Something Rhymes with Purple - Podiacide

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

The hidden vocabulary of the body (part 1: from the head to the chest). Featuring dishevelled hair, raised eyebrows, gorgeous thoats, men in bras, Frans Titslinger, hedgehog hair, the origin of the apple of your eye, the skin of your teeth, nosy park keepers, chips on your shoulder, the cold shoulder and the albatross around your neck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Hello and welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. It is me, Susie Dent, and my lovely co-presenter sitting opposite me in my sitting room. I feel this is a move in the right direction, Susie, and it's a charming sitting room.

I like it very much. I'd really like to light a fire, but I think the crackle might be a bit too much. Marvellous. This is Giles Brandreth in case anybody was in any doubt whatsoever. Something rhymes with purple, Giles.

We've established that one of the rhymes, and there are a few actually, is herple, which is to walk with a limp, which of course involves a gammy leg. And that's quite appropriate because today we're talking about the body and our anatomy, not necessarily our personal anatomy. But is there anything about your body, may I ask, that you're not too keen on or

that you love? This is why you're going to say much more than me this week, because I'm quite squeamish when it comes to the body. My body awareness is nil. I'm embarrassed by my body. I feel squeamish. I always did. Hated it at school, sharing the showers. Ooh, all that. Well, the reason I love parts of the body when it comes to language is that they're hidden behind so many of the words that we use all the time. So regular viewers of Countdown, I might even have mentioned it on Purple, will know that I love the word sarcasm, which goes back to the tearing of flesh. It goes back to a Greek word for flesh and burning. And it's linked to sarcophagus because the limestone coffins that you will find in the use for sarcophagi used to decompose the body by sort of burning the flesh.

So a sarcastic comment burns the flesh as you deliver it. Just give me sarcophagus. Which part of sarcophagus is the burning? Sarc means flesh. Sarc means flesh. And phagos means eating. So it's flesh eating. My gosh.

So sarcophagus, which you put the body into, is eating, as it were. It's a metaphor. It isn't actually doing it, eating the flesh. And sarcasm is a remark so that it eats away at your flesh. Which is actually doing it in a way because it's decomposing the flesh because of this particular quality of the limestone, the particular property. So a limestone sarcophagus eats the flesh and a sarcastic remark eats the flesh. Okay, I'm going to whiz through these because I can't use them. Don't whiz through them, they're wonderful.

That's why people have tuned in to hear your word wisdom. We've got so much to pack into this programme. Dishevelled goes back to the French déchevelé, meaning your hair's all over the place. Your hair, as in cheveux. Yes, déchevelé, but you can't be shoveled as a result, sadly. You can just be dishevelled.

Supersilious has got cil in it, C-I-L, which is French for your eyebrow. So if you're supersilius, you're super above, cil, eyebrow, is raised. So essentially you're raising your eyebrows. I'm raising my eyebrows as I speak. You are. Gorgeous, something gorgeous once applied to your gorge or your throat. Oh, yes. Because you refer to beautiful necklaces.

And I know that a French word for a bra or brassiere, which is a French word, of course, isn't it? Is a soutien gorge. It is. Because the gorge is the throat, isn't it? Yes. And by extension, by the extension of your throat. So it's a delicate way of putting it. Your eyes could not sort of glance down.

Mine never would, of course. So the throat is the gorge, but the bosom is the soutien, means hold up, doesn't it? We can stay with boobs because brassiere, your brassiere, for which bras is short, actually goes back to a completely different part of the anatomy. And the first people to wear bras were men because it goes back to the French bras, meaning arm. And a brassiere was originally armour for your arm in medieval days. Put me right on this.

It's an urban myth that it was Franz Titzlinger who invented the brassiere. I've never heard that. Oh, it's a well-known thing. Is it? When I was at school as a little boy, they always said, you know who invented the brassiere? It was Franz Titzlinger. And I wasn't sure, you know, because the man who invented the Mars chocolate

was called Mars. He was. It's not named after the planet. Yes. Unlike the Milky Way, which is named after the Milky Way. Yes. So you never quite know with these things. Yes. Unlike the Milky Way, which is named after the Milky Way. Yes. So you never quite know with these things.

No. And we know that Leotard was named after the Leotard, Mr. Leotard. Jules. Well, do you know, I have no idea, but I'm going to have

an interesting bit of search history on my computer later when I look him up. I quite like Caprice because that means hedgehog head. It's apparently a reference to what goes back to the Latin for it anyway,

capo and riccio. Apparently in reference to your hair standing on end. So it doesn't quite fit somebody who's capricious and just who flits from one thing to another. But I think the idea is of just sort of startled inconstancy probably. And hair standing on end riffles through so many different words in English. Horrible goes back to horere in Latin, which again meant to have bristling hairs on your arms and body.

As usual, you know, we're trying to do too much. We could just have started with the head. I've got so much body to fit in here. Let me know, because some people are taking notes apparently. Are they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we don't produce a sheet of notes. So horrible is to do with your hair. Yes. Oh, there it is.

Say that again again. It's the hair stand on end. So H-O-R-R-E-R-E. A hair raising experience is horrible. Exactly. Exactly. So, yes, and melancholy as well. Melancholy goes back to the idea of the humours.

In Middle Ages, medicine was based entirely on the humours and what balance your body was showing in terms of blood and bile and all sorts. So sanguine, you will know, means full of blood. If you're a sanguine disposition, an excess of blood was supposed to make you quite serene in some ways. Whereas melancholy goes back to black bile. The mela there is the same that you'll get in melanoma, meaning black. So if you had an excess of black bile in your body, you were melancholic. So many that kind of go back to those medieval beliefs. Can we just start, concentrate, exhaust the head first.

We've done horrible. We've done the hair. Yeah, dishevelled. Dishevelled. Have we done anything've done horrible we've done the hair we've done disheveled disheveled uh have we done anything to do we've done the eyebrows anything from the eyes oh well my favorite one which i know i've mentioned before but i could talk about this all day the pupil of the eyes is named after the latin pupilla little doll um with the idea that when you stare into the pupil of somebody's eye you see a tiny doll-like representation of yourself. It's so beautiful, that, isn't it? I think we must have discussed this before

because it's all to do with the early stages of falling in love. Yeah. You know, because... That's right, pupils dilating. We talked about this, didn't we? Yes, and basically people falling in love with themselves. They think they're falling in love with somebody else. You know, that early stages of, oh, I mean, I could be you,

you are me, me are you, we are together, we are one. In fact, it's all about, it's me, me, me. It's narcissism, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I'm afraid so. You're right. Yeah, my wife has explained that to me over the years. Child, you think it's all you, you, you.

In fact, it isn't. It's all me, me, me, she says. Oh, is it? Is there anything else in the eyes? Dilated eyes? The iris? Apple of one's eye. Ah, what's the origin of that?

That goes back to the belief that the pupil was actually a solid spherical object a bit like an apple um that was that was believed in ancient times and so the apple of your eye again was the pupil the solid pupil of your eye and because it was so important to life being able to see it was something to be cherished who was the famous actor who had a false eye and used to take it out and sort of disconcert the audience and the other characters by taking it out, sucking it and popping it back in?

I have no idea. I can't remember what he was called. I think it was Esme something. Was it Esme Percy? And occasionally would fall out on the stage and all the other actors would get out of the way as he'd run across the stage trying to pick up his eyeball. Isn't it funny how we're squeamish about eyes?

They are so precious. When I first signed my organ donor form, I missed out the eyes because I thought that's one thing. Were you applying for somebody else's private parts? What were you asking for? No, no, I was just like, when I die, giving everything away. But I kept my eyes, I held them back. But now I have to say I've donated everything.

Well, I will donate everything. Do you know they didn't want mine? I went in and volunteered. No, anything. They said, no, I don't think so. I said, please, I'm giving it all to science. They, I will donate everything. Do you know they didn't want mine? I went in and volunteered. No, anything. Oh. They said, no, I don't think so. I said, please, I'm giving it all to science. They said, no, no, thank you very much.

Oh. Well, apparently I'm past it. I'm too old. They want young, fresh meat like you. Well, the other really good thing to do is, I don't know if there's an age limit to this, is there's a brilliant organisation called Delete Blood Cancer where you can sign up. And if you're you're a match i mean there are some kids particularly and die need a bone

marrow that's a really good thing of course it's uh you should yeah uh absolutely and i'm rather in favor of this policy i think it's happened in wales already that you have to opt out yes that basically you donate by default i think that's a good thing so let's just sit with the eyes uh eyelashes no no there's nothing to say there cheeks cheeks cheek cheek dancing cheek to cheek yes uh that's nice the mouth the teeth the teeth um skin of one's teeth yes what's the biblical reference um where somebody escapes um who was it it was in the book of job that's right and job is subjected to horrible trials apparently by satan and it says my bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh and i am escaped with the skin of my teeth and i think the idea is that um you know the porcelain of your tooth is just so so slender and so so incredibly thin that skin of my teeth by the narrowest margin

i this is why i love the english language you speak of the bible the book of job in the old testament but of course that phrase will have come from the translation of the bible in around 1605 that sort of time the king james. The King James Version. Or the Wycliffe Version. Or the Wycliffe Version, which is sort of 1588. Yeah. So the point is that these phrases have got into, there's something poetic about them that gets into the air and people cling on to them. There's a play, isn't there, called The Skin of Our Teeth,

by Thornton Wilder. Ah. Yeah. Great American playwright. It was American Prairies I always associate him with. Did he write American Prairies? I don't think he did, no, just in terms of the big vast lands of the Western frontier.

That's what I associate Thornton Wilder with. We called one of our cats Oscar because he was wild and then we had one who was even worse. We called him Thornton. Very good. We're in the mouth, the skin of our teeth. Anything else? Gums?

I don't think so. Lips? Hot lips? Hot lips. Nose? Nose. we're in the mouth the skin of our teeth anything else gums I don't think so lips hot lips hot lips nose nose well we talked about nose oh well to being nosy

stick your nose in that's a sort of they're obvious because that's what you do nosy parker we don't know if there was originally a man called Mr Parker

who stuck his nose in everywhere but the idea is it's probably a park keeper who was being a bit of a voyeur oh really teeth I can do teeth yeah long in the

teeth long in the tooth even that goes back to people purchasing a horse who would judge the age of a horse by the size of its canines because apparently horse canines become a lot longer as the horse gets older so in order to ascertain the age of a horse, people would look into the mouth, literally into the horse's mouth. And it's linked to don't look a gift horse in the mouth. In other words, if something's been given to you, don't be so rude as to check out its quality by seeing how long in the tooth it is. Long in the tooth relates to horses. And of course, does that happen? Do horses do? I don't know. I've have a look. I have to say. Never dared. People, because my hearing is going slightly through anodomini, my age, I'm getting closer to people when I speak to them.

I really struggle with that, I have to say. I don't like invasion of personal space when people talk to me. Nor do I. Nor do I. Well, that's why I insisted on this table. I think the grill you've put across the middle of the table is slightly offensive, but there we are. That's the way you want to be. It's your I insisted on this table. I think the grill you've put across the middle of the table is slightly offensive, but there we are. That's the way you want to be. It's your sitting room, not mine. But no, leading into people's faces,

particularly in busy restaurants or coffee shops, there's a lot of clatter going on, so they can hear you and you can hear them. I'm now seeing their mouths more, and I'm not liking what I'm seeing. These old snaggly teeth. And that's why I've done this Invisalign thing, where you seeing. These old snaggly teeth. And that's why I've done this Invisalign thing, you know,

where you put a little bit of plastic on your teeth. And funnily enough, it's been a bore but it does work. And I think one should not try and grow long in the tooth. I want to stick to the head because I think we're going to have to go beyond. No, no, we have to. We've got so many teeth. No, we can do more of the

body another week. We haven't done the ears yet. Cloth ears. What's the origin of cloth ears? I think, honestly, I looked at that in the OED because I had a feeling you were going to ask me that one. The OED doesn't really give any explanation. I guess it dates from 1912. It's the first record they have.

And I guess it's just simply the idea that you have cloth ears, so you can't hear anything. Oh, because they're not real. They're not functioning ears. They're like a bit of cloth stuck on the side of your face. Or cloth over your ears or whatever. So I'm not allowed to do any of the rest of the body. Well, let's work down the body. Let's just be organised.

Okay. Swan's neck. A swan's neck. Beautiful, long, elegant. Simple as that. Yes. You're likening it to a swan. Yes.

Come down to the shoulders. Chip on the shoulder. Chip on the shoulder. Chip on the shoulder. It's said to originate with a US tradition in the 19th century we're talking about here of spoiling for a fight really by carrying a wood chip or a chip of bark on your shoulder as a sign that you were up for a fight. Oh, I'm up for a bit of action. Yeah, or to settle an argument or whatever.

So you literally pick up a bit of bark, a bit of wood, put it on your shoulder, into your epaulette. I'm wearing it. If you had one, you are wearing epaulettes today. I've got a jumper with epaulettes. Yeah. You tuck it in there and that would say to people, I'm ready for it.

Yes. Are you up for it? I'm ready for it. Yes. It's a funny phrase. That's one theory. But now it means something quite different, doesn't it? Well, that's one theory because that doesn't,

that sort of explains that you're up for a fight, I suppose. And so you might be a bit chippy. You might just be, feel a bit prejudiced, which I think is how it's kind of developed today. There's one other theory, which doesn't really, again, explain the modern meaning. And that's that dockers years ago, centuries ago now, were allowed to carry timber home. It's one of the perks of the job that from the dockyard, they would be able to bring firewood or valuable wood home. And so they would sort of carry big chunks of timber on their shoulder.

But again, it doesn't really explain why that dissatisfaction is crept in. Yes, because the idea of chipping your shoulder is it's something, a kind of resentment you feel about the world. It's a prejudice, isn't it? And you carry it around with you. It's a kind of thing you feel about the world? It's a resentment, it's a prejudice, isn't it? And you carry it around with you. It's a kind of thing you've got on your shoulder all the time. Yeah. And you can't, you know, you bring it up when it, so, hmm.

Doesn't quite explain it. I can tell you about Cold Shoulder. Oh, do you? It's another lovely story attached to this, which is that, you know, the story of Humble Pie, a lot of people are familiar with this, humble pie being a pun on umbles pie, umbles being the offals of an animal, which were once served to the so-called peasants at banquets whilst the aristocracy enjoyed the best parts of meat, best cuts. So humble pie is a riff on that. Well, cold shoulder is a similar theme, or the idea is that essentially

the aristocracy would only offer cold lamb to people who were considered below the salt. In other words, at the end of the table, which was below the salt cellar where the peasants sat, and they themselves would tuck into sort of hot beef or whatever. And so the salt is there because salt was incredibly expensive. Yeah, valuable commodity. And it was only for the grand people. And if you sat below the salt, you were nobody. Yes, it was almost like a marker on a table

as to who sat where. And the riffraff, they were given the cold shoulder. Yeah, it's not actually true. It's a lovely story, but we think the idea is simply that you will turn your shoulder away in coldness and disdain. Okay. Is it time for a break? Oh, let's have a break. And then we've got so many inquiries We think the idea is simply that you will turn your shoulder away in coldness and disdain. OK.

Is it time for a break? Oh, let's have a break. And then we've got so many inquiries from our listeners. You see, we didn't. I'm very pleased. Can I just say I'm very pleased we've concentrated on the head and shoulders because maybe they'll be advertising. No, because then we can move on. We can move on to other things.

Let's not rush it. OK. Shampoo, by the way, mentioning head and shoulders, goes back to the Hindi for massage. So the first shampoos were actually beautiful head massages. I'm well up for that. Oh, really? I can't bear strangers touching me.

You know, go to some spa and the idea of having some strange person manhandling you. Oh, I'd love that. Would you? Oh, massage is the best thing ever. Well, I think probably we know each other too well because I wouldn't be the strange... I know I put on a funny white coat.

I can't bear the idea of being manipulated by a total stranger. Head massage. Have you never had a head massage? I certainly haven't. Oh, good grief. It's the best thing in the world. Best thing in the world? Yeah.

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Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill. I had friends in organized crime. Sofia Vergara. Why do you want to be comfortable? Julie Bowen. I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.

I was so down bad for the middle of Miranda when I was like eight. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. We're back and we are un-Masood or Masoost or whatever. Masoost. I don't know. I just made that up. Were you telling me the truth or were you trying to hoodwink me about being loving head massage?

Head massage. I could honestly subject myself to that, submit to that all day. Can you trust the people who do it? Yes. What's the worst that could happen? My darling mother in her 90s went into a massage parlour near her flat, wanting a massage because she had aching bones, a bit of arthritis. And they said to her, she pushed her way through the curtains.

Madam, I think you've come for a different kind of massage. Go elsewhere. Oh, no. My poor mother, in her 90s, she was looking. It was a nail parlour. Well, I think, yeah, but apparently. Is that a euphemism? I've not heard that one.

Yeah, well, apparently it is. Okay. I mean, I don't know. I don't get nail parlours. I wouldn't need. So, I mentioned hoodwinked there. Hoodwinked. What's the origin of that?

Yeah. Often people say, why 40 winks? And it's the same answer really to hoodwink because a wink, I think winken in old English was to close your eyes entirely. So to take 40 winks was literally to close your eyes for 40 minutes. And why 40? No one knows. But hoodwink is the same thing um somebody

will put a hood over your head to make your eyes close figuratively so you couldn't see anything very good like putting on a mask if you're right pulling the wool over your eyes that's another one um bit of a mystery this one but the best guess is it goes back to the um really long fashionable wigs that people used to wear. And the idea of pulling the wool over your eyes is pulling the wig down over somebody's eyes so they can't really see what's going on. I fell out with Joan Collins because years ago... You pulled her wig? No, I went to...

That sounds like you from his Minnehoth. I went to interview her and she's a brilliant person. Yeah. She's highly intelligent. She's a wonderful writer. She's highly intelligent. She's a wonderful writer. She's an actress. She's a huge success. She's made, she's a phenomenon. And it was a happy and good interview. But I was conscious as the interview proceeded that her wig, I think it was a wig, was getting nearer and nearer her eyebrows. And it was a, you know,

I was writing about it. And anyway, I wrote about it. And there was a little foie d'oeil between me and Dame Jones. Oh, I'm not surprised. Yeah, it was not gallant, was it? And now I'm telling the story about it. But it was years ago. And anyway, I think she may have learned the lesson. She's yanked it right back. I put some photos on Twitter the other day of, I bought a fringe wig for eight quid from Amazon because I wanted to see whether I suited a fringe or not. And it looked fairly ridiculous. Rachel tried it on, predictably looked absolutely stunning.

And then I gave it to Nick. You have to, if anybody wants to have a look at Nick in a wig. I've seen it because I follow you on Twitter. Okay. And I've seen it and him. This is Nick Hewer, the host of Countdown. And he looked like one of the monkeys. Do you know the band?

He looked like all sorts of things. I do know the monkeys, yes. Like the sort of the mock beetles wearing it. Yeah. And I'm chomping at the bit. Yes. Which of course goes back to horses. Because you're not letting me do any other parts of the body.

Well, I want to keep something in reserve. I've got down to your shoulders. We are doing, those who haven't seen Naked Attraction, it doing naked attraction yes sorry no i don't like the we there no no okay so we're doing it in reverse we've done the head and the shoulders yeah and then we're going to go because there's so much more to say okay okay fair enough fair enough should i finish with the albatross around your neck i would like to am i the albatross around your neck? I would like to. Am I the albatross around your neck? No, you're not the albatross around my neck. I'm like the parrot on your shoulder.

That's more like it. You know about this. An albatross around your neck is an annoying burden of some kind. And the albatross, obviously, a large seabird, and you will know this, Charles, goes back to Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. You stop at one in three,

by thy long grey beard, etc. He shoots, the sailor shoots a friendly albatross and then is forced to wear its cockers around his neck as a punishment. You see, I think it's deeper than what you said. I think it is, the albatross around your neck is something that you, the burden that you carry with you for the rest of your life is a terrible thing.

It's a wonderful poem by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We're going to be talking about poetry in a podcast coming soon. I hope we will. Anyway, so that's the albatross around your neck. Yeah. Okay, good place to end there. We've had lots of correspondence and we ought to explain. Thank you so much for getting in touch with us at purple, P-U-R-P-L-E,

at, as an at, something without a G, a g else it's a difficult address isn't it um we do actually genuinely read all your letters we can't reply to all of them but we'll try to cover as many as we can here so what what ones have you picked out from the bag this week uh lovely email from david cunton, who actually has a favourite habit, which is quite similar to one of mine, because he says, I want to ask about the origin of using shm as a prefix

to essentially disagree with what was suggested. For example, someone says, I love riding on horseback. He might say horseback, schmorseback. And he's wondering if it's related to the Yiddish word shmuk, meaning full. And the answer is yes, it is Yiddish, as David guessed. And there are so many words that begin

with this combination. Fancy Schmancy, being the one I love, came into American English by probably Jewish immigrants to America. And so this habit, I guess, dates back to around the 20s the late 1920s um and yes schmuck does uh come into the whole list that means penis by the way and in polish yes i thought there was a schwang there's all sorts fine okay um so you're a schmuck is saying you're well most most names for fools prick dick all that stuff of of that stuff. Of course, go back to that. And in Polish, by the way, a schmock is a grass snake. Just thought I'd throw that in. And also schmaltz, which in Jewish and German cookery is animal fat. So anything schmaltzy is a bit kind of unctuous and greasy.

So thank you, David, for that one. Thank you, David. Another one here, Giles, from Anita or Anita McGregor, who very kindly recommends this to all word lovers. And she says, we introduced her to Tartle. Do you remember that? To Tartle is to hesitate when introducing somebody because you've forgotten their name. And she has had the awkward experience of forgetting her own name because I think she was trying to remember her maiden name after a divorce and she just couldn't remember what it was in the moment. She said said is there a word for self-tartle and the answer in it is no we need one

um svartl i don't know there you go um yeah smartle even no not yet i did look um and i did look quite extensively actually i couldn't find one so i think we need to make one up. And to be serious for a moment, you can't just invent a word and think I've invented a word. It's got to gain currency to be a credible word, hasn't it? No, I disagree with that. No, I mean, I think because we don't have an authority in this country,

we don't have an academy saying you can do this and you can't do that. People look to the dictionary to be the arbiter. But actually, it doesn't mean that if something's not in the dictionary, it doesn't exist as a word. So I had a nice tweet this morning from someone saying, please, can you tell your colleagues at the OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, that I've invented a new word, misjumper, which is to put a jumper on inside out or with the label hanging out or whatever. Yeah. And because it doesn't have to get into the OED for it to be a word. He can or she can use it totally legitimately and it will still be a word. So it is all about currency and that will dictate whether it gets into the dictionary. But it doesn't mean it's not a word. Fine. So the dictionary is simply a record of words that have gained some sort of currency.

Yes. But if you've got to... And have to have been in print, don't they, to be in the dictionary? They do. Although that might change, I think. We're going to get more and more oral records informing the OED. So well done. Mischumper is a nice thing because I'm often doing that. You put it on back to front, inside out. All the time. Oh God, I'm mischumbered.

No, I do that all the time. I do. So, yes, should we carry on? Give us one more. Okay, one more, which is from Jenny Schwartz. Oh, Schwartz again. That's a whole different kettle of fish. Where's this from?

Or is it just nonsense? Well, there's a lovely record in print, which is about the earliest one that we can find from a tour in England and Scotland from 1785. And it says, it's customary for the gentlemen who live near the Tweed to entertain their neighbours and friends with a fete champêtre,

which they call giving a kettle of fish. Tent or marquise are pitched near the flowery banks of the river. A fire is kindled and live salmon thrown into boiling kettles. Sounds very cruel for the salmon. But we think the transfer of that idea of cooking fish in a kettle, which is basically a cooking pot, the transfer of that to a fine mess, the really sort of jumbled situation, is probably simply from the mess of fish scales and bones that would end up in the pot afterwards.

That's our best guess. I agree it's probably not the most plausible one, but that's where we are at the moment. Work goes on. Work goes on. I think we have to wrap up. I think we do. We have to wrap up.

What can we finish with in terms of the part of the body? I will look into the pupil of your eye and see myself. That's it. And then have 40 winks. I would know before we wrap up. Are you not going to give us

your trio of exciting words? Oh yes, good point. We always finish with a trio of words from Susie Dent. These may be familiar words with unfamiliar origins, or they may be unfamiliar words that we ought to bring into our currency. And I want maybe next week to talk to you about how, because you introduce us to so many new words all the time, and I find it difficult to remember them. In the moment, I'm excited. And then I think,

oh, what was that word? And maybe you've got some tips on how we can get these words into our heads. Okay. So what are your three words for this week? Okay. Well, I'm going to start with a part of the body, seeing as it's fitting. This is a word that means literally death by foot, and it describes putting your foot in it. It's an act of podiacide. Podiacide. I love it. As in podiatrist, same beginning. Yes. And the side as in? Suicide. Patricide, all of that stuff.

So P-O-D-I-A-C-I-D-E. And that's killing yourself with your own foot. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, just to give you two more parts of the body. But yes, podiacide, I quite like that. What's the origin of tongue-in-cheek? Tongue-in-cheek is, well, I thought... I know what it is, but what's it?

Well, because it sounds like you're just not quite, you know, you might do that if you were joking. But why is it a joke? Tongue eating, is it tongue cheating? Oh, because is it a gesture you make? Tongue in cheek. I think it might be. Okay.

Right, the next P, I've got three P's for you today, nothing to do with bodily P's. Psithurism. How do you spell that? Which I love. P-S-I-T-H. Yeah. Psithurism. How do you spell that? Which I love. P-S-I-T-H. Yeah. Sith-urism.

U-R-I-S-M. Yeah. Psithurism. If you sort of say it very softly and gently, it's quite poetic. It means the whispering of leaves in the wind. Psithurism. In fact, is the P pronounced?

Should it just be a sithurism? Well, you can pronounce it either way. That's a good point. Dictionary will give both. But there's also another word for that, which I'll throw in for good measure, which is susurration. Oh, I know that. Yes, which is gorgeous. And that's onomatopoeic in a way, isn't it?

Susurration. Yeah, murmur of the sea. Psithorism. Okay, there's another P, which we all are guilty of sometimes, me especially. to work in an ineffective way is to ploiter. P-L-O-I-T-E-R. Oh, I like that. Who invented that? How long has that been around? It's an old dialect.

You'll find it in the English dialect dictionary from the 19th century. I was ploitering. Meaning, say it again? To work in an ineffective way. To work in ploitering. Well, we've had 30 minutes or so of ploitering here. Speak for yourself well no well it's not really done any good is it hopefully it's been totally ineffective shared a bit of

fun but we have shared a bit of fun smiles we've shared a few smiles you're the best you wonderful capricious thing yeah hair standing on a hedgehog head i'm a hedgehog head hedgehog head hedgehog head you live and learn that's Hedgehog head. You live and learn. That's the joy of Something Rhymes with Purple. And then you die and forget it. All. Okay. Thank you very much for being with us. You can tweet us or email us at purple at somethingelse.com.

We can't answer every question, but we'll try our best. Okay. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Paul Smith with additional production from Lawrence Bassett, Steve Ackerman and Gully. Oh, Gully. Why did you get a mention? He isn't even here.