Something Rhymes with Purple - Pertolerate

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Happy New Year, Purple People! We're kicking off 2024 by flicking through the pages of Gyles book' 'Word Play'. Join us and join in as we unpack and explore odd and unusual words in the English language. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Gorgonize: To have a mesmerising effect on someone Lethophobia: The fear of oblivion. Grubbling: Fumbling about in your bag or pocket in order to find something. Gyles' poem this week was 'Tarantella' by Hilaire Belloc Do you remember an Inn, Miranda? Do you remember an Inn? And the tedding and the spreading Of the straw for a bedding, And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees, And the wine that tasted of tar? And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers (Under the vine of the dark verandah)? Do you remember an Inn, Miranda, Do you remember an Inn? And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteeers Who hadn't got a penny, And who weren't paying any, And the hammer at the doors and the Din? And the Hip! Hop! Hap! Of the clap Of the hands to the twirl and the swirl Of the girl gone chancing, Glancing, Dancing, Backing and advancing, Snapping of a clapper to the spin Out and in -- And the Ting, Tong, Tang, of the Guitar. Do you remember an Inn, Miranda? Do you remember an Inn? Never more; Miranda, Never more. Only the high peaks hoar: And Aragon a torrent at the door. No sound In the walls of the Halls where falls The tread Of the feet of the dead to the ground No sound: But the boom Of the far Waterfall like Doom. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience, and the Purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Before we begin, before we even say welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple, Susie Dent and I want to say something to all of you who are kind enough to be listening at the beginning of 2024. Happy New Year to all of you. We appreciate the Purple people so much. We really do. Okay, welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. We really do. Okay, welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. If you're new to our podcast, a very warm welcome to you. This is a place where I'm pleased to say tens of

thousands of people from around the world gather once a week to listen to me and my good friend Susie Dent, who I always describe as the world's leading lexicographer. She then demurs, but I persist in seeing her as that. And until any competition comes across the horizon, she is. Is there a society of lexicographers, Susie? That's a very good question. If there is, I haven't been invited to be part of it. But there are wonderful societies for proofreaders and editors, which I am a part of. And yeah, so they're sort of ancillary. Well, I wouldn't say they're ancillary, they're very important professions in themselves. But in terms of

lexicographers, I am not sure. There's the Royal Philological Society, of course, but maybe I should set one up. Is there a collective noun for a group of lexicographers? Well, a lot of people will say pedant, won't they? No. for a group of lexicographers? Well, a lot of people will say pedant, won't they? No. Yes. I like a lusk, a lusk of lexicographers, because I like to think of as kind of luxuriating in language.

Oh, L-U-X. L-U-S-K, L-U-S-K. Oh, is that a real word? L-U-S-K? Yes. Lusking is just sort of basking and being a little bit indulgent. Oh. Lux would be light, wouldn't it? It does. So that is illuminating. Lux is to lie back and revel in, well, whatever it is. And in your case, in words and language, I have got a collective noun to suggest for you for a gathering of lexicographers. Not a drudgery. And that is, no, an alphabet soup, an alphabet soup of lexicographers. Quite nice, isn't it? Because you can stir it about.

You have fun with words. And I thought today we might, as you know, I love wordplay. You are scholarly. You know about the origins of words. And you can, you know, but through your work with the OED, as you call it, the Oxford English Dictionary, where you were once an employee, but now you rely on it totally. Are you a consultant with them or you just use their products? I'm their spokesperson sometimes, which is really nice. So I cherish that link. So Oxford's Words

of the Year, for example, they're just being announced or have just been announced in recent times. So yeah, so I'm very much involved with those. But in terms of day-to-day working on the dictionaries or their publishing, not so much. Well, I thought today I would share with you some of my favourite words. Every week on the podcast, you give us three unusual, interesting words that you feel deserve greater currency. And I thought today I'd come up with some of them. I'm just eating my off-bat soup, by the way. Oh, good. Enjoy it. Don't slurp. There come up with some of my alphabet soup, by the way.

Oh, good. Enjoy it. Don't slurp. There's nothing more annoying than people slurping on the telephone or when they're doing Zoom calls. Don't you find that? Oh, it's... I'm not slurping. That was a spoon. I'm not actually slurping myself. No, but when you phone somebody up and, or rather when phone you, and they've got food in their mouth, or they slurp at their coffee while they're chatting, oh, it's really, it's like in old-fashioned boards in schools, and they don't have boards like this. When I was a child, there were blackboards, and there were chalk.

You could write chalk on the blackboard. And if the chalk came down the blackboard in the wrong way, or people put their, yes, exactly. that's misophonia isn't it that's the um phobia of certain noises whereas actually the big thing and i think we've spoken about this on the pod before it's asmr do you remember this no okay so asmr is autonomous sensory meridian response. And if you go on places like TikTok or Twitch or Instagram, there are dedicated ASMR live streams and videos where people actually listen to the lips popping. They listen to people crunching crisps and they become incredibly, well, I would just say it induces senses of contentment. So some people find it incredibly relaxing. Other people find it

euphoric. Definitely not you, I can tell. I mean, listening to people sort of making popping sounds and slurping sounds and being turned on by it, I do not approve. From alphabet soup to that, but I am not slurping. So that's the good news. And you are going to take us through the wonderful world of... Alphabet soup. I'm going to give you some words that are favourites of mine, and then I'm going to ask you if you know what they mean, and then I'm going to tell you why they are among my most favourite words. So this is my version of your three words of the week, but I've got more than three that I've researched researched and you can see how long we've got and whether you find this

amusing. The first word I want to give you is eunoia. I pronounce it eunoia. It's spelt E-U-N-O-I-A. Now, do you know what that word means? Okay. So you've got the E-U, that always means good. So, if you have euphony, it means good or well-sounding. If you have a euphemism, that again is all about something that is well-intentioned and you are sounding good, as opposed to dysphemism, which is actually being deliberately rude. So, I suspect it is something to do with beauty or pleasingness. And the neuer, if you took that from paranoia or pronoia, thinking, so beautiful thought. You are a genius, Susie Dent. This is why people tune in.

Eunoia does indeed mean beautiful thinking. Beautiful thinking. Isn't that lovely? Exactly. What doesn't happen to me when I listen to people slurping is the reverse of that. But eunoia is beautiful thinking. Now, why I love this word is not simply because it's rather a beautiful word for a beautiful thing. It's because I believe it's the shortest English word that contains all the vowels. A, E, I, O, and U are all in that word. We discount Y because that's an ambivalent letter. Semi-vowel. Yeah, it's a semi-vowel. So the full vowels, all the full vowels, A-E-I-O-U, are in the word

eunoya, and I think it's the shortest English word that contains them. And if people have doubts about that, they can always write to us and say, no, no, no, no, get in touch, purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com and say, I've come up with a shorter word, but I don't think you will. Let me give you another one now. This is u-a-e. I think it's how you pronounce it. U-a-e. E-u-o-u-a-e. E-u-o-u-a-e. Now, are you familiar with this word? Have you come across it before? I am not remotely familiar with this. Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's across it before? I am not remotely familiar with this. Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's an old word. I think it is in your favourite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary. It's a medieval mnemonic. Now, you know what a mnemonic is?

Mnemonic? Yeah. Mnemonic with a silent M. That's it. Mnemonic. Yes, mnemonic. That's a sort of trick for remembering things, isn't it? Memory, yes. Works on the memory. This is a, mnemonic. That's a sort of trick for remembering things, isn't it? Memory, yes. Works on the memory.

This is a medieval mnemonic used to recall the musical tones required when chanting the Gloria Patri. So it was used by monks when they sang back in medieval times. And that's what the word is about. But the reason I love this word, E-U-O-U-A-E, U-O-U, is it is the English word with the most consecutive vowels. Do you think that's right? Oh, yeah, the most consecutive vowels. Okay, because I know that no word in English has more than six consecutive consonants, but these are vowels. And it's doing what do, re, mi and gamut and other words in English do, isn't it? It's picking out certain letters and then making a word from those.

So it's from in saecula, saeculorum, amen, into the ages. Yeah, lovely. So exactly that. It has six consecutive vowels. Now, there are words with five consecutive vowels, quite a few of them. Can you think of one? Get in line for this. Are you in the queue? Queue.

Yeah, queuing. The queue, very good. Queuing. Yes. And when you're doing beautiful thinking, which you are when you're indulging in eunoia, you may be said to be cooing with pleasure. Oh, lovely. Cooing.

Cooing. I think would be allowed. Well, probably cooing. You know, hello, cooey with pleasure oh lovely cooing i think would be allowed as well probably cooing you know hello cooey are you up there cooey cooey cooing so cooey that would be c-o-o-e-e-i-n-g cooing of course q-u-e-u-e-i cooing lovely yes and everyone says why on earth do we bother with anything other than the first letter of q that is because it comes from the French for tail, of course, which is pronounced the same way. Can you think of while we're at it, and you may be coming on to this, in which case tell me to wait. But can you think of an English word that does contain six consecutive consonants? Well, whenever I travel a lot on the London Underground, because I live in London, England, and I go on the Underground a great deal.

And from where I live, getting into the West End, I go often on the Piccadilly Line. So I pass through Knightsbridge. Now, Knightsbridge contains in it G-H-T-S-B-R. Oh, that's five. That's excellent. No, no. Is it? G-H-T-S-B-R. That's six. That's six. G-H-T-S-B-R? That's six. That's six. G-H-T-S-B. Oh, it is. Excellent. That's really good.

So Knightsbridge is what I'm offering you, but that is a place name. Can you give me something else? Well, they tend to be compound words. So catchphrase is one of them. Watchstrap would be another one. So a bit of a cheat because at some point they probably had a hyphen. I think catchphrase is okay, but I feel watchstrap they probably had a hyphen i think catchphrase is okay but i feel a watch strap probably still has a hyphen doesn't it shall i tell you let's

have a look and who decides when to de-hyphen the hyphens we all do it we study these databases as you know and see how people are using them i mean sometimes you know it seems extraordinary that we have got rid of the hyphen like re-entering as now written as r-e-e-n-t with three e's which no two e's which just seems very strange to me and then in other cases they're sort of holding holding on strong so let me see yeah all one word. Certainly in Oxford, Collins, Cambridge. Yes, some still do. Actually, some dictionaries are sticking with it. But yeah, not us. Very good. Okay. Well, let me give you just two more, and then I've got a change of theme for you. And I don't know, well, I can't remember rather what this word means. But again, it's an unusual word, and I love it for probably the wrong reasons, not for its meaning, but for the way the letters are organised. Igilops. Igilops is the word,

and it's spelt A-E-G-I-L-O-P-S. Igilops. Now, this is the longest word with letters in alphabetical order. They're all in the right order, and it's the longest word, I think, that we know in the English language. Do you know what it means? I don't. Well, it's known as goat grass or one of the goat grass family, but I think it can also mean something in the corner of your eye. But I think most commonly it is a species that gives us all sorts of other grasses. And just looking up here, it's a winter annual. Some of them, barbed goat grass, for example, native to many areas in the East and Mediterranean. There we are. That's eggly lobs. We're learning a lot. I'll just give you one in this section. Ta-ra-ta-ra-tat. No, ta-ta-ra-tat. Ta-ta-ra-tat. Ta-ta-ra-tat. Now that's it. Ta-ta-ra-tat. I

think I'm saying it really. Tataratat. Now, this is a legitimate word. It's T-A-T-T-A-R-R-A-T-T-A-T. Tataratat. And I believe, again, listeners can correct me, I reckon this is the longest English palindromic word, by which I mean a word that reads the same forwards as backwards, like Eve or the name Hannah. Now, are you familiar with this word, tata-ratat? Only because we were speaking quite recently, weren't we, about Yellow Mellow on one of our podcasts. And we were saying this was first mentioned, actually,

not in the narcotic sense, by James Joyce. And we were talking about his fanciful coinages. And this is one of them. It first appeared in Ulysses in 1922. You're quite right. So, we're celebrating the centenary, well, we've just passed the centenary of this interesting word. Do you know what that, sorry to interrupt, do you know what that has reminded me when you were saying rat-a-tata? It was reminding me, do you remember that song, Chanson d'amour?

I do remember that song. Do you remember it? And there's something, do you remember that song, Chanson d'amour? I do remember that song. Do you remember it? And there's something in it, isn't there? Chanson d'amour. And there's a sound then that sounds, isn't it? You're right. It does go a bit like rat-a-tat-a. You're absolutely right. Is it? Does it go like that? So it's the love song and it's by Manhattan Transfer. Oh, they go rat-a-tat-a. It is. It's a little bit of an echo. A little bit like it.

Oh, it's just popped into my head because I'm feeling whimsical. And you're right, Charles Sotomayor. Of course, James Joyce did live in Paris. Famously, somebody came up to him at Bern Airport, I think it was, in Switzerland, and said to him, may I shake the hand that wrote Ulysses? And James Joyce replied, no, because it did a lot of other things as well and moved on. Now, what do you think, what for you is the most powerful word in the English language? The most powerful word, it has to be loved, isn't it? I think.

Well, you're right right that comes top of the survey was done recently if they do these services all the time what is the most powerful word and you think it's love i mean i just yes go on yeah do you remember we talked about this probably on valentine's day but we talked about how there is no real synonym for love these days you know you can use love in so many different forms and indeed to express love in its many different forms, but we don't really have another word for it. But in the past, the ancient Greeks and then in English as well, we did really distinguish between the love for a partner, the love for your child, the love for your friends. And I'm a bit sad that we've lost

that. So I think it's slightly weaker, but it's still someone saying I love you or expressing love, surely that has to be up there. I agree with the survey. Well, it does have to be there. I would say, for me, the most powerful word in the language might be perhaps is the word yes. It's certainly the most powerful short word, yes. It's certainly the most powerful short word, yes.

And I think I've thought that since I was a schoolboy, and we used to have a sort of weekly kind of – I was at boarding school, and we had a weekly kind of assembly. It wasn't strictly religious, but sometimes it was. We had a different person talk to us every week. And one week, we had, maybe it was about the time that he died, there was a famous Swedish diplomat who was the Secretary General of the United Nations from 1953 until he died in an airplane crash in September 1961. And he was world famous and reckoned to be a very good human being. And this, so I was a little boy when I heard this. And at the assembly,

people were talking about this man, Dag Hammarskjöld. And I think he's the only person to have received the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Anyway, he had this prayer, which we were taught on that evening, for all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes. Excellent. Which is quite powerful, isn't it? It's just sort of accepting things. And I knew a magician who was called, now he had a funny name, Ali Bongo. Yes, he called himself Ali Bongo. And he was a very clever magician. He also did a lot of work backstage. Have you heard of the magician called Paul Daniels? Yes, of course. Well, he was often

working behind the scenes for Paul Daniels, helping to create his effects. But he also was a very entertaining performer himself. And if you telephoned him, his answer machine would say immediately, this is Ali Bongo. The answer is yes. Oh, excellent. Whatever the question is, please leave it on the answer phone. Thank you. I love that. It's rather good.

I love that. Yes, you should have the same on yours. No, I don't have the same on mine. I'll just give you one more and then we ought to take a break. I went through a period 20 years ago when I was interviewing the great and the good of asking each of them what they felt was the most powerful word in the language. I remember I asked a man called Lord King, who was the chairman of British Airways, and I said, what's the most powerful word in the language? And he said, energy, energy.

And he said it was such force that he almost blew me out of the room. I asked the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, what she thought was the most powerful word in the language. And she said immediately, without thinking about it, perseverance, perseverance. And then she sent me, after the interview, a little quotation from Calvin Coolidge, which goes like this, nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. What do you think of that? Do you think persistence is good?

I think persistence, resilience, I mean, you know, if you remember, I think just after the pandemic, I discovered this amazingly useful word, I think, in, well, first of all, there was a Finnish word and also the English equivalent. So in Finnish, there's sisu, S-I-S-U, which has become a sort of national characteristic, which is that ability to withstand and persevere. And resilience is, I suppose, a near synonym for us, but there is something in the Oxford English Dictionary from centuries ago that we've lost, and it's the verb per-tolerate. And to per-tolerate is to see something through to the end.

I think it's gorgeous. Well, we're going to see this podcast through to the end, but first we're going to take a little break. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together.

That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder, that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime! Hi, I'm Nick Friedman.

I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes

on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. This is Something Rhymes with Purple and we're having fun this week talking about the most powerful words in the world. And a survey was done, an opinion poll was done,

and most people reckoned, as you did, Susie, that the most powerful word in the language is love. But can I tell you what the six words that followed it were? Please do. Freedom came second. Of course. Yeah.

Money came third, which is a bit depressing. Yeah. Hope. Hope came fourth. Hope is gorgeous. And hope, in a way, is very like my suggesting that yes is the most powerful word yes it's less dynamic well i suppose hope is dynamic but it's quite gentle isn't it sometimes i think but in some ways actually if i was if i were able to change my mind giles i might replace love with hope because you know where there is hope there is

capacity for everything but where there is love and no, that's not where you want to be. So I think hope is beautiful. Not good. Not good. No, we do need hope. We also need, and this was the next word in the list that was chosen by people, laughter. Well, whether it's the most powerful word in the language, I don't know, but the experience of laughter is key, isn't it? It is. Have you heard of those laughter clubs that they have in certain places? No. They were all the rage. They had them in India and it's such a lovely idea. I think we maybe did talk about them because I remember telling you about my trip to Hamleys

every Christmas to spend my Christmas money. And I made the mistake of buying one of those laughter bags, which you threw up in the air. And when it landed, it had this quite spooky male voice, well, person laughing their head off. And the idea is that it would be very infectious and that you would then, I think it's called echopraxis, that you couldn't help yourself, but carry on the laughter. Whereas actually, I found him intensely annoying. And luckily, my dad allowed me to go back to Hamleys and swap him for a witch puppet. Anyway, that's a whole story in itself. But in India, they have laughter clubs where the idea is you go and you sort of almost

artificially induce laughter, but it then very quickly becomes genuine mirth, which I think is a lovely idea. That is wonderful. It's a pity we're of a different generation, because otherwise I could have been in Hamleys on the same day. Because I remember going back to Hamleys to get a replacement we're of a different generation, because otherwise I could have been in Hamleys on the same day. Because I remember going back to Hamleys to get a replacement for one of my Christmas presents. My parents gave me one Christmas, Bozo the Clown. Now, Bozo was a clown.

I know you suffer from, what's it called again? Coulrophobia. Yeah, that's it. Coulrophobia, fear of clowns. But I loved the idea. I wanted to be a clown. I had this Bozo the Clown. And he was about three foot tall, which was probably the same sort of height as I was. And you blew him up. And he had a weight in his bottom, in the bottom end

of him, so that you couldn't knock him over. He had a big red nose, which you punched. I can't imagine waking up to that. You punched him? You punched the red nose to try and knock him over. And when he fell to the ground, something within the base made this laughter sound. So you punched him in the nose and he fell over. That's terrifying. And then he came up again and the laughter stopped. So you then punched him once more. Anyway, I punched him so hard because I so loved to laugh that even though I was only sort of six or seven at the time,

I managed to perforate the plastic and he didn't work anymore. So we had to go back to Hamley's and get a replacement bozo. My father trying to explain to them that he wanted it for free because, you know, we'd used it properly. And anyway, we got a second bozo my father trying to explain to them that uh he wanted it for free because um you know we'd used it properly and anyway we got a second bozo which is good this actually sums up the difference between you and me which is that you love the laughter so much you went to get a second one whereas i hated this laughter so much i actually went for a refund there was also there was do you remember a famous song about The Laughing Policeman? Yes.

And I can see the shoulders going up and down. And you used to go to fairgrounds and there were games that you could play. You'd put money in the slot and the policeman would sort of... But it's the same idea. It's the same idea of this contagious laughter. And certainly in the olden days, there were diseases. There was St. Vitus' dance, which was said to be dance mania, wasn't it? It's a sort of infection contagion of dance. The tarantella was thought to have been caused in a similar way by the bite of a tarantula and to

cause this absolute compulsion to dance. And in the same way, I suppose, some people love that compulsion to laugh. I really resist slapstick. I'm just not very good with people falling over and then laughing, expecting you to laugh. So I feel like I'm probably much less fun, probably, than you. Well, you're right about slapstick. It's also risky. I remember the same sort of period, the 1950s. I conceived the idea, or I heard about it, of how amusing it would be to put something on the top of a door. You half open the door, and on top of the door, you would put, shall we say, something that wouldn't hurt people,

like peas, a bag of peas. You'd put it on there, so that when somebody went through the door and pushed the door, the bag of peas would fall down on top of their head. Well, I remember doing this, getting elaborately. We had a step ladder at home. And I got the step ladder and I climbed up and I put the peas on top of the door. Were these frozen peas? Unfortunately, they were frozen peas. And I hadn't, exactly, I hadn't thought about that.

Anyway, my mother came through the door because I then took the ladder away and I said, oh, mum, mum, I'm in here. I'm in here. Come and get me. Come and get me. Anyway, innocently, she came from the kitchen into the room where I was, opened the door, and this frozen peas. Don't tell me it knocked her unconscious.

Well, virtually. No, it didn't quite. But it certainly put me, she explained to me that slapstick can be dangerous. Yes, once you'd recovered. Oh, dear. How do we get on to that from wordplay? We were talking about laughter. I was telling you what the words were, the six words that followed love in this survey of the most powerful words in the language. And the last two, well, in some ways, they surprised me. This is just a random survey, of course. Fame came up. I suppose people may be saying not so much that fame is important to them, but that fame and celebrity are entrenched now in the way we view the world. Maybe that's what they were thinking. They were. About 20 years ago, I made a film for a British television company, television program called The One Show.

And I went to school and we were looking at heroes, national heroes. And I went to various classes and they knew we were coming to talk about national heroes. And we asked the children in the different classes to write down a piece of paper who they regarded as a great British hero. Yeah. And this is 20 years ago. And all bar one or two of them put the same name down. And it wasn't Winston Churchill.

It wasn't Florence Nightingale. It wasn't, well, you know, anybody you might imagine. It might have been William Shakespeare. It was, of course, 20 years ago, David Beckham. Of course. And of course, who is a hero, because he's brilliant at that time. He was a really world class footballer. But it was interesting. It reflected a fame. Oh, no, forgive me. As well as David Beckham, there was one other other person and i think it was the man who

devised or hosts britain's got talent whose name oh simon cowell yeah how how is that amazing so it was david beckham and simon cowell but no you know when i was a boy we'd have put down horatio nelson wouldn't we well yeah well i think it may be time for correspondence, actually. Our purple people may be waiting. It is time for correspondence. And please, one of the things, do write to us. But if you come, if anything we've said you think is incorrect, or if you've got curious words, as well as well-known phrases you want to know the origins of, but curious words you'd like us to explore, do get in touch with us. Our address is very simple, purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com.

Who have we heard from this week, Susie? Well, our very first email comes from Laura McCarthy, who is in Sydney in Australia. And she says, Hi, Susie and Giles. I was recently watching the Great British Sowing Bee and got to wondering where the word bee in this sense comes from. Working bees and sowing bees seem to mean everyone working in together, whereas a spelling bee is a contest. Why the difference? And is there any connection to the insect? It's a very good question, isn't it? We have such a lovely contingency and community of purple listeners in Australia. It makes me

very happy. Well, thank you for that, Laura. And the answer is yes, there is a very direct connection to the insect. And the reason that working bees, sowing bees, and indeed spelling bees are all united by that word, despite the fact that they're slightly different in nature, is because the bee is quite sociable. And the idea then was that, you know, people come together for either communal work, for amusement, or later indeed with the spelling bee for competition. But it was all about the bee's social nature. And actually, it goes back a very long way. It's first recorded in the US, in fact, in the 1760s. Thank you for that. We now go from Sydney, Australia to Leicestershire. And this is the question.

Hi, Susie and Giles. In Leicestershire, this is Leicestershire in England, we have the saying, I up me duck, which I'm led to believe is a derivation of, hello, my duke. I up me duck. Is this correct?

What do you think? Well, I think the duke thread may be a little bit knotted and may be leading in the wrong direction. Because duck here is one of many slightly strange to modern ears endearments for people that we like or simply as a term of address, an affectionate term of address. And duck in this sense has been around for a very long time. But animals often get a look in we have duckling as well we have dove my dove my ladybird my chuck there are even much odder ones like hogling an affectionate term for a hog i think be careful if you're going to call your loved one a hogling there's a creep mouse which is an old term for a bat uh that we people actually

used to call each other pussy as a term of endearment. Prawn, I mean, lots of really strange ones. And I think we covered some of those very old and curious endearments in another episode. But yeah, I think it genuinely is duck used as a nice form of address. As an endearment. Yes. An animal term of endearment. My father and mother called each other ducky. Did they? Yes. Nice. Ducky or hun, as in short for honey. H-O-N, hun. Oh, yeah. Honey. Yes. Honey and sweet things. Sugar bun, crumpet, those sort of things. Tart

even. I mean, crumpet and tart now used in very different ways, but actually people would use that to each other. So, yes, sweetness is always a big factor, quite rightly. Well, thank you, you rob cross for that question yes what do you call michelle by the way uh madam your majesty your royal highness i think i've heard you say darling i think i do call her darling because yes in fact you know i call everybody darling i mean we haven't had any we haven't had any name dropping for quite a while, but I do remember being at some rather, well, a reception at Buckingham Palace where my wife and I were lucky enough to be guests.

This is many, many years ago. And we were standing in a small group with the then Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, who was her husband, and other great and good people in our society. And my wife said to me, I don't think Her Majesty really appreciates you calling her darling, darling. That's what my wife said to me. And the Duke of Edinburgh then piped up and said, I don't think the Archbishop of Canterbury is enjoying it much either. Put me in my place.

Now, if you've got stories to tell, questions to ask, we have a special 250th episode coming up soon. 250 episodes. I know, that's incredible, isn't it? We began this when you were still in Montessori Nursery School. It's amazing. And here we are, five years later. So they can get in touch with us. Purple people, all one word, at somethingrhymes.com.

Okay, I gave you some interesting words at the beginning. Have you got three really good words for us in your trio this week? I have. And for all the very loyal Purple listeners who have been with us since the beginning, I do apologise if there are any repetitions. But once in a while, I just think, God, that's just too good, or it just pops into my head again. So the first one is to gorgonize. And despite the fact that the gorgons in Greek mythology had the power to turn anyone who looked at them to stone, they had snakes for hair, didn't they? They actually have inspired to gorgonize, which can have quite a lovely meaning, and that's to have a mesmerizing effect on someone. So, not all bad, to gorgonize,

to mesmerize. The second one is lethophobia or lethophobia. Fear of sleep? No, I get that, but it's actually the fear of oblivion. Oh, same sort of thing. Same sort of thing, because if you remember, the river Lethe was supposed to make everybody forget their woes if they drank from it, which gave us lethargy, etc. So yeah, lethophobia or lethophobia, the fear of oblivion. And finally, something that I do on a daily basis in my handbag, you may do it in your pocket, or indeed you may have a handbag or a manbag, grumbling. Grubbling is essentially fumbling about, delving about, you know, feeling around in a bag or a pocket, etc., in order to find something. I do it all the time.

Another great synonym for that is fossicking. So stop fossicking in your pockets, you could say. But anyway, that's my third. I think those are three very good words. And I've decided to give you a different poem this week, not the one I planned, but you mentioned earlier on Tarantella when we were talking about Rat-a-tat-tat. And the word Tarantella, which is a Spanish dance, came up, didn't it? And that reminded me that this is the centenary of one of my favourite poems, which is called Tarantella. And it's by Hilaire Belloc.

And I think as I begin to read this poem to you, you may remember it. The title may not ring a bell, but I think maybe some of the lines do. People of an older vintage, well, they will know this poem well. Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Do you remember an inn? And the tedding and the spreading of the straw for a bedding? And the fleas, the teas, and the high Pyrenees, and the wine, the taste of the tar? And the cheers and the jeers of the straw for a bedding, and the fleas that tease in the high Pyrenees, and the wine that tasted of the tar, and the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers under the vine of the dark veranda? Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Do you remember an inn, and the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers who hadn't got a penny, and who weren't paying any, and the hammer of the doors and the din, and the hip-hop-hap of the clap of the hands to the twirl and the swirl of the girl gone chancing, glancing, dancing,

backing and advancing, snapping of the clapper to the spin out and in, and the ting-tong-tang of the guitar. Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Do you remember an inn? Never more, Miranda, remember an inn nevermore miranda nevermore only the high peaks whore and arrogant a torrent at the door no sound in the walls of the halls where falls the tread of the feet of the dead to the ground no sound but the boom of the far waterfall like doom oh well it's a haunting poem, isn't it? It's very haunting. I love the rhythm of the dance and the rhythm of the poem. The rhythm of it, I assume, echoes the beat of the dance. The swirling dance.

Of the dance. Yes. And when I researched this poem, because I included it in one of my anthologies of poems, Dancing by the Light of the Moon, I discovered to my surprise that Miranda is not a girl's name, because I thought this is some kind of relationship poem. But actually, it was the name of a friend, a male friend of Hila Belok, with whom he

was on holiday when he wrote the poem. Anyway, that's by the by, incidental information. Oh, it's been a fun episode so people like the show do please tell other people about it you know put us on social media spread the word we've done 250 episodes almost we want to do a few more and also you might like to join the purple plus club because interesting things happen there and you do get ad free listening though i must say i rather like the ads anyway that's it for this week, isn't it, Susie? It is. Something Rhymes with Purple

is a Sony Music Entertainment production. It was produced by Naya Dio with additional production from Hannah Newton, Harriet Wells, Chris Skinner, Bobby Thompson, Ed Gill, and us, sort of. Yeah, we played our part.