Something Rhymes with Purple - Purple Post

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Hello and Happy New Year! This first week of January we are reacquainting ourselves with you lovely Purple People and replying to some of the questions, queries and quibbles that you’ve emailed in. From pelmanism to punters, from Guinness to Mustard we’ll be finding out whether a spendthrift is thrifty or spendy, and examining why you’d rather not go gallivanting with a gallant, even if he claims to be a gentleman. Susie and Gyles also get a bit European (ooh la la), explaining why it’s rather gauche to call a woman zaftig, and recapitulate why one must always capitulate to an offer of poitín. If you'd like to hear Susie and Gyles answer your etymological inquiries then you can get in touch at [e-mail]. A Somethin’ Else production. Susie’s Trio: Flarnecking- vulgarly flaunt something January- the month of Janus, the Roman God who presided over doors and new beginnings Rogitation- to ask the same question over and over again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. And we thought we would devote this entire episode to your correspondence. Because Giles, we get so many emails, don't we? And we are so grateful to everyone who sends them in. We even managed to get a few Christmas cards and New Year greetings,

which is very nice indeed. Did you do lots of Christmas cards this year? Do you know what? I really have to hang my head in shame because over the years, I have become less and less, how should we say, industrious about Christmas cards, which is really silly because I know they can mean a lot and they certainly mean a lot to me when I receive them. But of course, if you don't send them, you don't really receive that many. I used to just adorn the walls with strings of Christmas cards, but I'm afraid they're petering out and that's entirely my fault. How about you? It's not your fault.

You are a Christmas card person. It's the way the world goes. I used to be a huge Christmas card person. When I was an MP, I sent out more than a thousand Christmas cards. What a mistake I had to make. Because when I ceased to be an MP, I thought, oh dear, do I have to keep on doing this to all the people? And so gradually, as the years have gone by, I've sent out fewer and fewer. And now I find, my wife says to me,

send them to people who actually matter to you. And also maybe people who are going to be on their own at Christmas and who would like to hear from somebody. Do that. So I do those, but I don't do the general ones. No, I have received a Christmas card in the past, which was from somebody that I'd done some work for and it was dictated and signed in his absence. I used to get a Christmas card every year from Billy Graham. Do you know who I mean by Billy Graham? Oh my goodness. The great evangelist, yes.

But it wasn't addressed to me. It just came to our house because the people who lived in our house, not just the people before, but the people before the people before, they were obviously on the Billy Graham mailing list. But it was so exciting to get this Christmas card every year from Billy Graham. I felt it was a singing one or something. No, it was just him. Gradually, as the years went by, there were fewer members of his family,

and he became older and quieter. But I felt it was almost like getting a card from Jesus himself on the great day. I felt it was almost like getting a card from Jesus himself on the great day. I felt that was quite exciting. Gosh, that sounds like that reminds me of the time when I was very new to Twitter and a bit of an ingenue and very naive when I got a direct message from David Hasselhoff. And I thought, that's it, I've made it. And unfortunately, it was from the David Hasselhoff Twitter account asking for me to promote something. And yeah, my eyes were opened after that. I got a nice Christmas present.

My friend, the Earl of Bradford, it's a great name, isn't it? Richard Bradford, restaurateur, writer. He sent me a copy of his book, Stately Secrets, and I opened it. And he begins with his favourite story of an American visitor visiting Longleat, which is the house of the Marquess of Bath. And this American visitor is going to Longleat and inquires of a guard in the Great Hall. Is this where Lord Bath holds his balls and dances? So silly. dances. And the other funny thing I got at Christmas, I did get a Christmas card from Mike Plum, who is a member of the Queen's English Society, and he knows of our love of language.

And he enclosed in it some amusing signs, notices that he picked up last year. And he, in a London department store, he says, when he was able to go right at the beginning of last year, he saw this notice saying, bargain basement now upstairs. And he sent me a photograph of a repair shop front door, which had the sign handwritten inside the front door of this repair shop. We can repair anything. Brackets, please knock hard on the door. The bell doesn't work. But the letters, mostly the correspondence we've been receiving, has been stuff aimed at you because you are our scholar. And did you...

Well, they've come from so many different places. I mean, just this week, this past week alone, we have heard from purple people in Melbourne, in Michigan, in New Westminster in British Columbia, and as well as, you know, from people on our home soil in Devon and the Scottish borders and Killee Lane, County Down. So it's quite amazing, the reach, and I'm so proud of that. In those very names that you mention, you give almost the history of the growth of the English language through the British Empire. Because you mentioned Melbourne, which is in Australia, and I imagine is named after Lord Melbourne, who was one of Queen Victoria's first prime ministers. And maybe when the city was being founded, it was named in honor of an English prime minister. And it's now an Australian city. And you mentioned New Westminster there being in, is that in Canada? British Columbia.

British Columbia, near Victoria, of course, named after Victoria. That is now top of my bucket list, British Columbia. It is so beautiful. Have you never been? Never been. And I just have to do it. I just can't believe I'm saying it. Another way of saying it's so beautiful, you've never been. How do you know? No, I've been watching a documentary series and some of it goes to British Columbia. say it's so beautiful, you've never been. How do you know? No, I've been watching a documentary series, and some of it goes to British Columbia, and it's just breathtaking.

And more than that, it's just empty, which just really appeals to me, living in quite an urban place. It's the most beautiful part of the world in the world. And when you get there, please go to Squamish. Okay. Victoria Island, go up to Squamish, have a picnic in Squamish and think of me. I will.

Okay, what a great name as well. Anyway, should we get to some of our fantastic purple people? Look, yes, I want you to cut the mustard. Very good. We have an email about that, don't we? We do, from a Mr. Mustard. That's what I love. He's actually called Edward Mustard. You couldn't make it up.

This is a character who has got character, flavour, edge, bite. He's hot. He's too hot, Mr. Mustard. That really is his name, Ted Mustard. Yeah, fantastic from Salisbury, who understandably says that the saying cuts the mustard always makes him wince for obvious reasons. And he's wondering where it comes from. This really is explained by the fact that mustard, with all its kind of associations of piquancy and zest, has been used as a kind of byword for excellence for over a century. And someone who is mustard was said to be, well, was sharp and accomplished and on the ball. They were hot stuff.

You know, joking about being hot, but that was pretty much the idea, as I say, of being really sort of zesty and keen as mustard draws on the same association. And to say something was the proper mustard in the early 20th century was to say it was the genuine article. And it's from there that cutting the mustard became, in North America, a way of describing something that was really up to scratch. And it's the cutting, I think, that confuses people and probably confuses Edward, understandably. But if you think about phrases like cutting a fine figure to mean displaying a fine figure, as if you've been cut from a beautiful piece of cloth and cut perfectly, it was just a more colourful way when you cut the mustard of

saying that something shows a high standard. So yeah, and it sounds, cutting the mustard, I think, sounds quintessentially British. You know, do you remember in our American episode, we talked about stiff upper lip as well? For me, those two almost go together, but both of them, in fact, were North American in origin. He mentions Edward Must Mustard, in his email to us, that the Latin for mustard is senapis. And he says that from that, you get the German senf, which you would know being a German speaker, and senep in Scandinavia. So he wants to know where mustard comes from, the word mustard. Moutarde is the French, isn't it? Where does mustard come from? And that is how it entered English. It was moustarde in Old French before they lost the S.

And today, moutarde, as you say. And it all goes back to the Latin mostum, meaning must. And mustard was originally prepared with grape must, which is the juice of grapes during fermentation. So, it was all down to that must that gave us mustard. Very good. Can I ask you something about custard? Mustard and custard, they rhyme. They do. And one is sweet and one is sharp. Are they connected in some way? You're the mustard? No, they're not connected. It actually goes back to, have you ever had crostata in Italian cuisine? Or indeed croustade in French, which is the crust of a tart.

So actually it was originally the crust, but because a pie was served very often with some kind of delicious sauce, whether it was cream or some gorgeous concoction, the crust actually, the crust part was then transferred over to the sauce and this happens a lot where something shifts do you remember my talking about treacle treacle originally being the antidote to a poisonous bite but actually right at the beginning it was the very venom from a poisonous snake but the antidote was syrupy and sugary and the treacle, the teriacon, was then transferred over to what you had to protect yourself against the poison, if you like. So things shift in English all the time. They get transferred from one thing to another and that's what happened with custard. But it was all about the crust originally.

Are you a mustard girl? Do you like a little bit of mustard? I love mustard. In fact, I had this conversation with Nick Hewer on Count about the crust originally. Are you a mustard girl? Do you like a little bit of mustard? I love mustard. In fact, I had this conversation with Nick Hewitt on Countdown the other day. We were talking about German mustard, which unfortunately, much as I love German food, is really quite mild. I'm not a great fan of German mustard. I think English mustard is the hottest because Dijon is not very hot French mustard, is it?

And American mustard is very, very yellow and again again quite mild i think if i remember rightly from the days where i used to eat meat i'm such a mustardholic that i even went on a mustard holiday uh no we did we went around kind of collecting mustard and we ended up in dijon where literally every every other shop is a mustard shop but you're right by the end of it we thought this is really a bit bit too mild. It was mild and mellow and delicious, but one needs it. But you want something with a bite. You do want a bit of edge.

Did you hear my stomach then, by the way? It was responding to the idea of lots of mustard. Personally, I wish I could control my stomach, but I can't. I'm afraid that my borborygmus is going to be accompanying us throughout this, particularly if we're talking about mustard. It's music to our ears. Let's move on to the next letter, which comes from somebody called Kirsten Grove-White. Now, whenever nowadays I see a double-barrelled surname, in the old days, it used to sort of indicate somebody who was a bit posh. Now, I think it's people whose parents, my children have done this, for example, some of my grandchildren are called

Brandreth Stroud, my daughter's name and her husband's name, they put them together. And a lot of people do this. So that's what double-barrelled is usually, isn't it? Oh, is it? I don't know. I always thought so. I don't know. What was your mother's maiden name? Marchant. So you would be Marchant. Oh, that's very grand. Susanna Marchant Dent. Yes, here she is. It's not really very grand. Her tummy is rumbling. She's belching. But it's Susanna Marchandent. Marchand.

It goes back to the French for shopkeeper. So I don't think it's very grand. Oh, as in marchand. Yeah. Marchand. But yes. How about yours? My mother's maiden name was Addison.

A-double-D-I-S-O-N. That's nice. And actually, Addison's a much easier name than Brandreth. What? Because of the R. I can imagine you get Brandreth all the time. Oh, I do. Why would you know? Anyway, you know you know what kirsten is asking is that something i've mentioned treacle and poison and this is not too unrelated because she has a question about the words potion and the irish

pochine i think are these two words linked or do they just sound similar thank you kirsten for that they aren't at all related have Have you ever had poutine? It's kind of illicitly made alcohol, isn't it? And I think, is it often made from potatoes? Sorry to keep up with the stereotype of Ireland and potatoes. When I wasn't going on my mustard holiday, I was going... You were on a poutine holiday, don't tell me. I was.

And it mainly centred around the County Cork, because my wife has a lot of family from County Cork. I was going to say they were all nuns. They weren't all nuns. All the aunties were nuns. The uncles, some of them were priests. Clearly, there was one who was neither a nun or a priest from whom my wife is descended. And we toured County Cork. We went to these, this is 50 years ago, we went to these extraordinary bars, pubs, but

weren't like an English pub with sort of lots of wood and chairs and crackling fires. They were much more, well, almost like a butcher shop. They were clinical and clean. And there was a sort of slab, a coal slab of marble on which the poutine was served. It was a sort of slab, a coal slab of marble on which the poutine was served. It was a serious business. You went in there to drink your poutine, which is spelt in a funny way, isn't it? How's the Irish word spelt? Kirsten just spelt it here, P-O-I-T-I-N.

And I think it's listed in the dictionary because it comes up on Countdown sometimes. It's P-O-T-E-E-N. But I'm assuming there are lots of different spellings of it. To start with potion, that actually meant poison originally. It goes back to potterate, meaning to drink. So it was the action of drinking, but it was particularly associated with healing or magical or poisonous drinks, and particularly for a while to unorthodox or quack kind of medicines. So it didn't start off

particularly well. But then, of course, the idea from poetry and Shakespeare of love potions, such as Midsummer Night's Dream, etc., those kind of came on board and a potion became something much more magical rather than anything that was just illicit or downright fraudulent. magical rather than anything that was just illicit or downright fraudulent. And poutine or poutine simply means small pot, particularly the small pot that was meant to make this illicit whiskey or drink. Is it very, very strong? I don't remember, to be honest.

I don't remember. It was all, to be honest, none of the drinks I liked. We had a lot of Guinness. I love Guinness. Do you? But you have to drink it in Dublin for me. Yeah, I can believe it. It tastes very different. That's always what people say, isn't it?

I love Guinness. But the trouble with drinking beer, and I no longer drink, but I do remember when I did drink, is you have to drink so much. You know, a pint is a vast amount of liquid to consume. You can have a half pint of Guinness, but you do look a bit of a wuss. Exactly. You're not going to go into an Irish bar and say, well, I have half of Guinness, if you don't mind. Certainly not if you're called Brandreth. Ridiculous name. Okay. Thank you for that indeed, Kirsten. Christopher Scott has been in touch. Hello.

I've always been confused about spendthrift. Does it mean someone who spends or someone who's thrifty? It's the former, of course, someone who's profligate, a spendthrift. But why combine two words of opposite meaning? Are there other examples? And is there a term for words that are constructed in this way? Oh, you could write a book on this. Very short email.

Thank you, Christopher Scott. So, spendthrift, what is the origin? How have they come together? What's it all about? Well, you have to go through the story of thrift, which back in the 14th century meant something very different, and that was prosperity and good fortune. And it's rooted in the language of Old Norse, which of course was brought over by Viking invaders. And the best way to remember it in terms of its etymology is a sibling of thrive. So if you thrive, then you are prosperous, I suppose. And from that sense of wealth grew a whole subset of meanings that related to economical management, careful expenditure of that same good fortune. And it was human nature probably that shifted that sense of frugality to one of meanness and

being penny pinching. And so thrifty, which had originally meant wealthy and flourishing, shifted to mean good or careful with money and eventually frugal. And the earliest sense of thrift, that idea of wealth and prosperity, explains the meaning of spend thrift, because it was somebody who spent their wealth, typically in a way that was foolish and extravagant and wasteful. And so spend thrifts ultimately may be forced to frequent thrift shops and those selling secondhand goods. So it's very much an example of how English has evolved over the years to mean something that's almost the opposite of how it, you know, how it began.

And there are so many examples of that in English. Thank you, Christopher Scott, for getting in touch. Now, if I may say so, Dent, Scott, these are good surnames. Simple. When booking a table at a restaurant, if you're allowed to go to one, you say the name is Scott, people know where you are. Who's the most famous Scott you've ever met? Not the person from Scotland, because I feel I haven't done a name drop and it's the new year and I've got to raise my name dropping. I've seen Kristen Scott Thomas from afar, but I didn't actually meet her. I remain a huge fan of hers.

I don't know if I've met a famous Scott. Right, this is a... Thank you, drumroll. Well, I've known a lot of great Scots, including Kristen Scott. Scott of the Antarctic? Well, certainly his son, Sir Peter Scott, I did know. And I visited him at Slimbridge in order to persuade him to open a similar wildfire and wetland centre in London.

I love Slimbridge. Which she did. And he was a most delightful person. I think the most unlikely Scott that I've ever sat with. And I did travel once on the Eurostar from Paris to London with Christian Scott Thomas. Yeah, exactly. I was sitting next to him. But at dinner once, I was sitting next to a man. He was clearly bored with me. And I wasn't really getting very far with him, but we were stuck next to each other at dinner. So he was going to speak at the dinner as well. I was speaking. I said to him, well,

why are you here? What's your claim to fame? And he said, oh, I don't know, I suppose going to the moon. I thought, what? Going to the moon. And it turned out this was an astronaut called David Scott. And the trouble is, unless you were one of the first three people on that original, and only two of them actually stood on the moon, The rest of them have been forgotten. And he is one of the forgotten men who went to the moon, David Scott. So they were. But I suppose you don't do it for public accolade, do you? You must do it for that sense of curiosity and adventure that you have yourself. I mean, of course, it would be lovely to be recognised, but I imagine the impetus isn't fame.

No, no, I think not. I mean, he was a remarkable man, though I think maybe he was interested in some elements of fame because he got into a little bit of trouble because I think when he was up there, he'd taken with him some stamps and he had a kind of John Bull printing set and he tried to stamp the stamps with the moon, the moon, the moon, and brought them back to earth. And I don't think they approved of that, a little bit of private enterprise trying to, the moon, the moon, and brought them back to Earth. And I don't think they approved of that. A little bit of private enterprise trying to, you know, have stamps franked on the moon. And he was a bit resentful, to be honest. I mean, this is a long time ago since I was with him.

And he was telling me how he rather resented the fact that people who'd been to the moon had been allowed to bring back souvenirs, but they'd been given away. They belonged to the American government. So they'd brought back some moon dust and some moon rocks, and he wasn't allowed to keep any of them. But the next thing he knew, the Pope had been given a bit of the moon to have at the Vatican. He thought, why can't I have a bit of the moon in my sitting room? Anyway. Just very quickly to finish this off, I have met Chris Hadfield, who is one of my absolute, I know we overused the word hero, but he is just the most extraordinary man, the Canadian astronaut. He's just so humble, has taken the most amazing photographs, but also just wonderful videos.

I might have mentioned them before, but from the space station, you're showing kids, for example, how you shave and what happens to the bristles on your chin. And it's just, it's just extraordinary. He's a great man. Oh, what does happen to the bristles on your chin, by the way? Yeah. If I remember, they have to be kind of hoovered up. So there's like a little suction thing that goes around as you shave, it kind of gets sucked up because otherwise they will just, you know, go up people's nostrils and just circulate in the air. Likewise with haircuts. up people's nostrils and just circulate in the air. Likewise with haircuts. It's quite complicated, but very fun. Chris Frost-Luttman, I hope I've pronounced that correctly, Chris, has said that he saw on social media recently the origins of the word punters, and he's wondering if it's true. That always makes me tremble a little bit because I always expect a folk etymology coming up,

but let's see. It says, these spectators at Brooklyn's in the 1930s, and he's attached a photograph, have managed to take their boats or punts under the bridge on the River Way to view the circuit action. By doing it this way, they avoided paying to get in and were known as the punters, the origin of the expression. It's a great photograph, actually. Yes, he said it's this marvellous period photograph of clearly a group of people, some blokes and some girls as well, standing on punts on the canal or the river, looking up at the Brooklands racecourse. So there they are in the 1930s on the river way, actually below the bridge,

but looking up at the racecourse. They are on punts. They are punters. Are they the people who gave us the name punters for people to go to a show? Oh, Charles, I hate to do this. I always do this. I am the person you don't want at the party because I will always burst the balloons. And I'm just about to, unfortunately. We think it goes back to a French verb, ponter. You'll find it in pontoon, for example, because it refers to in games of cards,

laying a stake against the bank. That ultimately is from a French verb, pondre, which means to kind of multiply. So it's all about the kind of monetary value of this. But it was influenced, we think, by a rugby punt, which is a kick given to the ball which is dropped from the hands before it reaches the ground you find it in american football as well so taking a punt is almost like sort of taking that risk because it's quite a risky maneuver um won't go into the internet because i'm not massively ofe with either rugby or american football much as i'd love to be but we don't think it goes back to the punts of boats and it all goes back to laying a stake in gambling and thereby undertaking a bit of a risk. So let's be clear about this. Taking a punt, as in the expression, taking a risk,

I'm going to take a punt on this, that goes back not to rugby, but before rugby even, to finance, to a financial risk. Okay. A financial risk, exactly. That's what taking a punt is. Yes. And then taking a punt, actually, I'm going on the river in my punt, that is to do with a pontoon. You can have a pontoon, that's a group of punts, is a pontoon, isn't it?

They can form a pontoon to get across the river. Yes. So the kind of boat you propel with a long pole is from the Latin ponto, which meant a flat-bottomed ferry boat. Very good. That gives us the pontoon, not the card game, but the vessel that's used to support a temporary bridge or a landing stage. So the punt that's a bet is much later.

And that goes back from the French ponte, meaning a point or a stake. And punter, person who gambles, is from that word. Today, we might use it much more loosely to mean a customer or a stake. And punter, person who gambles, is from that word. Today, we might use it much more loosely to mean a customer or a client, but it goes back to that idea of playing a card game and taking that kind of risk. And the punt, meaning a long kick in rugby, actually goes back to a completely different word. This is why it's so confusing. It's a local dialect word around rugby school, actually, the home of rugby, meaning to push or kick. But that idea of taking a chance and a drop kick, if you like, reinforced the punting, taking a gamble sense that we have today. This is the joy of language. We could go off and say one four letter word, P-U-N-T, and it could take us all sorts of places.

Well, let's not get into the rhyming slang now, but that's marvellous. What's your favourite card game? Trumps. Oh, I like Trumps. And Knockout Whist. How about you? Well, I like Pontoon, and I used to play Bridge quite seriously. But now it's Snap with the grandchildren.

And alarmingly, they're beating me at snap i'm being beaten at snap it's come to this oh it's a young person's game because you just have to have such quick reflexes thank you thank you for pointing that out to me that would be exactly the same it's and it's the same for memory games you know when you play pairs when you put out all those huge number of different cards that are kind of in pairs but they're all in different places i promise you five year olds have got that down to a t and the older you get the worse your memory becomes i have discovered this myself you call that pairs do i call that pelmanism is that the same game where you lay out

the whole pack of cards and you try to then you you pick them up. And if you get two of the same, you can take them and the person who ends up with most cards is the winner. Yes, that's brilliant. I'm absolutely right. I've never heard of that. So this comes from the Pelman Institute for the Scientific Development of Mind, Memory and Personality, which is in London. I've never heard of Pelmanism. Well, there you are. Occasionally, listeners, and that's why it's worth staying tuned. Occasionally, I know a word that Susie doesn't. We both know the word skyscraper. Malcolm Whitehead has been in touch because he wants to know more about it. Knowing the 1789 Epsom Derby winner was called skyscraper, where did the name originate? As they, I assume, had not been built at that time. Skyscraper.

I love this because all of us today, I would say, knows only one meaning of skyscraper, which is, you know, obviously the very, very tall building that looks like it's touching the sky. But actually, if you look through a historical dictionary, you will find so many different definitions of this. And that explains the Epsom Derby winner. Because at that time, this is the 1780s, a skyscraper was a triangular skysail. And a skysail was a light sail that was set above the royal sail on a square rigged ship. So that was the very earliest meaning of skyscraper. But then, not too long after, a decade after, it could be a very tall hat or a bonnet. That was also called a skyscraper.

Likewise, a tall horse, a tall story, as in an exaggerated story, or a rider of a penny fardling, which I love. And it was only really in, I think it's around the 1880s that you get the first record of the skyscraper buildings, the ones that are very tall and have many, many different floors. And most of those were built in the US, weren't they? Especially in Chicago and New York, following the development of the elevator. So that accounts for that. But skyscraper had had a long life well before that, over a century or more. We've got time for just one more before we take our break. Galavanting. Tony Orme.

Yeah. He wants you to tell him the origin of galavanting. My family used it a lot when I was young. I don't use it so much these days. It appeared in the new Geoffrey Archer book I'm currently reading. Thank you in anticipation. Best regards, Tony Orme. Well, we know he likes a rattling good yarn.

Can you give him a rattling good definition of gallivanting and where it came from? Yes, we think it's just a playful variation on gallant. And to gallant, as a verb, once meant to court a woman, to use kind of old-fashioned terms. So sort of to go in pursuit of amorous pleasure. And to be gallivanting originally was all about romance rather than just, you know, wandering about being sort of up to no good or being up to mischief or whatever. But of course, we now talk about a gallant being a swain, if you like, a man who would sort of go about seducing women. Both of those words, gallivanting and gallant, go back to the French

galley, which meant to rejoice and to have fun. And that, of course, also gave us Gala. Rejoice. This is a Gala edition of Something Rhymes with Purple, devoted to you, the Purple people, our listeners. We're so grateful to you. And we're grateful, too, that people like to be part of our show with little ads now and again. So thank you to them for helping us along the way. Let's take a quick break.

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Your favorite anime is getting a new season. Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. And I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. Every week, you can listen in while we break down the latest pop culture news and dish on what new releases we can't get enough of. We're covering the latest in film, video games, music,

manga, and obviously anime. Get the latest on the anime effect. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Also from something else, Katie Piper's Extraordinary People with me, Katie Piper. Every episode, I'm joined by a guest who tells their incredible and inspirational

story, revealing how they face adversity and come through the other side, including great British Bakelf judge, Rue Leith. I mean, when my first husband died, I think that next two years were the worst two years of my life because I really loved him deeply. And he died about 18 years ago now. But what kept me going was that I had all this work that was nothing to do with him. Do you think independence is key to resilience? Yes, a degree of independence. I think to put all your eggs in one basket is dangerous because it's just, you know,

it's just so awful when you're left on your own. You can find a link to this particular interview in the episode notes of the show you're listening to subscribe now on apple podcast spotify and wherever you get your podcasts this is something rhymes with purple i'm giles brandreth. I'm with my friend Susie Dent. We're not actually together in the same room. She's in Oxford, England. I'm in London, England. But we're talking to the world. And our last listener, Tony Orme, who was inquiring about the origin of gallivanting, told us that he is reading the latest Geoffrey Archer. Geoffrey Archer is world famous, actually. He's widely read in all the places where they listen to our podcast, particularly in India. He's one of the most popular authors in India.

I'm an old friend of Jeffrey Archer. I've known him since I was 10 years of age, because at my boarding school when I was 10, Jeffrey Archer came along. He was about 18 at the time and taught us running. He ran, actually, you know, for England, as he says, not quite fast enough. He's an extraordinary character, but his novels are very popular all around the world. And he showed me this picture taken of him in India on his last book signing there, and there were literally, I exaggerate, not 10,000 people in the crowd. I mean, you could see 10,000 people, hugely popular.

Of course, he was a member of parliament briefly. He was also a conservative peer, came from the world of politics, still takes an interest in politics. I'd say he's a sort of middle of the road conservative. But you think of conservatives being on the right and liberal people being on the left and our next question is is all about that and it's somebody who's asking us why we associate liberals with the left and conservatives with the right i mean do you know the answer shall i let you into a secret here yes that's somebody you are looking at right now because it was me oh it was

you i just thought it'd be quite a nice one to put in yes because i realized my shame i've never actually questioned us talking about the far left the far right etc i've never actually thought hang on why the left and the right and i've spent years talking about how the left was unlucky and the right was associated with good luck and skill and all of that stuff. But I've never talked about the political left and right. Do you know this one? No, I don't. Can I say how sweet it is, Purple people, that we have Susie Dent herself actually emailing us at purple at something else dot com, sending in this anonymous inquiry. That's all I've got on my screen is the next question is related to politics. But anyway, so I think it's very sweet that you've written in to us in order to share the answer. And have you now, you've given yourself time to find out the answer, I suppose.

Yes. Well, no, I did some investigating and it's so simple, but I just didn't think about it. So most of us know that the left refers to people in groups generally that have more liberal views, support kind of progressive reforms, social and economic equality, etc. Far left is more extreme revolutionary views. Right, generally people who have conservative with a small C views, more disposed to preserving existing conditions, etc. Far right, more extreme nationalistic viewpoints, fascism, etc. And we have the left wing and the right wing. And actually, they do have everything to do with the physical directions left and right.

And it goes back to the seating positions in the 1789 French National Assembly, so the Parliament. And it was the Parliament that transformed after the French Revolution. So relative to the that transformed after the French Revolution. So relative to the president of this assembly, to his right, and it was a he, were seated nobility and more high-ranking religious leaders. To the left were commoners and less powerful clergy. The right-hand side was called le côté droit, which became associated with more reactionary views and then eventually came into English, not just the right side, but the right wing. And le côté gauche, the left-hand side, became more associated with more radical views. So left and right, this political adjective is recorded in English in about the 1790s. And towards the centre, the seating positions in the French National Assembly closest to the centre became then associated with less extreme views.

But it all goes back to that French National Assembly. Very good. Isn't that amazing? That is amazing. Well, thank you for answering your own question. Now I know that we can all be in touch with purple at somethingelse.com and it's something without a G. I shall start sending anonymous inquiries too. Please do.

Do you know, for example, Susie Dent, what ZAFTIG means? Z-A-F-T-I-G. It's one of my father's favourite words. Well, it's kind of, so I didn't know your father, so please don't take this the wrong way. But it goes back to the German for juicy. And quite often it was applied. It was fairly sexist, potentially, because it was applied to kind of well-endowed women. So I'm sure that's not how your father was using it.

I fear it probably was. You've got to remember, he was born in 1910. So he was virtually an Edwardian. And also, people of the pre-war generation, our association with Germany was much closer. People would go on holiday there, I'm right in saying, in earlier times. And he would, in the 1920s and 30s, he went on holiday to Germany and he would come back and he would describe somebody, yes, a Saftig, which I think means desirably plump and covetous. It's buxom, really, I think it would be our nearest synonym.

Yes. It's meant to be, really, I think would be our nearest synonym. Yes. It's meant to be a compliment, I think. Well, I would say definitely use it carefully these days because I think it's got other connotations. I'm sure you wouldn't use it anyway. I wouldn't use it at all. I was just trying to test you. And you were not found wanting. Oh.

We've got more letters. Capitulate. Dear Susie and Giles, my father, Bob Goff, writes, Dear Susie and Giles, my father, Bob Goff, writes, capitulate means surrender, recapitulate means summarise. Can you explain, please? Asks Amanda. Can you, Susie?

This is going to be a little bit like punt in that we're not talking about words with entirely different derivations at all. They are relatives, but both of them have gone in completely different directions. So capitulate goes back to a Latin word that came into Old English meaning to summarize. And in an extension of that meaning, it came to mean to arrange things into chapters. And actually, capitulum in Latin also gave us the word chapter. And somehow arranging things into chapters led to another extension of the meaning to kind of organise things and to arrange conditions. And to do that, you might need to hold an assembly and come to some kind of agreement, to stipulate something in an agreement. In the 16th century, people started to use capitulate to talk about drawing up terms and conditions and

agreements. And then in a bit of a twist, it referred to surrendering. And the connection there is when you surrender, you usually write up or agree to terms for that surrender. That was the idea behind it, that you would come to some kind of formal agreement that you are ceding power to somebody else. Recapitulate didn't go through that same evolution and it kept closer to the earlier summarise meaning, arranging into chapters and that kind of thing, with the re bit added to give you the sense of going through something a second time to make that kind of summary. So it's kind of going back over something. So that's how it worked. It was all really to do with organisation, but because the idea was that when you surrender, you need to create some kind

of new structure that it took on that term. It's quite confusing. And again, a good example of how English can make these giant leaps that seem quite an odd evolutionary development, but there is a kernel of the original still there. We're making a giant leap now to Dromfield Woodhouse in Derbyshire. Bob Machen has been in touch. I was wondering if Susie would be interested in explaining the background to the meaning of royalties in regard to the payment of fees due to the likes such as herself, an author, and to musicians. Did it somehow relate back to payments made to the mon such as herself, an author, and to musicians? Did it somehow relate

back to payments made to the monarchy in days gone past? Yes, Bob often writes to Countdown actually as well. So he's a very loyal listener, Bob, thank you. Yes, absolutely that. So in the 15th century, royalty meant very simply what it does now, the office or position of a sovereign. And it comes from the Latin regalis, which also gave us royal itself. But the sense of prerogatives or rights granted by a sovereign to an individual began to emerge in the 1600s. It wasn't so much about monies going to the king, but monies granted by the king or the queen. but monies granted by the king or the queen. And from that evolved more general senses, such as a payment to a landowner for use of land or something else,

and then ultimately payment to an author, composer, etc., for sale of their work. So it's just an extension of that idea of, I guess, rights that have been granted, whether or not by a sovereign, and the monies that then, you know, come from that. Do you remember a musical double act called Flanders and Swan? When I was a boy, they were huge. They were delightful. People will remember them of an older generation for songs like Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud. Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. Very entertaining people. And I was lucky enough to know both Michael Flanders and Donald Swan.

And they did a riff on the lovely song Greensleeves, the melody Greensleeves. I love that. Which traditionally, it's assumed, was written, composed by King Henry VIII. Yeah. And whenever they played this Greensleeves, they would always say at the end of it, and the royalties will go to royalty, which is a nice touch. Excellent. I didn't know it was supposed to have been written by him.

I always thought it was in his court. I've always associated it with him. It is associated with his court, but for years people said it was by him. I mean, they were just talking up the sovereign. I think despite his awful behavior with his wives, he was tall,. I mean, they were just talking up the sovereign. I think despite his awful behavior with his wives, he was tall, he was elegant, he was educated. He was a keen footballer as well. Yeah. Oh, there was a wonderful television series with him about him when I was young, trying to think who played the part. Was it Edward Woodward? Who played the part of

Henry VIII in that TV series? I have no idea. Well, if you know anything, feel free to tweet us. We're on Twitter, both of us, and you can always get in touch. It's... Purple at somethingelse.com. That's it. I was just, as you were saying that, for some reason it always makes my youngest laugh. And I do apologise if any Woodward is listening, but Edward Woodward just makes her laugh.

Oh, Edward Woodward. It seems such a cruel choice, but then instantly memorable. So maybe not so cruel. We have one more question, I think. Yes, what is it? Which is from Sarah in Surrey, we think. And she says, I wondered if you might be able to explain the derivation of the word ha-ha, as in the ditch which is used as an invisible barrier to keep livestock safely in their field.

I grew up in Woolwich or near Woolwich in South East London and across Woolwich Common is the Ha Ha Road and thus it's a term I have pretty much always known. I now live in a house in Kent with a ha ha at the bottom of the garden and would like to know where it came about. Well, it is said to be simply from the cry of surprise on suddenly encountering an obstacle. So, as I say, it's usually a ditch with a wall on its inner side below ground level. And as Sarah said, it forms a boundary. But the idea is that it doesn't interrupt the view. But if you stumble across a ha-ha, apparently you might then go, ha, ha-ha.

That's the dictionary etymology. And I'm sticking with that one. That's hilarious. Already people are tweeting us about Henry VIII and that 1970 television series. They're going, ha, ha, you know nothing, Edward Woodward. In fact, somebody from Melbourne, Australia has been in touch to say it was, of course, Keith Michelle, Australian television and movie actor. But I do remember seeing him as Henry VIII, and I thought he was completely marvelous. Good. Thank you, everybody, for sending in those questions and queries. We'll do another episode like this in a few months' time.

We do a fresh episode every week. We simply celebrate the English language. And Susie, who knows everything, will just give you all the answers you need. And if she doesn't know everything, she'll ask me, and then we'll share the answers with you. Now, have you got a trio of words to start us off this new year? Three interesting words, real words that appear in a dictionary somewhere that you think we should bring into our vocabulary? And do you have a trick or a tip to give us for how people can increase their word

power? Well, if you want a list of them, I hate doing this. I'm terrible at flarnecking, which is actually one of my trio of words for today. To flarneck is to vulgarly flaunt something, which I'm about to do but there are quite a lot of the words that I mentioned on Something Rise with Purple in my book Word Perfect so that's one one way but the best way I would suggest is thinking of a very specific context that you can apply it to so not just reading the definition but actually embedding that definition in your brain by applying it to your own experience or to, if it's an adjective about an individual, applying it to a particular person. And then just repetition, you know,

write it down, have a little book. I've got loads of little notebooks, which I find better than typing onto a screen. Just writing it down physically really helps. I think there's some research that shows if you write it physically, you will remember it better than if you type it out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What are your three words to start the year with? Okay. Well, I've given you one. Let this not be a year of flarnecking. Flarnecking, an old verb, as I say, meaning to flaunt ostentatiously, whether it's success,

what's any, it's just showing off, basically. I think we've had enough of that. showing off basically. I think we've had enough of that. January is actually one of my trio because we're in January and it has a lovely origin, which you will know, Giles, I'm sure. It is the month of Janus. Janus being the Roman god who presided over doors and new beginnings. And he was always depicted as having two faces, one that looks back and one that looks ahead to the future, which I just think is beautiful. It gave us the word janitor as well, but he was the keeper of doorways. And let's hope that he is presiding over a better year this year. And my final one is rogitation. And to rogitate, you might remember this one, Giles, is to ask the same question over and over again, whether it's, can I have a quality street? Or are we there yet? Or any of those similar questions.

That is rogitating. So again, I think we've had enough of that for a while. A terrific trio to start the year. And I've got a poem to start the year. It's by Jackie Kay, the Scottish bird laureate. Oh, she's brilliant. She is brilliant. And this is really a toast to all of us at the beginning of a new year. Remember the time of year when the future appears like a blank sheet of paper, a clean calendar, a new chance. On thick white snow, you vow fresh footprints,

then watch them go with the wind's hearty gust. Fill your glass, ears to us. Promises made to be broken, made to last. I love Jackie Kaye. Excellent. Thank you for that. Thank you so much to you for listening. And it's the start of another year.

And we're so happy and lucky to have you with us and on board. As Giles says, do always get in touch. We would love that. Something Rises Purple, as always, is a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Harriet Wells, Steve Ackerman, Ella McLeod,

Jay Beale and the person that we hope to see a bit more of this year, Gully. Oh, Gully, Gully, Gully. Good Gully gun props.