Something Rhymes with Purple - Naff

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Bona to vada your dolly eek, Purple People! Now, if the above greeting to today’s episode is wholly incomprehensible then let Gyles and Susie decode it for you as they take us through the fascinating language of Polari. Whether you want to add a bit of Zhuzh to your conversation or if you have experienced something a bit naff recently, Susie is here to tell us to how these words found their way into this secret language which heralded from Italian, but evolved to encompass multiple other languages, as well as using a host of linguistic tricks to create this uniting language of the traveller communities.  Gyles will track how this language made its way into popular culture (accompanied with a number of name drops, of course!) and why in modern days, Polari found one of its homes in the LGBTQ+ community. Lau your luppers on the strillers bona and afterwards, on your computer keyboard and let Susie and Gyles know about any Polari questions you may have or if you have some Polari words you would like to share with them by emailing [e-mail]. A Somethin’ Else production To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple Susie’s Trio: Sardonian - someone who flatters with deadly intent Jettatore - someone who brings misfortune with them Redeless - without council, or not knowing what to do particularly in an emergency Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Annex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. 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. that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Bona diva de doli ic! And welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple, the podcast all about words and language,

with me, Giles Brandreth, and my friend, colleague, and the world's leading lexicographer, Susie Dent. And today, at the request of some of our wonderful Purple people, we're going to dive headfirst into the fascinating world of Polari. Polari is a language. And thanks to Nick Craig and Joe Siegel for suggesting this, and also to our regular Kathmandu correspondent, Andrew Steele, whose request to Nellyada to a spari camp Polari was written entirely in the coded language of Polari,

and it made us smile. Now, we're going to explore what Polari is in detail in a moment. But Susie, it is, of course, a language, a secret language. Is there a history of such languages? Tell us all about the world of Polari. It is absolutely fascinating. As you know, I've written quite a bit about sort of tribal languages and sort of group languages of various professions or people who united by a particular passion, etc. And this one really stands on its own as something that became so kind of extensive and

also quite sophisticated and was also born out of a very real need. And there's a brilliant professor of linguistics at Lancaster University who's written a lot about it, Paul Baker. If anybody wants to look up a little bit more, he's a great authority on this. But essentially, Polari developed from a form of language called Paliari, which had its roots in Italian and also kind of quite basic forms of language that was used around the Mediterranean by sailors. And it was also associated with travellers and buskers, beggars. I mean, it was, I suppose, associated very much with kind of ordinary people or even those who would be considered to be sort of low-lifes or sort of slightly separate to the mainstream. And it found its way into Britain, especially London, but also cities with big harbours and big ports. And during the first half of the 20th century, it became used

particularly by gay men and also female impersonators. And we'll come back to that. So it had this palyari as a base but once it came over to us it was supplemented with lots and lots of different slang terminology that came from all sorts of different influences so rhyming slang cockney rhyming slang came into it back slang which is where you spell a word or pronounce a word backwards rather um there's a bit of french there's some yiddish, there's military slang. And as the sort of the people who were speaking it found jobs on shore, so this was primarily sailors, they found work really in travelling fairs and circuses and in theatres. And you will

still find quite a lot of sailing terminology in theatres, which is interesting. So for example, you will talk about rigging. So rigging a set, for example, that's the sort of influence of the people coming back and speaking this language. Flying, they work a show, they strike a set, all of those comes from boats. So, it's a big melting pot of lots and lots of different influences. And as I say, it was picked up and adopted out of real need. So this language, beginning really in Victorian times, 19th century, adopted, used by sailors in the Mediterranean, then used by actors, show people, possibly sex workers, people living on the, you know, the illicit side, and eventually the British gay subculture at the times when

homosexuality, male homosexuality, was against the law and female homosexuality simply not talked about. Is that right? Exactly right. And so it became both a way of expressing oneself, it was a way of identifying oneself as gay, but also it was a uniting thing, because as you say, the law was very much against homosexuality. So it was a way of giving solidarity and unity, as so many of these kind of languages are. And it was full of camp, it was full of irony, it was full of innuendo, but it was also really resilient. And it just, in some ways, encompassed a kind of worldview, if you like, in the face of what other groups now are facing, whether it's physical violence, whether it's trolling on Twitter,

et cetera. So it was incredibly important. And a lot of speakers, and Paul Baker goes into this as well, they gave themselves sort of monikers like Scotch Flo or Diamond Lil, etc. These kind of alternative identities, which kind of again was a way of sort of almost reclaiming themselves. So, in the early years, it combines Italian words, Romany words, English words, obviously, rhyming slang, backslang, as you've mentioned, sort of thieves slang underworld talk. And it kind of filters within its own society. And in a moment, we're going to talk about how it became mainstream. But are there other examples of languages like Polari that over the centuries, different minority groups have used to communicate amongst

themselves? Well, yeah, I mean, I suppose that's how any kind of tribal language emerges. So if you think about criminal slang, for example, which is how Cockney rhyming slang, we think, began, you know, that was a coded way of, as I say, both identifying yourself and also communicating and sort of, you know, going below the radar of those who didn't understand it and so ignored it, or was just completely impenetrable to those who did hear it. But, you know, they couldn't work out what was being said. And Polari, it's quite interesting. It's not a true language and it's not, it hasn't got its own grammar or its own syntax, but it has a very distinct vocabulary, whether it's your rhea,

which is an example of back slang, that's hair, or you're shaving your lally, which are your legs, or powdering your eeks, and your eeks are your faces. I mean, in some ways it was really born for showbiz because it is quite kind of glitzy and showy. Yes, because I began with bona tovada, your dolly eek. Bona tovada means bona, it's obviously Latin for good or Italian.

Tovada is to see, I assume. To see, yeah. Your dolly means beautiful, like a doll. Lovely eek means face. So bona tovada, your dolly eek means great to see a lovely face. Yeah, exactly. Isn't that bizarre?

In fact, how good are you at Polari? Because I could give you a little test if you like. I'm not very good at it at all. I'll come in a moment to how I was introduced to it by my friend Kenneth Williams, who could speak fluent Polari for a reason. I'll explain that in a moment. But I've never really mastered it.

So do test me. No, it's really hard. And we should talk about some of the words that Polari either popularised or actually even originated and how they've settled in the language, because there are quite a few. But these are some examples of ones

that I think aren't immediately obvious because they don't use any, certainly any mainstream English words. What about, could I have a troll around your latty? Can I have a troll? Troll is to have a walk, to go trolling, to go a little promenade is to troll. Yeah. I suppose like a trolley moving around. Around your where?

Your latty. Your latty. No, I don't know where that means. Is that your flat? That's your house. Your house, your home. I wonder what the origin of that is. Yeah. It's interesting. I'm not completely sure. Anyway, that's good. I got that one. Lay your lappers on the strillis boner.

I'm not pronouncing these very well. No, you're not saying with the confidence you need. What's it? Lay your what's on what? Okay. Your lappers. Your lappers are your feet? Yeah.

It'd be law, I think, rather than lay. Lappers on the strillis boner. So strillis is S-T-R-I-L-L-A-F. Well, your lappers are your legs, are they? I think they're probably going to be your fingers, actually. Oh, no. I have to look this one up myself. This is a test for myself as well.

Keep going. No, no, I'm not going to. I'm going to be looking it up. This is play something nice on the piano. Oh, I love it. Oh, I love it. Say it again. Well, hang on. I'm going to look up lappers because I want to check that this is. It nice on the piano. Oh, I love it. Oh, I love it. Say it again. Well, hang on.

I'm going to look up lappers because I want to check that this is. Some fingers maybe. So this is actually, as you were about to tell us, this is what appeared in San, in Round the Horn with Sandy instructing Julian. Yeah, place your fingers on the piano. That's what it is. Lay your lappers on the strillas boner. Well, maybe that's the point for me to talk about how this Polaroid became mainstream.

It's very interesting, I think, the whole history of the coming out of homosexuality, certainly within the British Isles. And it took a long time to come out, really a century and more. What many people don't realise that that in the 19th century, in fact, it was only legislation introduced in the 1880s that, for example, led to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency in 1895. And there are funny stories to tell, interesting stories and some funny ones, about how that came about. An amendment called the Labouchere Amendment to the Criminal Justice Act of something like 1884 made homosexual

acts illegal. And under that legislation, Oscar Wilde and others were imprisoned. And acts of homosexuality remained imprisonable offences up until 1967. And the campaigns sort of gained momentum after the Second World War, particularly through the 1950s, to get the law changed. And I'm proud to say, in fact, when I was a schoolboy aged only 12, I became the youngest then member of the organization that was trying to change the law that outlawed homosexual acts. And so this is an area in which I was very interested. And I got to know many of the people who were caught up in the sort of the crosshairs of this legislation and ended up in prison or certainly being found guilty. One of them being the great actor Sir John Gielgud, another being Lord Montagu of Bewley, who was imprisoned. And there were lots of cases that

caused people to have concerns. And eventually there was a report published called the Wolfenden Report that recommended reform. And eventually the first of the reforms was introduced in 1967. Coinciding with this, culturally, homosexuality was becoming more mainstream, mainly in a kind of comedic way. And there was a hugely popular radio program called Round the Horn, hosted by an avuncular performer called Kenneth Horn. He had a wonderful voice, and he played very much the straight man. And on Round the Horn were two amusing characters known as Julian and Sandy. And they would introduce themselves by saying, hello, I'm Julian.

This is my friend Sandy. Or I'm Sandy. This is my friend Jules. And there were these, this two most successful British musicals were Salad Days and The Boyfriend. Salad Days was written by Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds, and The Boyfriend was written by Sandy Wilson. And these were two very different people. Julian was extremely sweet. Sandy was quite waspish. They were both brilliant, and I was lucky enough to know both of them. Anyway, Julian and Sandy were famous for their musicals, and they then became these characters, Julian and Sandy, in Round the Horn. Week after week, Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddock played Julian and Sandy, and they came on either as hairdressers or as friends or as maybe even

two sailors. They came on as two characters, and they talked Polari. And at its peak, this radio program, this is before, you know, television was taking over everything, this radio program, Round the Horn, was attracting audiences of more than, wait for it, 20 million listeners in the United Kingdom alone. And the Julian and Sandy sketches that took place every week were amongst the most popular. And somehow, they managed to talk in Polari on the show. And so, as a result of that, people, ordinary people, civilians, as the entertainers would call them, began using Polari language in everyday speech. And so there are phrases like, oh, zhuzhi, that is zhuzhi, meaning, well, I'm not quite sure what it means. It means lovely,

doesn't it? Well, zhuzhi is unspellable. I mean, it's got three different spellings in the Oxford Dictionary. Which are they? Z-H-U-Z-H, Z-H-U-S-H, and Z-H-O-O-S-H. Now that's interesting. It's in the Oxford Dictionary. This is. It's in the Oxford dictionary. This is Polari words in the Oxford English dictionary. And what does zhuzhi mean? Well, it's to kind of smarten up, isn't it? But it's so much more than that. And it may be onomatopoeic.

So there is a theory that it kind of represents the sound, for example, of your hand ruffling velvet. Or, I mean, I think it probably was born for its sound. Or it's got some hidden, you know, origin that we don't really know about. But it did come from Polari. And especially if you're in the TV world, you know, that needs a bit of a zhuzh. We talk about it all the time, theatre likewise. Absolutely. I mean, when Kenneth Williams would see me in one of my colourful jumpers in the early 1980s, when we became good friends, he would say, oh, lovely bit of a zhuzh. Oh, you're all zhuzhed up nice, aren't you? Yes.

Very good. So that zhuzh, the reverse of zhuzh, because if you're zhuzhed, you're looking pretty good, is naff, something that's naff. Now, is that Polari? Because it's a word we use all the time now, something that isn't very good is naff. sorry because it's a word we use all the time now something that isn't very good is naff yeah well again that featured in julian sandy didn't it something like i couldn't be doing with a garden like this i mean all of them horrible little naff gnomes so round the horn definitely brought the word into the wider british vocabulary and it became really famous when princess anne was reported to have told photographers to naff off when they snapped her coming off her horse at the badminton horse trials although apparently does you might know this one reporter who was there said that this was actually euphemism by journalists actually there's something a lot worse oh i can believe it i can believe it yes so to what extent the you know the verb and the adjective are connected is disputed

so the verb is recorded in the 1950s and that might simply be a variation on F off. So if you naff off, you F off, and F is obviously a written version of the letter F, which stands for fuck. So others think that naff is an acronym based on the phrase not available for fucking, though that is almost certainly what we call a backronym. So that's almost certainly something that is, you know, what has been worked backwards. Some dictionaries say it was formed as backslang from fan, which was a form of fanny. So obviously this is all quite rude. This is in the British sense of the female genitals. And some say it comes from NAFI, N-A-A-F-I, the Navy, Army and Air Force, who provide, you know, canteens and shops for British service personnel. But why they

would be NAF, I'm not sure. Well, because the food wasn't up to much. Oh, it's NAF. Go to the NAFy, there's NAF food. That, to me, sounds most credible because a lot of these guys, particularly, for example, Kenneth Williams, I know in the late 1940s, he was in the British Army and in the Far East. And there was a concert party they did where the blokes dressed as women. And he was there with Stanley Baxter, with John Schlesinger, with Peter Nichols, who then wrote a play about it all that became a film with John Cleese. Anyway, that's by the by. But they would have known the naffy and they would certainly have said the food there was naff. Naff means bad. It's negative, isn't it, basically?

Yeah, well, it's not bad so much. It's a bit naff're saying it's kind of it's not bad so much it's a bit naff is just like it's not cool is it and actually the most likely origin i know you like the naffy one is that it comes and you have to think about the influences that we talked about with polari the 16th century italian naffa g-n-a-f-f-a which was a not very nice person and in polari you will find things like naf-omi, like a dreary man. So that's the most plausible origin is that it takes us back to Italian. But, you know, who knows? Omi is a kind of version of om, is it? Omi, om, no, what an omi, yes. Yeah, ombre, all of that, yes.

We think of this as camp language. Is camp a Polari word? No. Well, camp is in sort of sense of being affected, I suppose. It was certainly popularised by Polari. I don't think it kind of came directly from there. It arose certainly before Polari had its heydays. This was in the early 20th century for something that was kind of ostentatiously theatrical and maybe extravagantly effeminate as it was originally used. But we're not completely sure where that comes from.

What I think is interesting about camp behaviours, we now associate it with homosexuality. In the early days, it wasn't associated with homosexuality in the sense that that kind of flamboyant behaviour became associated with homosexuality because of Oscar Wilde. Prior to that, people

who were flamboyant, who dressed in a flamboyant way and whose mannerisms were exaggerated, were people often like Lord Byron. They were characters who might appear in Regency comedy or in Restoration comedy. They were over the top, but they were often wildly heterosexual. And the association of that kind of behavior with homosexuality, I think, comes from the mockery of Oscar Wilde for being an atheist, and then subsequently, with his downfall, his arrest and imprisonment, it being associated with homosexuality. So it's interesting how things change over the years. People who are not camp could be said to be butch. Is that a Polari word? Do you remember I was talking about the butcher's knife, which is how it kind of began,

if you look in the Oxford English Dictionary. So something that was considered to be kind of of the English dictionary. So something that was considered to be kind of strong and possibly violent. So that is how Butch began. And then it took on the idea of being tough and violent, physically fit. And then in the 1940s, a lesbian whose appearance was regarded as masculine, and that was in explicit contrast with femme. And then in a male homosexual couple, again, it was a partner who took on a more active role, either sexually or sort of, you know, in a more general sense. So that was probably popularized by Polari, but certainly didn't seem to have originated there. Then another example, actually, is the word chav, which I'm not sure actually pervaded other languages across the globe or other Englishes across the globe. But certainly in British English, it exploded in 2004 as a really derogatory nickname for somebody who

was considered to be socially inferior, dressed kind of ostentatiously, and was just a way of looking down on other people, really. And it became really quite nasty. But actually, Chavi was used in Polari, and that has its roots in Romany. And you can see the connection between the Romany language, the traveller's language. Quite often, they were involved in carnivals and fairs and entertainment.

And in their language, it simply meant a friend or a sort of fellow adult man. Or it could also mean a child. It was completely innocent, and it was only in mainstream English that it took up its nasty tones. What about the kazi? Yeah, the kazi, that definitely was popularised by Polari.

Yes, what does it mean? What's the origin? So it means the toilet, a toilet is your kazi, and it comes from the Italian casa, meaning a house or a home so it yeah so then it became a specific part of your home if you like and i think it's had a sort of brief resurgence hasn't it polari which is nice i mean obviously the need for it disappeared as homosexuality became legalized etc and i think maybe it itself was was begun to be seen as being quite naff i suppose yes but it has had a resurgent and various books written in polari and various short films itself was begun to be seen as being quite naff, I suppose. Yes.

But it has had a resurgent in various books written in Polari, in various short films in Polari. I remember Kenneth Williams saying to me once, we don't need Polari anymore. Now the love that dare not speak his name is shouting the odds from the rooftops. So, but I love hearing it because there's a kind of quaint beauty to it. And what was so brilliant about the Julian and Sandy sketches is the fluency with which they spoke it, the we can't master. Are there any other Polari terms of phrase you want to share with us? Oh my goodness. There are loads and I wish I could speak it better. I feel like I should. There's dish, which means attractive. So I suppose we have dishy, don't we? Oh, interesting. Is that the origin of someone being dishy? Is Polari?

Yeah, I think it might be actually. Oh, you say, well, wasn't she a dish? Interestingly enough, if you read Kenneth Williams' diaries, and he kept a daily diary all his life, and it's been brilliantly edited and is still available. He uses these turns of phrase quite regularly. Indeed, he describes me in his diaries almost, this is many years ago, almost the first time he met me as being quite a dish. Oh, really? Yeah. But I was a lot younger then, Susie. You didn't know me when I was a dish. You know me now. I'm a cup and saucer. Actually, I'm an old mug. You're an old spout.

Yeah, but once upon a time, I was a dish. I'm sure you were, and you still are, obviously. I've just done a bit of decoding and worked out eek. We were talking about eek for face. Yes. That is backslang because it's eek-aff, face. And then we took off the calf bit. So that's really difficult to unpick, but lovely when you do.

Nish means no more, N-I-S-H. And your Aunt Nell's are your ears. And I'm trying to work out why your Aunt Nell's would be your ears. Your Aunt Nellie's, Nellie's, Nellie's. Your Aunt Nell's are your ears. Ears, ears. I don't know. I'm going to have to work that one out. If any of our brilliant purple people can work out Aunt Nellie's for ears or Aunt Nell's,

please let us know. I hope we have some fluent Polari speakers among our listeners. I sense that we do. I think you might be right. We know a lot more than us. Among our camp followers. Do please get in touch. It's purple at somethingelse.com.

Any more that you want to give us? I have got, see if you can translate this one for me. Oh, actually, this was because there was a Bible reading. So there was the longest ever Polari Bible reading. Now, the Bible has often been translated into hip hop and various different, again, tribal languages, I suppose. And Polari is no different. And there were lines such as,

and the rib which the Duchess Gloria had lulled from homie made she a polone and brought her unto the homie. And that's the rib which God had taken from man was made into a woman and brought to the man. I love it. Could you read it in Polari again so we can now understand it? Yeah. And the rib which the Duchess Gloria had lulled from homie made she a pologne, maybe it's a polonie, and brought her unto the homie.

Oh, I love it. The Duchess Gloria is God, is it? Yes. Oh, she's the Duchess. I love it, the Duchess. Not sure that went down too well, actually. But I have to say, there are lots and lots of different versions of the Bible and other canonical works that have been translated into various languages. Can I say, God, the Duchess Gloria, made language. So she's not going to object. I'm sure the Duchess Gloria is reveling it.

There's probably a little corner of heaven reserved for Polari speakers. For Polari speakers. Yeah. That'd be brilliant. I think we need to take a break, don't we? We need to take a break and then get in touch with us if you've got Polari questions or Polari experiences. Polari people, join the purple people.

In fact, I think purple people are naturally Polari people or Polari experiences. Polari people, join the purple people. In fact, I think purple people are naturally Polari people. 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 episode is brought We got you. Rogers.

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Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android, and play LEGO Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. This is Something Rhymes with Purple, and we get letters. They're sent to us via email at this address, purple at somethingelse dot com and something spelt without a G. And we've been talking Polari. And here's a query about a word, Minga. I think that's the way you pronounce it. And it has a kind of, to me, Polari ring to it. Anyway, the inquiry comes from Ian Armit. Dear Susie and Giles, I have loved your podcast throughout this crazy pandemic and passed on good vibes to all I

know. Thank you for that. Just to Bean to See, the fabulous, everybody's talking about Jamie. Oh, yes, it's a great musical. And I tried to explain to my Colombian husband the meaning of minga. Our friend swears it was coined by Jade Goody in Big Brother. But I'm sure we used to use it in high school in the 90s UK. Any ideas? An earliest record of the word minger. Forever Purple. Ian Armit is getting in touch from Bogota, Colombia. Wow. Well, it is pretty recent minger. So you'll first find records of it in the 1990s. But its origin is quite funny. As so often with four letter words and i'm talking about ming here its origin is fairly elusive that that is not a scientific statement by the way but just quite often some of the words that i always say four letters in search for an etymology

ming we know is scottish and it meant or does mean human excrement sorry about that or an unpleasant smell and we don't really know where that itself comes from but you will find it a lot in urban welsh's stories and it's probable that minger derives from that so a minger is a pretty horrible term for an ugly or unattractive person and unfortunately it's often used about women but yeah that's our best guess is it actually someone considered unpleasant and likening them to yeah an unpleasant smell yes so that's the mingo now the next question comes from Matthew Wilkinson this is in Giles I've newly discovered your podcast and it's been oh he says it's been lovely going through our back catalogue he lives in cardiff but his partner comes from a small town in the valleys called how to pronounce this mesteg m-a-e-s-t-g again mesteg when we travel there she would remark that it is out in the

sticks i wonder why we say this could this be anything to do with the mythical river sticks or could it be something much more straightforward it is much more straightforward and much more literal this one because sticks here are used in the slang sense of trees if you think about the phrase we might use similarly in the backwoods and it basically became a byword for a rural place at the beginning of the 20th century i've got lots of words for that actually we've got the boondocks as well haven't we which comes from a Tagalog word used in the Philippines, bundok meaning a mountain, and then used for a remote and wild place. And it was picked up by occupying American soldiers in the Philippines. Could you live out in the boondocks? Could you live in the middle of nowhere? Oh, I'd love to. Would you really? I've been thinking about it quite a lot.

Yeah, I would absolutely love to. Would you? No, i don't think i could possibly stand it i i want to live in the middle of everything i want to i don't think i could live in anything that wasn't the equivalent of a capital city oh i think i'd quite like it anyway watch this space i'll be i'll be calling you from the isle of sky that was very appealing shall i give you my trio please okay um well sardinia is not bad um if you wanted to go it's not a remote place but if you wanted to emigrate somewhere sardinia would be good and my first word is sardonian um and sardonian linked to sardonic um as you probably guess a sardonian is one who flatters with deadly intent and it's probably a reference to the sardinian plant and the sardinian plant was said to kill you if you

ate it by producing horrible laughter and a rictus grin that was then completely fatal and sardonic looks back to uh sardonicus the sardinian plant and sardonia and i just think we all know someone who flatters with deadly intent um so that's one for those of us who do a jetatore or jetatore j-e-t-t-a-t-o-r-e it comes from the italian for bad luck and it's somebody who brings misfortune with them sometimes i feel feel like I'm that person. Gettatore, one who brings bad luck. I don't know why I'm saying it was a terrible Italian accent. Gettatore. You're doing it with that accent because we've been talking Polari.

I guess so. But if I had a better accent, it would work better. But anyway, that's the second one. And the third one, you know you've heard of Ethelred the Unready. And you probably think that Unready is the fact that he was ill-prepared. In fact, he was ill-advised because the ready bit goes back to an old English word for counsel, as in C-O-U-N-C-E-L. And if you are readless, really is how we would pronounce it now, R-E-D-E-L-E-S-S, you look back to that same route and it means without counsel or not knowing what

to do, particularly in an emergency. So if you are rubbish in an emergency, you are readless or raidless. R-E-D-E-L-E-S-S. Very good. Those are your three. People often ask where they can find them. You can find them by listening to every episode. We both of us publish books of different kinds and feature some of these words in them. One day we'll get around, I'm sure, to our Something Rhymes with Purple book. But meanwhile, can I recommend you just go to wherever you buy your books from, I hope your local independent bookstore, and get them to look up Susie Dent. them to look up Susie Dent. It's D-E-N-T. And you will find there a raft of wonderful books about words and language. I can recommend any one of them. I have them on my bedside. And actually, they're marvellous things to dip into when you're just... No, it's true. And if you wake up at sort

of two in the morning and can't go to sleep, it's a perfect... One of your books is perfect. Not that it makes you nod off, but actually... Well, that's what Jimmy Carr would say, is that you're either standing in a charity shop, if you're seeing a line of my books, or that they're more than being a tranquiliser, they're a euthanasia is what he would say, which is very mean, but thank you.

I appreciate that. And I've done a book called Dancing by the Light of the Moon, which contains many of the poems that I share with you at the end of these podcasts. It's an anthology, really, of poems to learn by heart. And there are several hundred poems in the book, Dancing by the Light of the Moon. week is by A. E. Hausman. And I was thinking about it while I was writing my childhood memoir. And because it's a poem really encouraging you to live in the present and not look back at the past, though I've had to do so for the book I've been writing. And it contains a very famous turn of phrase. And until I read the poem, I didn't realise this is where the phrase came from. And until I read the poem, I didn't realize this is where the phrase came from. Into my heart, an air that kills from yon far country blows.

What are those blue remembered hills? What spires? What farms are those? That is the land of lost content. I see it shining plain. The happy highways where I went and cannot come again. The past is another country. Those blue remembered hills were then and there. And we've got to live in the here and now, which is where I'm very happy to live because I'm living virtually with you, Susie, in our lexicographical, what is the word?

Lexicographical. Lexicographical bubble. Well done. So thank you very much for listening to Something Rhymes with Purple. Do recommend us to your friends. We love to spread the word. We want more and more purple people. And feel free to get in touch with us.

We are purple at somethingelse.com and that's something without a G. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells, with additional production from Steve Ackerman, Ella McLeod, Jay Beale, and the fantabulosa man himself, except we never ever get to see him these days. Oh, no, yes, no.

Gully. Actually, Gully, it sounds like a Polari name. It does.