it yes it does absolutely poor thing poor creature anyway when i when i next see you for our next podcast say jumbo to me and i'll tell you something interesting about your name my name and anybody's name that has just five letters in it okay we're leaving you on a cliffhanger all right my name's got four by the way no s-u-s-i-e oh i see got you suzy jumbo i think i need some coffee. Giles. You need some coffee.

You need less coffee, more sleep. Less matutalipia. More playing of donkey by night. Yes. This is us. If you've enjoyed this, please recommend us to a friend or give us a nice review. If you haven't, well, sleep well and just forget it ever happened. Amnesia is a word that begins and ends with A.

Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production. It was produced by Paul Smith with additional production from Russell Finch, Steve Ackerman, and Josh Gibbs.