Something Rhymes with Purple - Pang Wangle

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Step into the time machine of linguistics and embark on a journey through the graveyard of forgotten words. In this week's episode of our Something Rhymes With Purple, Susie and Gyles unearth the most uproarious relics from the linguistic abyss. From "snollygoster" to “pang wangle,” prepare to find yourself in a linguistic oblivion. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s (trendy) Trio for the week:  Cheugy:The opposite of trendy. Yeet: To forcefully throw something, or, an expression of excitement. Sliving: Living your best life. Gyles' poem this week was ‘When ‘You Are Old’ by W.B. Yeats When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, 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. Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. This is the place where once a week, Susie Dent, the great lexicographer, and I get together to talk about words and language, usually about the origins of interesting words. Susie knows everything, and the few things she doesn't know, she's able to research for us because she has the Oxford English Dictionary at her fingertips. She used, in fact,

to work for the Oxford English Dictionary, but now she's famous in the United Kingdom for so many things, her stage work, her books, and for appearing on the daily word numbers game called Countdown, and there is a hilarious comedy version of it as well. I am Giles Brandreth. I'm based in London. And can you see where I am, Susie? Because we do this on Zoom so we can see each other. Can you see where I am? Yes. Have you got Marilyn behind you still?

You're in your basement. I'm in the, if you don't mind, I'm in my downstairs studio. But you're right. It's a small room in the basement where I'm locked in with Marilyn Monroe. I've got a huge screen behind me. And on one side of it are pictures of Audrey Hepburn. And on the other side are pictures of Marilyn Monroe. And I am fascinated by Marilyn Monroe.

I'm fascinated by her brilliance, her beauty, her comedic skills as an actress, her tragic story. And last night, I happened to find myself sitting at dinner next to a lady who knew Marilyn Monroe, who in the late 50s, early 60s, got to meet her through knowing, wait for it, this lady I was sitting next to, who's a novelist, she got to know Frank Sinatra. And Frank Sinatra had befriended Marilyn Monroe. And she met Marilyn Monroe and was fascinated by her. She found her very vulnerable, very likable. And she was telling me about an extraordinary dinner. Can you picture this? The lady I was with last night went for dinner with Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Ella Fitzgerald, the great singer. Wow, that's some dinner party.

Some dinner party. That's like a dream dinner party, you know, guest list, isn't it? It's like a dream dinner party. And at this dinner party, Ella Fitzgerald's almost her best friend in life was her maid, the lady who helped her around the house. And at the dinner party, what this lady I was with remembered was that the maid served them the first course, you know, put the soup on the table. The maid was dressed like a traditional maid with almost a bow in her hair and an apron. And then when she'd served the food, she went into the kitchen, took off her maid's cap and her apron, then came back and joined them at the table. Oh, amazing.

Because she was such a good friend of Elipha's child. And then when the first course was served, she got up, went to the kitchen, put on her maid's cap again and the apron, cleared away the dishes, served the next course, then took off the apron and the cap and went down. Is that an amazing story? I love that. You couldn't make it up. That's perfect. So, I mean, as you know, I collect people.

I'm supposed to be guilty of terrible name-dropping, but I find interesting people often well-known for a reason. Yeah. So to hear firsthand tales of Frank Sinatra, who was apparently, according to my friend, she said he wasn't Mafia himself, but there were some people around him who looked a little bit doubtful, but he was a very kindly person and took a real, almost avuncular interest in Marilyn Monroe. Avuncular means like an uncle, doesn't it? Yes, exactly. That's its root. And yeah,

it means friendly and, well, not fatherly, but uncle-y. Well, what's amazing about Marilyn Monroe is you say Marilyn Monroe, and most people can picture the person when you say the name Marilyn Monroe. But today, we're going to talk about words that are no longer familiar, but once were. Is that right? Is that what we're going to talk about? That was a nice segue, or segue, as I once said on Countdown. Yes. We're going to talk about words that are obsolete, words that we're no longer using.

And I want to discover why we're no longer using them. You can tell me what they were. I used a word the other day that somebody didn't understand. I do a Radio 4 programme called Just a Minute. And in the programme, somebody said something and my reaction was to say, bollocks. Yeah. And when the recording came to an end, the producer said, I don't think, you know, this is Radio 4.

It goes out in the daytime on a Sunday and early in the evening. He said, I'm not sure the word bollocks is appropriate. Can we just, could you replace that word with one other word? And I thought it's got to be sound like bollocks because that's what I, that came out of my mouth. I said, what about codswallop? Yeah, very good what does that mean no and i couldn't believe it he didn't know well he was quite young but remind me what does codswallop mean i mean it's the equivalent of bollocks isn't it means rubbish nonsense no we've talked about this before but i'm very happy to remind you because hiram codd was a bottle maker and he devised this glass stoppered bottle, much as you can get these days, which would keep drinks fizzy or keep

them fresh. And wallop was an old dialect term for weak beer, essentially. And so Codd's, Hiram Coddds Wallop, he would sell soft drinks because people looked down on these and thought they weren't the real hard stuff. They called it Codds Wallop, Codds kind of weak beer, Codds weak drink and because people looked down on them it became a byword for stuff and nonsense. Thank you and since I've lowered the tone by bringing the word bollocks into the conversation, why does bollocks mean rubbish? I mean, bollocks is, and people also say balls for the same thing, meaning what a lot of nonsense, what a lot of balls, what a lot of

bollocks. But why are balls and bollocks? Why do they mean rubbish? Well, it's interesting, isn't it? Because if you take various parts of the male anatomy, they are often used insultingly. If you think about plonker, or you prick, you bastard. They're never particularly flattering. And bollocks, just taking a man's testicles and thinking that it's a byword for utter rubbish, I mean, it didn't start out that way. So if you remember from our swearing episode,

bollocks is from just not quite Anglo-Saxon, just after Old English, so in the transition between Old English and Middle English. And a man's blukas, which was used in a translation of the Bible, was a straightforward anatomical description of a man's testicles. And for a long time, it was used very positively. So do you remember when we were talking about a Midsummer Night's Dream in one of our bonus episodes,

we talked about how the word bully was actually used as a term of endearment originally. So it was with bollocks. So actually, Giles, if you were to WhatsApp some of your male friends and ask them if they wanted to go down to the pub, you could have said in the 17th century, will you join me at the inn, my sweet bollocks? Because it was used affectionately. And it was only later that it came to be used, well, A as an expression, as you used it on, just a minute of frustration or stress or, you know, just crossness. And then as meaning something's just completely rubbish. That's a load of bollocks. But it has kept a slightly positive sense

because we have the dog's bollocks, which is the acme of excellence, and we have something that is top bollocks. So it's had this kind of double life all the way through. I do appreciate that this is not what we came here to talk about but it's still fascinating nonetheless um i'm going to tell you where obsolete comes from also given that that's what we're going to move on to it's from the latin obsoletus meaning worn out dilapidated and fallen into disregard i think a lot of us feel a bit obsolete sometimes don't we obviously linked to obsolescence, which is the same thing.

Do you know, I've reached the stage where my wife and I get up in the morning, we both always immediately agree, don't we feel more tired now than we did when we went to bed? Yes, I absolutely am with you on that one. I was just thinking that this morning before we podcast, did I not sleep very well? I'm sure I did. And I felt absolutely shattered. Every day I am more exhausted than the day before.

Isn't that funny? Absolutely knackered. Now, knackers also, I mean, this wasn't supposed to be an episode all about bollocks, but are knackers also, is that a euphemism? Knackers are your testicles. And I always think of, do you remember when we were at school, they're now banned, but those kanokas,

that were those really hard balls on strings that you a bit like conkers those were called the kanakas i'm sure because it was a sort of you know that we knew as kids but a subtle reference to the testicles so yeah from 1866 they were used for that but actually originally a naka was something that made a sharp cracking noise such as a castanet i wonder if it's to do with dangling castanets who knows um but the naka as in the naka's yard you know the sort of old worn out horse goes back to the use of knickknacks really so knickknacks smaller articles miscellaneous articles um but also originally the things that belonged to a horse's harness

so all the sort of accoutrements that you will get on a saddle and harness and that kind of thing and so a knack was originally a saddler or a harness maker and then eventually one who bought worn out or useless horses and then slaughtered them for their hides not very nice can i say i think you've stumbled upon what could be a rather softer, nicer euphemism for testicles. Knickknacks. Oh, knickknacks. Oh, yes. Oh, your knickknacks.

You know, put away your knickknacks. I'm liking that. Should we just linger on testicles just for a minute? Please. There's a lovely charity called Balls to Cancer, which is essentially about raising awareness of testicular cancer. And they asked me a while ago to design a T-shirt for them. They asked various people to design T-shirts, which they would sell for the charity.

I'm not sure how many of mine they sold, but I had a great time delving in the dictionary for synonyms for testicles. And you'll find lots in the slang, lovely Jonathan Green's dictionary of slang, which I recommend often. And I'll give you a few. Twiddle diddles. Oh, I like that.

Knick knacks. Good. Yeah. Cajones, we know. Ging me bobs. I've never heard of ging me bobs. Ging me bobs is good. Go nads, you will have heard. Ghoulies, you will have heard. Jelly bags. Nuts. Aunt pollies. Aunt pollies. That sounds Australian to me. My aunt pollies. Yes, very good. Go on. Tally wags. Tallyolly's. That sounds Australian to me. My Aunt Polly's. Yes, very good.

Go on. Tallywags. Tallywags. Swingers. Nutmegs. Drummers. Cream crackers. Did I mention jelly bags?

Whifflers. Danglers. Cajones. Most of us don't all know that. And your ballocks. There you go. Very good. This didn't take us, I mean, I didn't expect to go down here, but I'm glad that we have.

I'm not sure the purple people would be glad that we have. Anyway. I love the way you put that. I didn't expect to go down here, but I'm glad that we have. Well, there we are. Tell me about some obsolete words that you find interesting and explain to me why they were once current, why they've gone obsolete.

Tell me about, unwrap the world of obsolescence. Well, why do they become obsolete? Simple, really. It's just that we don't use them anymore. But as I always remind you, me and the purple people, language is incredibly circular. So we may think that something has fallen out of use, but quite often it will come back again. And you can always tell if you are riffling through the OED even virtually that words that have a lot of records behind them so have been used a lot and the Oxford English Dictionary editors have found lots of printed records of this usage they stand the better chance of coming back there are lovely ones in the dictionary which I mention often such as for example where there was only one record you know so only one

person used it and so it was always unlikely that it would gain enough traction really to to get out there sadly and yeah so those less likely to come back but a lot of them simply aren't relevant anymore or we invented a more modern sounding substitute or their point of reference has gone. Now sometimes if the point of reference is gone it simply means that a word or phrase changes. So we have spoken in the past about the expression carrying favour with someone and how it used to be carrying fable and fable was a horse in legend that belonged to the king. And courtiers would come and brush the horse's coat in order to get into the king's good books. But the legend of Favour became lost, so we just substituted Favour instead. So we kind of changed it to ensure its longevity, really.

But sometimes they just slip away. And we will have mentioned lots of these in our previous episodes, I think, Giles. I may have mentioned them in my trio, or I think we will have, you know, covered them according to our various themes. So do you remember, and you're always a good yardstick, because I think if I repeat something, I don't want purple people to be thinking, oh my goodness, here she goes again. She's mentioned this 15 times. So if you don't remember it, I'll feel slightly comforted. Do you remember a snollygoster from our political episode? I certainly remember the word a snollygoster. Yeah. But I don't remember it, I'll feel slightly comforted. Do you remember a snorligoster from our political episode? I certainly remember the word a snorligoster. Yeah. But I don't remember

the origins of it or indeed what it means. But once you begin to tell me, it'll come back. Okay. You may not like this, actually, because there's so many of the political epithets in the Dictionary of Negative. But a snorligoster is a shrewd but unprincipled politician and a politician who's only out for their own ends, really. And it may have been inspired by the Snallygaster, which was a mythical monster from Maryland in the US, which was invoked by parents to frighten their children into behaving properly. So Snallygaster is a good one. I don't mind these negative words about politicians

because they always are old words, or often they are old words. And it reminds me that actually poor old politicians, many of them, have always been the victims of this. So there's nothing new. So if there were snollygosters, you know, 200 years ago, it's not surprising they may be the odd snollygoster now. It's a great word. I need to ask you at some point why anyone would actually become a politician given what they face these days. But anyway, that's for another discussion another discussion okay so that's a snollygoster there is also mumpsimus which I mentioned probably every other every other episode I say mumpsimus is someone who insists that they're right despite clear evidence that they are wrong um from a story about a roman catholic

priest in the 16th century gallimorphy that's a lovely one i love the words that they're often food food based um and often they they describe nonsense we talked about cod's wallet we also have boulder dash which was a really unappetizing kind of liquidy concoction that people used to eat but gallimaufry is also food-based really but it's just i quite like it it's i didn't feel it was obsolete it's like a smorgasbord isn't it a gallimaufry a range it's a jumble slightly confused jumble but a jumble nonetheless unpick the word i mean why is it gallimaufry it's g-a-l-l-i-m-a-u-f-r-y yes and it's from french but we actually the trail stops there we don't know what came before but originally in 16th century you'll find it in recipe books and it meant basically what we might call leftovers

it's a dish made by hashing up odds and ends of food or anything you've got in the fridge i love that it's the only kind of cooking i might still be able to do. Put a huge knob of butter in a frying pan and then cut up whatever you've got left in the fridge and put it all together. And then if you need to crack an egg open on top of it and create your own kind of bizarre Spanish omelette. Oh, I love that. And I always mention how if I get stuck in the OED quite often, even if it is the OED online. I will just, my eyes will wander to the right of the screen and it will give me not just the entry that I have just looked up, but it will also give me lots of other words near it. And my eyes just went to gallinaceous.

That's definitely obsolete. Gallinaceous means belonging to the order gallini, which comprises all the ordinary domestic poultry, pheasants, partridges, chickens. And it's used humorously to mean cocky. Isn't that great? Gallinaceous. So there's one.

Gallinaceous. Oh, you're a bit gallinaceous this morning. I like that. Exactly. You're a bit full of yourself, are you? Gallinaceous. That's a useful one. It's a good one, isn't it?

I should be using that on the grandchildren. That's what happens when I go into the OED. Then we have, when we did our swearing episode, we talked about minced oaths. So we talked about all the euphemisms that people picked up in order to avoid using the Lord's name in vain, which was the real taboo in those days. in those days and one of my favorites which we you may i think it used to be used jokingly and even though it was old-fashioned when we were young in comics and things zoons do you remember that oh yes i do remember zoons yeah yes uh gazooks is also another one another one as in god's hooks isn't it yeah and zoons is god's wounds i I imagine. God's wounds. Struth. Struth. Which the Australians laugh. Oh, Struth.

Yeah, Struth. And what's the origin of that? God's truth. Ah. So, yes, lots and lots of those. I always think it would be good to bring back, you know, things like Gad's Budlikins, for an exclamation. But all of those are obsolete. Gad's Budlikins was God's little body.

So, I mean, when you unpack them, they are quite profane, really, aren't they? They are quite blasphemous. But people obviously thought that these were preferable to the real thing. Gorblimey, another one, Gorblimey. God blind me, obviously. If I were to call you Snoutfair, would you be happy? I don't know. If you meant I had a rather pretty upturned nose, oh, I like your Snoutfair, that would be good. But is it fair, F-A-R-E, as in food, something you eat? No, as in attractive. Oh, F-A-R-R, snout fair. Yes. Well, does that mean I smell good or does it mean I've got a sweet little nose? It means it's not really the nose bit as much. It's having a fair countenance, fair-faced and it was often used towards women actually so yeah

particularly for women and then as so many words used for women or of women it kind of slipped into slightly disparaging suggestion somewhere along the line but snout fair is quite nice and you know it's hard to find these positive compliments in the dictionary as you know because for every one there will be 10 insultss. So I thought I would stick to that one. Can I offer some consoling words for any of our listeners who may not think they are as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe? Yes. I had an interesting conversation once with a great psychiatrist called Dr. Anthony Clare. And I asked him if beautiful people on the whole were happier than plain people. And he said, no, the reverse is the case. He said, human beings on the whole find extremes of any kind quite difficult to cope with.

So we find the incredibly grotesque difficult to cope with, but we find the incredibly beautiful difficult to cope with. He said, if you look at beautiful people, they're maybe beautiful to look at, but often they find forming relationships quite challenging because people don't behave normally towards them. People find nervous about approaching them. And so being very beautiful is not an advantage in life. Marilyn Monroe, incredibly beautiful, but not very lucky in love and not very happy. So if you are more homely looking while listening to this, be consoled with those words from the late, great Dr. Anthony Clare. Like that.

Well, to go with snout fair, I mentioned the insults. This one I just like because it's slightly teasing. If you are tall and ungainly, it was often used of all women, but I think it can be used for anyone, Gamma Stang. Gamma Stang? Gamma Stang, yes. So you're kind of vaguely awkward.

That one, I think, may possibly still be used in Scotland, but I would say it's pretty obsolete over here. So that's quite a nice one. Oh, there are so many. Shall we take a break and then come back to some more? Let's take a break. Well, let's skedaddle doodle. No more kerfuffle, enough brouhaha,

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dialect really whether it's kind of a recent coinage i suspect it may be but i'm going to do some more research on it but i kept it in because it's got such a lovely definition to pangwangle apparently is to live or go along cheerfully in spite of minor misfortunes. Oh, that's good. It's to keep your pecker up, really. Always. To keep your pecker up.

What is pecker? Well, I'm afraid it's exactly what you thought just then. No. Yes, they're everywhere. But people say that quite openly. Yes. And is that what it means? Yes.

Well, people talk about other people being burks, or at least they used to, quite openly, without realising quite where that quite openly. Yes. And is that what it means? Yes. Well, people talk about other people being Berks, or at least they used to quite openly without realising quite where that came from. Indeed. And that's rhyming slang, isn't it? Barclay Hunt. Yes. Very good. So a pecker is a penis.

Yes. How amusing. Although, I mean, I think there may be a slight reference to a chicken having its beak up, possibly. Yes, also. Yes, exactly. Keep your head in the air. Keep your spirits up. Keep your pecker up.

Yeah. But also it could be keep your willy aloft. I think so. What about half and half and half? Half and half and half. That's Frankie Atwood. No, no, no, no, missus. No, no, no, no, titty not.

Half and half and half. What does that mean? It's a drunk person who's had too many halves, but it's, no, titty, not. Half and half and half, what does that mean? It's a drunk person who's had too many halves, but it's Victorian slang, believe it or not. So that's A-R-F, A-R-F, A-N-A-R-F. Half and half and half. Oh, I think it's brilliant. What a brilliant word.

Always half and half and half. I love it. It is good. It is good. Well, we need to bring that one back. Go on, some more. Okay, this sounds like the worst kind of Monty Python euphemism, smothering a parrot. Smothering a parrot. This could be quite rude, I think. What is smothering a parrot? No, it really wasn't. It was actually drinking a glass of absinthe

neat. So, you know, the absinthe is very green. So if you're smothering a parrot, that's what you do. I met the Speaker of the House of Commons recently. You know, I absinthe is very green. So if you're smothering a parrot, that's what you do. I met the Speaker of the House of Commons recently. You know, I like to drop names, but I actually genuinely know Sir Lindsay Hoyle. I knew his father. His father was an MP when I was an MP. And Lindsay Hoyle is, in my view, a really marvellous person, lovely human being, as well as, from what I can see,

an excellent Speaker of the House of Commons. And he introduced me to some of his menagerie he keeps at speaker's house a lot of animals including a beautiful maine a coon cat very like our own cat that we have here in my home yeah it was called atlee all his all his animals are named after former british prime ministers so actually there was clement atlee who's a labour prime. And so he's got this one beautiful cat called Attlee. He's got a tortoise. And the tortoise is called Maggie, after Maggie Thatcher, because he says she's not for turning. She keeps walking in the same direction. She really cannot turn around. But wait for it.

Don't tell me he's got a parrot. He's got a parrot. And guess what the parrot is called? It's got to be British prime ministers. Of course, the parrot is called Boris. It won't stop talking. And he's taught it some pretty bad language as well. Does he keep it caged up or is it allowed to roam? I think it was certainly free when I saw it.

He is a real committed animal lover. Is he? Okay. And I think if he has this parrot, it's because the parrot was already, he would probably have adopted it from somewhere, was already domesticated or couldn't be let into the wild. He is Mr. Animal Welfare. Lovely. And a lovely and interesting human being.

Yeah. Oh, he sounds bang up to the elephant. Oh, what does that mean? Perfect, complete. Oh, good. bang up to the elephant. Oh, what does that mean? Perfect. Complete. Oh, good. Yes, that's more Victorian slang. I've talked to you about damnfino, which is a sort of slight euphemism for damned if I know,

but they kind of shortened it into D-A-M-F-I-N-O. Damnfino. And finally, because we've got to get to our correspondence, whooperups. Do you know what your whipperups are? Whipperups? Wooper. Yes. They're not back to parliament. Whooping as in whoop to our correspondence, whooper-ups. Do you know what your whipper-ups are? Whipper-ups? Wooper, yes. They're not back to parliament. Whooping as in whoop, whoop, whoopie. Yes.

How do you spell that? W-H-O-O-P-E-R-U-P-S. Well, I think it means partying. Sort of. Somebody who is a jolly person. Inferior noisy singers. Oh, inferior noisy singers. Yes, they're not great singers.

The type that might go to karaoke at the end of an office party. Fine. Inferior noisy singers. Oh, inferior noisy singers. Yes, they're not great singers. The type that might go to karaoke at the end of an office party. Fine. They're the whooper-ups. The whooper-ups are on now. I quite liked the lack of direction of this episode, actually. I quite like the fact that we just went everywhere and anywhere. Do you know, we want more bollocks on our show. We do.

We really do. We do. Oh, titter you not. Well, the listeners will tell us what they want. Do always, please, as well as sending in your queries, if there are subjects you think, oh, why haven't they covered that, point us in the right direction. That's very helpful to us.

The place to communicate with us now is a new address. I hope the old address, for those who are still using it, will get through somehow. But we'd like you to use this new address, purplepeople people that has a kind of euphonious ring to it purple people at something rhymes.com something with a g something rhymes.com purple people something rhymes who's been in touch well we have heard first and foremost from sarah evans who has got quite an intriguing question dear giles and suzy i love your podcast and often share your words with my family. This is a question from my teenage son that we hope you may be able to answer.

If the verb associated with implicit is imply and the one associated with complicit is comply, is there a verb that goes with explicit? Exply? Thank you. Sarah Evans. It's a really good one. It's not one I had considered before. So bear with me while I unpick all of the words that Sarah mentions in here. So first of all, she talks about implicit. That is from the Latin implicatus, which meant entwined. So if something is implicit, it is kind of very much part and parcel of

something. So you almost don't need to question it because it is entwined with it, if that makes sense. And the reason why I love all these words is that implicatus goes back to implicare, and that implicare meant to fold. So when you have something which is implicit, it is kind of folded in, if you like. So that gives you the entwined bit. OK, so that's implicit. And then imply is very much part of that. She's absolutely right. And again, to imply something is to fold it into the argument.

So that ply is actually related to the multi-ply tissues that you might buy in a supermarket. It's all to do with folding. Complicit is also to do with the idea of folding together. It goes back to the Latin complicare, which also gave us complicated, as you might guess. And an accomplice, which is also related, meant somebody who's folded into a group, they were part and parcel of it. But, Sarah, it is not actually related to comply. That actually goes back to a different Latin verb, complere, meaning to fill up, because by complying with something, you are fulfilling it or accomplishing it, if that makes sense. So complicit and comply are not related. So that's a kind of

false friend there, not related. And explicit, go back to the Latin explicare, to unfold. So when you explain something, you are unfolding it. That's a member of that family as well. So explicit is something that's unfolded. It's out there. It's very transparent. There is no expli, unfortunately, but it was once used as a verb. So if an author wrote expli in their book, they would be indicating the end of it. So it's much like here ends if they use expli. But you will see that it's not as straightforward or as simple a picture as you might think. So there's no obvious link between complicit and comply. So I'm afraid, although it's a brilliant question from your son, it's not an unbroken thread there.

Thank you for unfolding that so brilliantly, Susie Dent. And I hope, Sarah Evans, you are satisfied. We now have Jennifer from West Sussex getting in touch. And she says, my question to you, Susie and Giles, is how do you feel about new, almost made-up words? Are they genuine or just a lazy way of not finding a mot juste? For instance, the following examples really jar impactful, suspenseful, oracy, and super as an intensifier. For instance, this meal is super tasty. I would appreciate your thoughts and wisdom.

I can share my thoughts. We have to rely on Susie Dent for wisdom, Jennifer. What is your reaction to all that? Well, there's two different kinds, aren't there? I think what may be being referred to here by Jennifer is kind of the extensions of existing words like impactful or suspenseful, rather than a completely new word, because completely new words, I think, are so rare that actually new word because completely new words I think are so rare that actually we should celebrate them and I think every family has got their own kind of word invention that they use. One of my favourite inventions of recent times and I've seen it several times on Twitter but I don't know exactly who coined it. It describes the person who is on

your street and always always remembers to put their bins out first. So they're the person who is on your street and always always remembers to put their bins out first so they're the person who puts their bins out and everyone else on the street follows do you know what they're called charles um bintastic a binfluencer oh which is super good it's so good so when it comes to words like that i love it um and i what i did is i went through jennifer's email and i looked up the first use of the words that she really doesn't like so impactful um 1939 it is American I think possibly the assumption would be that a lot of these are American but 1939 so it's been around for a while suspenseful full of suspense nothing wrong with that it's been around since 1656 so not a new word at all oracy um 1965 is this meaning

as in auditory it's competence in oral language that's the ability to express oneself fluently really and it was actually used in a spoken english textbook when the author a wilkinson said the term we suggest for general ability in the oral skills is oracy. Super as an intensifier, yet not very keen on that. I'm with you on that one. Again, we've been bigging people up and bigging things up. Linguistic inflation, we call it, for a very long time. Hyperbole has always been around.

This meal is super tasty. It's not to my taste, but I don't mind it too much. I mean, I wouldn't scream. I wouldn't be super hasty in rejecting super tasty. I think it expresses it rather well. It means, oh, this meal is super tasty. It's lovely. It's really lovely. I mean, I think if someone says, I'm super excited, maybe that's just fizzing over a little bit too much. I'm grateful when they say that to me. I quite like super duper too. I mean, super duper is just intensifying the intensifier, isn't it? Yes, that is good.

This is a super duper meal. I did a fairy tongue in cheek thing on Twitter the other day where I asked people for all the words they would like to ban. And we've covered this before on Purple, but I think it might be time to do another one because it was just quite an interesting thing to do another one because there was some, it was just quite an interesting thing to do. Oh, that's very good.

Ban the word. Let's do that as an episode in the near future. Okay, let's do that. Now, how are you going to come up with an interesting trio when we've been talking about obsolete words or words not in general currency anymore for the past half hour or so? What are you going to offer us?

I'm going to offer you some new strange words. I'm going to offer you three words from Teenage Slag and I'm going to test you on them. Oh, I'd love to be tested. Okay, and you can let me know if you know what they mean. Okay, Giles, I'm not going to call you this. That is so choogy. Chuggy? Yeah, C-H-E-U-G-Y. That means, I don't know, predictable, obvious? Sort of. It means uncool and cringe. Yeah, I can imagine. And cringe on its own is a word. Cringe is now in the dictionary.

Cringe is an abbreviation of cringeworthy, is it? Yes, exactly. That's so cringe. It's become an adjective I don't know. Cheugy. Yeah. That's so cheugy. Okay.

Yeet. Y-E-E-T. Yeet. I mean, these are words if one watched something called South Park, maybe would become more familiar with. I don't know. What does yeet mean? Two meanings. It can either mean to forcefully throw something, to yeet something, but more often it's used as an exclamation of excitement or approval. So it's a good thing. Ah, yeet.

I got tickets for Eurovision. Yeet. Yeet. Well, as in those cartoon words from the 1950s. Yikes. Yes. You know, these expressions. So it's the oh crikey of today. A hundred years ago, people always said, yaroo. Y-A-R-O.

It's definitely Billy Bunter yaroo. Yeah. Yeet. It's approval and excitement. Good. Okay. And slithing. Slithing.

Slithing. Slithing. Oh, slithing. Slithing. S-L-I-V-I-N-G. One V. Slithing slithing slithing slithing slithing s-l-i-v-v-i-n-g one v it's a bit it's a bit odd this one but anyway go for it coined by paris hilton apparently oh it means living your best life so it's a portmanteau of slay as in slaying it and living i think it'd be slithing rather than slithing i think it'd be slithing ah itiving. I think it'd be sliving. Ah, it's sliving. It is definitely sliving. Well done, Paris Hilton. I mean, what a name to have, you know, to be named after a city and a hotel is fantastic. And to have come

up, to have coined a word, sliving, living your best life. Living your best life. There you go. Let's keep sliving. Let's keep sliving. Well, you have gone for the ultra modern the latest and i've gone for the very old i wanted a poem about old things because i knew we're going to talk about obsolescence and then i thought you can't do better than this wonderful poem by wb yates the great irish poet and it's a famous poem but but I love it. It's called When You Are Old. When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep. How many loved your moments of glad grace,

How many loved your moments of glad grace And loved your beauty with love false or true But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you And loved the sorrows of your changing face And bending down beside the glowing bars Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. Oh, I thought that was going to a really happy place.

And then it was quite... Well, it's about the reality of age and oldness. Do you know what came up on my YouTube viewing? I don't often browse around YouTube, but I was watching Nick Cave perform a particular song and underneath it came Leonard Cohen, Dance Till the End of Time. And in the video for it, it's worth watching, it's couples, big black and white blown up pictures of them from behind of when they fell in love in their twenties or whatever. And now they're dancing

aged, you know, 70, 80, 90 sometimes. It's just a very very sweet thing. Just reminded me of that poem. I love that. Well that's what poetry can do for you. Can take you into strange wonderful worlds. Lovely. Well hasn't this been fun being together? It has. Look people want to keep in touch with us. Do keep in touch with us. Remember

our new address for your correspondence it's purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com. That's it, isn't it? It's it. If you love the show, please keep following us. And please consider the Purple Plus Club if you would like some ad-free listening and some bonus episodes on words and language.

Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production. It was produced by Naya Dio with additional production from Hannah Newton, Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery. And, well, he was here, but he's so cheeky sometimes, Giles. Oh, no, he isn't. He's more of a rapscallion in my book.

Nothing cheeky about Gully.