Something Rhymes with Purple - Pluffy

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

This week we’re going goo-goo and gaga as we investigate the wonderful words associated with babies.  We cut the umbilical cord, discover the Roman connections with c-sections, and reveal the link between a fountain and a baby’s head.  So, depending on where you are in the world, pop a dummy or a pacifier into your mouth and hop into our linguistic pram/buggy and we’ll whizz you through the language of babies before a well-earned nap in your cot… or should that be crib?  Elsewhere Gyles reveals the fascinating results of studies into the memories and language-learning of the very young and Susie offers up an unusual remedy for  a baby in breach.  And of course we answer lots of your questions along the way about being ‘wet behind the ears’, ’throwing the baby out with the bath water’, and much more.  If you have a linguistic query for Susie and Gyles then the email address is [e-mail]. We’d love to hear from you!  Susie’s: Trio: - Doppet: to play a musical instrument rather jerkily - Pleep: to speak in a querulous tone of voice - Pluffy: to be fat and fluffy  A Somethin’ Else production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up y'all it's your man Mark Strong Strizzy and your girl Jem the Jem of all Jems and we're hosting Olympic FOMO your essential recap podcast of the 2024 Olympic Games in 20 minutes or less every day we'll be going behind the scenes for all the wins

losses and real talk with special guests from the Athletes Village and around the world you'll never have a fear of missing any Olympic action from Paris. Listen to Olympic FOMO wherever you get your podcasts. Make your nights unforgettable

with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main We'll see you next time. Amex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Something else. Goo-goo. Goo-goo. Boo-boo-boo-boo. Goo-goo. Goo-goo. That's baby talk. That's what we're going to talk about today.

But I hope not in that ridiculous way. This is Giles Brandreth welcoming you to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Fortunately, there is a grown-up in the room, or at least on the line. Are you there, Susie Dent? I am, hello. It's good to be with you. We're going to talk about baby talk today because, in fact, we must thank Purple People for the suggestion. We're going to be discussing babies and coming to Liam Gordon, Andrew Wilkinson and Anna Collins' questions that were sent in all about babies and baby talk. So before we start actually discussing the little terrors, the tots, the sprogs, all good words, we'll know about those. Last week, I set Susie a challenge of finding out who had she met at one remove?

Because I was boasting about the game I play, where I think, you know, I met so-and-so, and that means at one remove I met so-and-so. Like, I've met Christopher Robin, Christopher Robin Milne, which means I've shaken the hand that held the paw of Winnie the Pooh. And last week, I think I was telling you about how I'd met a man who as a child had shaken the hand of Stalin, the Russian dictator. So at one remove, I can say I've met Stalin.

Who have you met of interest at one remove? Well, you sent me this challenge and I failed, Giles. I thought for at least an hour I was mulling over this thing, thinking I must have been at one remove, at least one remove from someone incredible. In the course of Countdown, I've sat next to fantastic people. So surely in shaking their hands metaphorically or otherwise, I would have been at one step removed from someone even more amazing. But I just can't think of anyone. I've met, I suppose, what some people would think of, you know, famous people.

But the one step removed from someone absolutely interstellar, I can't think. Have you met any senior members of the royal family? Have you met the Queen? I haven't met the Queen. I have met Prince Philip, because I did the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Congratulations. So that was his last one, actually, that I was at. Well, if you've met the Duke of Edinburgh, you have at one remove met almost every great

figure of the 20th century, from Nelson Mandela through to Frank Sinatra. Wow. OK. So that's fantastic. We're going to talk today about babies at the suggestion prompted really by a variety of purple people and their correspondence with us. So, I mean, do you remember being a baby? I have a vague recollection of being stung on the bottom by a bee because I think I sort of

somehow sat on one in my pram. I have have really vague, blurry memory of that. But no, I don't really. I wish that my memories did go back a very, very long way, but they don't. I think one of my earliest memories is actually just sitting in the back of the car and just, I remember just kind of zoning into kind of conversations. It's hard. It's a sort of fairly amorphous kind of blurry recollection that I have. But no, do you remember being a baby? No, I don't. And almost nobody does, really. I went and did some homework on this at something called the Baby Lab at the University of Cambridge.

And there I discovered that babies are actually born with memories. And it's from 22 to 24 weeks of gestation. That's when the unborn... Born with memories. You're born with memories, yes. So an unborn baby's memory is beginning to form after about 22 weeks. And from 30 weeks onwards, it's beginning to recognise and remember things. Like, for example, the baby's mother's voice, her smell.

Yeah. So that actually babies come out born with memories of a voice, a smell, a piece of music. But it is curious the way few adults can recall specific moments before about their third birthday. And obviously, we're remembering things before we're born onwards. And we're learning how to move and how to communicate. And obviously, we have to remember all that. We're learning what we like and we don't like and remembering what we're learning. But why can't we recall that stuff? And the research that they shared with me

suggests that the number of neurons being created in the brain cells of infants and the rapidity of their creation actually interferes with the storage of long-term memory. So you're so busy at that early stage picking up everything and learning it that actually the part of your hippocampus where your memories are stored gets in the way of that. You can't do too many things at once. So that's intriguing, isn't it? That's fascinating. And there's also motherese.

I mean, you were doing a bit of fatherese at the beginning of this. And there's also been quite a lot of research into motherese. Motherese is the kind of type of language that we use and the intonations and the rhythms that we use when talking to a baby. So rather than talking to a baby as I'm talking to you now, you would say, hey, how are you doing? Look at this. You know, the sort of the rising sort of slightly what we would consider to be babyish intonations, et cetera, are apparently quite important. And there's been a lot of research done into language acquisition. Of course, children whose parents spend time talking with them understand and respond to and develop their language better than those parents who speak less.

I mean, I suppose that's fairly inevitable. But as far as motherese is concerned, apparently infants who heard more baby talk because their parents spoke motherese knew more words than those children of those who didn't speak with that kind of slightly more intelligible, slower kind of rhythm and intonation, which is fascinating. And it feeds into, you know, my obsession with learning poetry by heart. The reason I went to the baby lab is because I had this gut feeling that if you teach small children poems, they're going to have greater facility with the language. And it turns out that it's absolutely true for the reason you're explaining. And that actually, that's why nursery rhymes work for small children and why they like repeating them. And if you speak rhythmical, musical poetry to your baby before it's born, it will increase its capacity for being comfortable with language when it is born.

So it's valuable to talk to your children and in a clear, rhythmical way. So don't be frightened singing songs to them or doing nursery rhymes with them. Oh, no. Let's kick off now. And we're kicking off with a question. And it's about the word nurse, N-U-R-S-E.

And it came from Liam Gordon, who's recently become a dad for the first time. Congratulations on your contribution to that, Liam. More so, congratulations to the mother of the child, who's the real achiever, and to the little child, his or herself. Anyway, he says, it's the noun for the medical profession, but also the verb for breastfeeding a child. And what Liam wants to know is which one came first. Well, you'll understand the link between the two once you know the etymology, because both go back to the Latin nutritious, which meant a person that nourishes. So the verb to nurse is actually a kind of shortening of nourish, if you like. And that's

where you get the noun from as well. So in terms of the one that came first, I think it would be the breastfeeding sense, because that is the nourishment directly, if you like. Just double checking here, as I always do in the OED, lots and lots and lots of different meanings. The first one was to rear, to bring up, to nurture. And the breastfeeding sense is from 1530. So that's very soon after the first senses of looking after as someone began to emerge so nurture nurturing is where it begins yes nourishing and when does it slip into the into the medical from from the sort of domestic nurture into being a person we think of as a nurse in a uniform in a hospital not long after after. And as always with these things,

you know, we're always, in the Oxford English Dictionary, we're always looking for earlier evidence. We're always on the search for what we call anti-datings, which are even earlier records than the ones that have been found already. So in 1562, there is a record of nursing,

meaning to care for a person during sickness or infirmity. So the idea of breastfeeding, acting as a wet nurse was recorded, well, 30 years earlier. So it's quite possible that they arose in parallel. But the link between the two is nourishment. Do you know much about wet nursing? I mean, it's an interesting phrase in itself. A wet nurse is somebody who breastfeeds a baby on your behalf, on somebody else's behalf.

Yes. And much more common, obviously, historically than these days. Explain why. Do you know why? Why it was more common? Well, I mean, sometimes if you think about, you know, the sort of more, I suppose, a proliferation of death during certain times in the past, in the Middle Ages, whether from plague or whatever and wet nurses were employed if the mother dies um but of course there was also you know taking over if a mother chooses not to nurse the child herself or if she can't so historically

i mean nursing itself is it's an ancient practice but i think quite often the aristocracy or the nobility had their children wet nursed. They thought for the benefit of the child's health, but also there was an imperative of becoming pregnant again quickly. And when you're breastfeeding, it sometimes acts as a contraceptive. So you don't then conceive as easily. And breastfeeding is supposed to inhibit ovulation and that kind of thing. So certainly in wealthy families, but from Roman times as well, you know, there was, I think there was even sort

of controversy then about whether a wet nurse actually inhibited the relationship between the mother and a child. So, you know, those kinds of arguments have prevailed for a very long time. This is an area about which I know absolutely nothing. Despite having three children and seven grandchildren, I'm a little bit squeamish when it comes to medical matters and certainly personal matters. So you're going to have to guide me and lead me through this. I attended the birth of all three of my children. The first one, I'm not sure. I think there was a high drama with the first one. So I was there until the consultant told me to go and walk around the block a few times and come back when it was all over. With the second one, I was there and enthusiastic.

With the third one, I was there in theory enthusiastic, but I actually fainted or began to faint. And the midwife or one of the nurses escorted me out of the room. So I don't really know much about what happens, but all of it, it seems a little bit personal. But take me through some of the words. I do know that the umbilical cord is involved once the baby is born and somebody cuts it. Tell me about the umbilical cord. Linguistically speaking, it's related to the Greek omphalos, which itself is from a really ancient root that actually gave us lots of different things. It gave us the Latin umbo, which was the boss of a shield. It gave us umbilicus, the navel, and also in Greek, as I say,

it gave us the sense of the tummy button, which is what I used to call it. And actually, there's a great word, omphaloskepsis, and that is the contemplation of one's navel. And actually, in Eastern mysticism, navel gazing was supposed to bring on a kind of emotional self-awareness. But of course, if we call someone a navel gazer these days, they are entirely self-obsessed is the implication there. But Onfellos actually, through lots and lots of twists and turns, also gave us the word navel. So you've got the umbilical cord and then attached to that is the placenta, of course. And that is the, it's like a circular organ in the uterus of pregnant mammals.

And it nourishes and kind of maintains the fetus through the umbilical cord. And placenta goes back to Greek again for a flat plate. And originally, I saw often Greek pass through Latin where it was placenta uterina, meaning a uterine cake because of the shape, because it's so flat. And it is the most incredible thing in terms of the blood flow through there. I mean, I think within five minutes, the entire blood that her body contains rushes through this umbilical cord and the placenta. It's extraordinary. Good grief. How extraordinary. The uterus, you mentioned the uterus. What's that and what's the origin of that word?

Uterus is really interesting. So do you remember that the hysterical was once believed or hysteria was once believed to be a condition or a disease that was exclusive to women because it was due to the uterus or the womb moving about within the body. So the idea is that the hustera, as the uterus was called in Greek, that it moved around the body and this kind of wandering around made a woman prone to outbursts and uncontrollable emotions. Hence, hustera gave us hysterectomy, which is the removal of the womb, but it also gave us hysterical and the idea of being hysterically funny. Hysterically funny, again, because you're hysterical and the idea of being hysterically funny. Hysterically funny, again, because you're kind of bursting out in an uncontrollable way.

So that's the uterus. It's the organ located in the female pelvis. And then once the egg has left the ovary, it can be fertilised and it implants itself in the lining of the uterus. That is what happens. And ovary is very simple because that's as in over egg. So that one we've got. So we've got the ovary, we've got the uterus, we've got the umbilical cord. When we know we're going to be about to give birth, there's the breaking of the waters. And that is literally what it says, is it? Yes. That is just a significant leak of the fluid. Yeah. And out comes the baby. head first, feet first, whichever. I can't remember. Usually head first. Usually head first. If it's feet first, then it is a breech baby. And actually, I had a really interesting time of it. My first child,

my eldest daughter, was said to be in breech. And so what they tend to recommend is that the baby is then turned manually in a hospital so that it is actually presenting in the right way because a breech birth can cause complications. And I think normally then a cesarean is planned. So breech is connected to the buttocks. So it's the kind of hind part of anything. So if you imagine that a breech birth is when the kind of the buttocks and the legs and the sort of the behind bit. Wearing your breeches is covering your behind. Exactly.

So I was told the baby would have to be turned and I was slightly worried about this because it sounded quite invasive. And when I was working at Oxford University Press, a colleague said, have you tried moxibustion? Now, moxibustion involves the burning of moxa or sort of herbs and producing heat and heat has always had quite a profound effect on my body so you know that i'm always freezing jaz i'm always hugging a hot water bottle so i thought well i'll give this a go so i went to an acupuncture clinic where they did moxibustion. And there's a lot of belief in this. There's a sort of Korean heat treatment, hand treatment, where they sort of heat your palms to increase blood flow and immunity and that kind of thing. Anyway, I was lying there and it involved burning some moxa,

some herbs near my feet and the baby turned there and then. So yeah, absolutely extraordinary. I mean, you know, if you don't believe in this kind of thing, it might well have been a coincidence, but actually I felt very faint and I was very worried that I'd done some damage. So the baby simply revolved within, within you. Yes. I didn't realise that is what happened. I just knew I felt very, very faint and I thought, what have I done? So I went to the hospital and they said, Oh no, she's, she's in the right position. How extraordinary. I mean, maybe it was a coincidence. I'm not sure.

But I know my body responds very, very well to heat. So, you know, I'm lost. People think I'm very quirky for believing that. But it definitely seemed to have that effect that day. But again, we're not medical experts and I'm really not, I'm not advocating this because I don't know the dangers involved. But that was my story. You mentioned the word caesarean there.

Yes. Now, the origin is that it's something to do with Julius Caesar, I know. Yeah. What is it? It's a story that Julius Caesar was delivered by this method and was one of the first to be delivered through that kind of opening up of the body. But there is, I think, scant evidence to support it, but certainly that was the belief that grew, hence C-section.

So, in essence, I mean, I'm saying this because we have children listeners, what happens is you're cut open and the baby comes out through the incision rather than the normal way. Yes. And sometimes it's a necessity. I don't know if you've read Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt, his brilliant account of being a junior doctor based on his diaries. I know it's hilarious. Yes, it is hilarious. And lots and lots of talks of C-section. But I remember one thing, obviously this would linger with me, where he said he did an analysis of all the surgeons in the particular hospital he was working in of the way that they spelled cesarean. And he concluded

that 90% of them were spelling Caesarian wrong. So this was their kind of key job in life. And yet they were spelling I-A-N rather than E-A-N at the end. Oh, I see. I thought maybe they're getting the Caesar part wrong because it is, it's as in Julius Caesar, the name C-E-S-A-E-R. Yes. C-A-E-S-A-R-E-A-N. I love the way you called it a C-section, as though this is a phrase that's on everybody's lips. A C-section means a caesarean, does it? Yeah, I think most women who go for an elective caesarean

would call it a C-section, yeah. Going for a C-section. Okay, the baby then emerges. Yes. We must take a break in a moment, I know, but let's get the baby at least out into the world. And the head comes first, we hope, and that's when the word

fontanelle comes in because i'm doing the head isn't it yeah so the fontanelle is this little sort of indent on a baby's skull it's the space between the bones of the skull and it's because the forming of the bones the ossification isn't yet complete so that goes back to the latin and then through french fontan, and it's linked to fontaine meaning a fountain. And the analogy there is that there's a dent in the earth where a spring or a fountain emerges, and then it kind of refers metaphorically to the hollow in a baby's skull. Now the baby has emerged, I think we should take a break. Unless you've got any other pre-birth

words that you feel we must introduce? No, I don't think so. I mean, I just remember the sort of the euphemism really that was applied to both of my births where my babies were both induced, or at least birth was induced. And induced always sounded quite gentle to me, when in fact it can kind of come on hard and strong. So no, that's the only one that I can think of. To be honest, the pre-birthing is a bit of a blur for me. Yeah, well, it was certainly a blur for me when I fainted. Okay, we'll take a break and then baby is born.

We better put on the nappy. Or is that a diaper? This episode is brought to you by Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and Fortnite. Created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android,

and play LEGO Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. Shrink the Books is back for a brand new season. This is the podcast where we put our favorite fictional TV characters into therapy. Join me, Ben Bailey-Smith, and our brand new psychotherapist, Nimone Metaxas. Hi, Ben. Yes, this season we're going to be putting the likes of Tommy from Peaky Blinders,

Cersei from Game of Thrones on the couch to learn why their behaviour creates so much drama. So make sure you press the follow button to get new episodes as soon as they land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Shrink the Box is a Sony Music Entertainment original podcast.

This is Something Rhymes with Purple. I'm Giles Brandreth, father of three who knows virtually nothing about, though my wife did become pregnant. So I think I was involved in that. And pregnant, where does that word come from? isn't it? So, so often we get our words from Greek and then they go via Latin and then they come to us. But it goes back to the Greek for before birth. So, pre, if you take the pre of pregnant, that means before. And then there's G-N-A-S-C-I, meaning birth. So, pregnant simply means you are representing a before birth. Now, this has all been triggered by purple people. And purple person Andrew Wilkinson, he wrote in to say that he'd been rereading George Orwell's great novel, 1984. And he was surprised to see that George Orwell had used the phrase diapers, the word diapers, instead of nappies, as he thought diapers was an Americanism. So has the word diaper been used in British English at any stage? And if not, why did Orwell use it? Yeah, it's one of those things where we assume that it's American because that's become the

predominant word over there. But yes, we did use it. It comes from the Greek diasporos, meaning across white. And it originally denoted quite a costly fabric. But then after the 15th century, it was used in the sense that we know it has today. But baby's nappies were originally made from pieces of this fabric. And in fact, napkins and towels and cloths could also be diapers in Britain from the 16th century, but then napkin took over that side of things for us and then diaper across the Atlantic and became the predominant word in the US. But certainly we used to talk about it as well. And when you think about the asperos, the white side of it, that also gave us aspirin. I was very good at changing nappies,

whilst the white side of it, that also gave us aspirin. I was very good at changing nappies, it must be said, with my three children. Good. And we didn't use disposable nappies. We used old-fashioned linen nappies. Yeah. I remember there was something called nappy sand in which one then placed these nappies after use. And when I was in my 20s and our babies were small,

my hands were all sort of wrinkled and calloused i felt with this nappy sand maybe it wasn't the nappy sand i don't want them suing us if it still exists we've got quabbled hands as they used to put it so quabbled means all kind of wrinkled from too much washing in an english dialect but that's exactly what happens with antibac isn't it the more you antibac your hands they use the antibacterial hand gel, the worse they become. I mean, my hands have just become ghosts of their former selves. So feel comfortable if you do use the word diaper. It isn't an Americanism, though they use it in American. And we're going to be talking actually more about American

versus British English in a couple of weeks time when we're exploring the world of Noah Webster and his dictionary. And speaking of American versus British words, a cot versus a crib. My children, we had a cot, we had an old fashioned cot with the sides that you pulled up and could lower down. What's the origin of a cot? Well, that's actually, it started life as an Anglo-Indian word for a kind of bedstead. So it goes back to Hindi, in fact. And it was kind of also, as well as a sort of light bedstead it could also be used for a shelter so that's where we get cottage from and also the coat as in dove coat too so the idea of a shelter so that's where we get cot from and then crib is you know we

associate cribs with nativity plays etc and it's extremely old and it is it's from old English and that's actually germanic so it's related to lots of different germanic languages and in german they have a krippe i think and then of course it was given new life in slang so your crib became your house so it's almost like we've gone full circle and gone back to that idea that's there in cot of a shelter i seem to remember in the importanceance of Being Earnest, where the plot revolves on where a baby, a baby being stolen or mislaid, the word bassinet comes up. And I assume that's a kind of word that was popular in Victorian, Edwardian times, but isn't any longer

used. But what is a bassinet? It's not a basin for washing babies in, is it? No, it does come from the French for a small sort of basin shaped object. And it's actually a child's wicker cradle. So I think the wicker is important here. And I certainly remember calling the wicker cradle that I had a bassinet. So I think the word is still in currency. That you had for yourself to cradle in or that you had for your girls? Yes, I had my girls in a bassinet. In a little bassinet. That's nice. And did you push them around in a pram or in a buggy? We are of the generation, because I'm a generation older than you, where we had a pram, which I know is short for prambulator. It was a high thing with big wheels and it cost an awful and an amazing amount of money. With the first child, we went berserk and we spent a fortune on little mittens

and endless night shirts and all these real linen napkins and this huge perambulator, which was rather grand, I must say. And I liked it. I'm sorry we've lost it. But pram is abbreviation perambulator. Which means walking around.

Yes. Yeah, and I think those have come back into fashion. I think prams are sort of quite big now. But we don't know where buggy comes from. Really? Its origin is unknown. And originally it was a horse-drawn vehicle for one or two people. And in North America, I think it had four wheels.

But yes, so we have no idea where that word comes from. Well, if you think out there, purple people, that you do know the origin of buggy, do put us right. And then Susie Dent, who has immediate access to the Oxford English Dictionary because she used to work there and they know her and she knows them, will get it into the dictionary if you really can prove it. One more American versus British, dummies versus pacifiers. There was lots of controversy over this as well, I remember. Should you allow the child to have a dummy or not? I say, give it a dummy. Shut it up. It's a nightmare having children in many ways. The exhaustion

never ends. Which is it, dummy or pacifier? Well, today you would definitely say that a dummy is British English and a pacifier is American English. I prefer pacifier because that is the idea, isn't it? So pacifier has got a long history in English as a personal thing that pacifies someone. And then that was narrowed down upon in North American English for a rubber teat for a baby to suck on. And then the dummy, the idea is that it's a substitute for the real thing, which is the nipple in this case. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Anna Collins from The Wirral, or is it Wirral? There's controversy over that as well, and controversy. She's asked if the origin of the phrase is correct. Baths consisted of a big tub

filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons, the men, and then the women were allowed into the bath and finally the children. Last of all came the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater do you think that's true i think it sounds to me a little bit like a pop etymology but let me um i'm going to look this up so you can hear me doing it um i will tell you when it first comes i can you know there's the also the expression wet behind the ears yeah that actually goes back to a german phrase meaning the same thing and the idea there is that behind the ears is the last after a new a baby is born it's the last area to to dry out so I am

looking now baby out with the bath water to reject what is essential or beneficial along with what is inessential or harmful in early use it was to empty the baby out with the bath. And again, interestingly, this comes from German. So in this case, it's das Kind mit dem Badeaus schütten, meaning the same thing. And the German expression was kind of, you must empty out the bathing tub, but not the baby along with it. But it doesn't actually say, it doesn't give the sort of backstory to that and whether it was indeed that the babies were the last to have it. But I'm afraid that I'm always the party pooper in this kind of thing and i always tend to say well unless there's proof i think it's unlikely so sorry about that speaking of

party poopers one day we must talk about all those funny words like poopoo and peepee and euphemisms for things to do with with babies and also, nearer Christmas, we must do a Babes in the Wood episode. I mean, we can talk about Babes in the Wood when we get down to talking about pantomimes. Immediately, we've already, I mean, thank you, Purple People, for inspiring us. Your correspondence means a lot to us. It does.

Open our letter bag for this week, would you, Susie? Yeah, well, before we hear this week's questions, Giles, I would like to give Thomas Joy a bit of a shout out. So he came on Countdown a little while ago, and he's an absolutely passionate purple person. And do you remember telling us the story of when you were out on your Canal series, one of your trips, you had someone rush up to you and say, I'm a purple person. It was just lovely. I mean, Thomas Joy, he was a joy to have on the show. So I wanted to give him a shout out. And talking about Countdown, I've spoken before about the brilliant Craig Roberts and his adorable guide dog called Bruce. And he's been in touch to tell us about his newly created Facebook page for the show, which is called Something Rhymes with Purples,

Purple People. That's a tongue twister and a half. Something Rhymes with Purples, Purple People. That's a tongue twister and a half. Something Rhymes with Purples, Purple People. So he says do go and check it out if you would like to. So thank you to both Thomas and to Craig and Bruce. Good. Bang to Rights. This is from Jo in, is it Geelong or Geelong, Australia? I'm not sure. And I'm sorry, Jo, that I don't know this and I should have looked it up. But either way, we were very grateful that you wrote in. And so, yes, she wants to know about Bang to Rights because she was watching an old episode of A Touch of Frost, which is a British detective programme. And Jack claims he had caught someone banged to rights. Where does it come from? of a criminal. Red-handed was created because the idea was that somebody's hand would still be fresh with the blood that they had spilled. And the first mention of Bang to Rights is from 1904, and it's actually a book on life in Sing Sing in the prison and Bang to Rights caught in the act. But we think the idea is a prison door

slamming shut on you because if you're caught bang to rights prison is the inevitable outcome and the door will shut bang on you and bang to rights is that you know this is what the law demands the rights of the law will make sure that you are incarcerated and of course in British slang we also call prison the clink don't we and that goes back to an original prison that was in London. So the history of prisons is fascinating, actually. Maybe that's another episode that we could do. Yes, let's go to jail and not collect 200 pounds. OK, Susie, it's time for your trio.

Three interesting, unusual words that you feel need to be popularised once more. I was wondering the other day whether these actually do actually ever succeed, whether I ever succeed in getting them back into the language. I like to think that apricity, the warmth of the sun on a chilly day, is making inroads. Let's hope so. But the three today, do you remember, Giles, me talking about twankling? And to twankle was to kind of play idly on a musical instrument. Yes. Well, here's another one for you.

To dop it, from an English dialect, is to play a musical instrument rather jerkily. Basically sums up what I try to do. That would be me. Yes, exactly. Happened to me when I tried to play the clarinet after many years. To dop it. To dop it. To dop it. If you have someone in your life that likes complaining, you might find them pleeping a lot.

To pleep, P-L-E-E-P, to speak in a querulous tone of voice. I like that. Pleeping. I'm pleeping. Oh, yes, I'm pleeping here. Go on. And this one is similarly onomatopoeic. I just love this one. It's again from dialect and it's pluffy. And to be pluffy is to be fat and fluffy. I like to think that we would apply it to scones or that kind of thing, but pluffy is just gorgeous. Or an adorable baby. Exactly. I love a little plump, pluffy baby. How beautiful. Perfect. Three good words. And my poem this week is about babies. Well, about a baby. It's called Morning Song.

It's by Sylvia Plath. Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your foot soles and your bald cry took its place among the elements. Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue. In a drafty museum, your nakedness shadows our safety. We stand round, blankly as walls. I'm no more your mother than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow effacement at the wind's hand. its own slow effacement at the wind's hand.

All night, your moth breath flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen. A far sea moves in my ear. One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral in my Victorian nightgown. Your mouth opens, clean as a cat's. The window square square whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try your handful of notes. The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Gosh, that's mesmerising, that poem. Can you give us the title again? I will. It's a remarkable poem by a remarkable poet, Sylvia Plath, born 1932, died 1963. Morning song. Morning song. That is just beautiful.

I have a copy of The Bell Jar on my shelves, actually. I need to return to it because I've not read it for a very long time. But that is absolutely stunning. Thank you to all the purple people who have made the effort to get in touch. We do really appreciate it. And you'll be used to this request by now but if you do like us we'd love you to recommend us to your friends and just get in touch to tell us or if there's something we're doing wrong then please tell us too it's purple at something else.com

something rhymes with purple is a something else production produced by lawrence bassett and harriet wells with additional production from steve ackerman jen mystery, Jay Beale and the person that we're all longing to see but I have to say it's not happened today. It's Bluffy Gully.