Something Rhymes with Purple - Schnurrbart

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Starting point is 00:00:58 amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, Other conditions apply. Hello. Welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. I never quite know what to say at this point, Giles, because our traditional mantra would be, this is the podcast all about words and language, but I feel like we have such loyal listeners that they already know what they're getting. But we have new listeners all the time. So they need to know it's about words, language, etymology. And occasionally I'm allowed to tell one of my name dropping stories. People say, why do you always tell these name dropping stories? Because I think, well, two reasons I tell them. One is I find people interesting and gossip and stories about people intrigue me. And also my father used to

Starting point is 00:01:40 say about, because he told a lot of stories, a lot of my stories I inherited from him. And I think he inherited them from his father. He used to say that if you stop telling a story about a certain person, that's when they die. As long as people are telling stories about them, they're still alive. So that's why I keep telling stories often about people who nobody else has heard of. No, that's lovely. Well, I often talk about words that no one has ever heard of. Frequently. And even when you've talked about them, they don't remember them. I tell you what, somebody came to me this week in the street. They always say, hello, I'm a purple person.

Starting point is 00:02:10 And I said, have you joined the club? And this is what I'm talking about. They hadn't heard of the Purple Plus Club. And so I thought it might be worth mentioning, we have a Purple Plus Club where we explore a little bit more about the origin and evolution of words. And I tell more of my stories. But usually we try and do a sort of deep dive into a particular subject. We've recently been doing a kind of A to Z of wit and wisdom, and about all sorts of

Starting point is 00:02:35 intriguing authors from Jerome K. Jerome to, I think the last one we recorded was about Thomas Mann, the great German novelist and a hero of yours, though in some ways a controversial figure. Anyway, if you like the idea of becoming a subscriber, you get all our main episodes absolutely ad-free. It's just $2.99 a month, which is actually the price of a coffee in your part of town in Oxford. It's half a cup of coffee in my part of town in London,

Starting point is 00:03:03 I can tell you. So it's fun. And come and join us there. It's a little bit different and we enjoy it. So if you want ad-free listening and a few extras from Susie and me, do join the Purple Plus Club, $2.99 a month. And where do they find out about that, I wonder? They go to our feed. So if they subscribe to us and which hopefully purple people do they will find information about the bonus episodes there but we have to say regardless whether you're a purple plus member we never take you for granted and we are really really grateful that you um listen to us week in week out so thank you for being with us and well today we are picking a subject i'm

Starting point is 00:03:41 surprised we've not done this before actually because, because it's so central to our life. I've vetoed it every time it's come up. Oh, did you? Because it's a very sensitive subject from my point of view. The subject is hair, H-A-I-R. And I am now follicly challenged on top of my head, but not it appears in my ears or nostrils. Hair grows in all the wrong places. I can't get it to grow in the right place.

Starting point is 00:04:04 So that maybe is why I've avoided this subject. It's a delicate subject, isn't it? It's a delicate subject for a lot of people, yes. And I totally understand that. But it has had so much significance over the centuries, not just in terms of self-confidence and fashion, etc., but also in terms of religion and in terms of tribal allegiances etc so it's a pretty important factor in our life and i remember the excitement when i worked for the

Starting point is 00:04:33 oxford english dictionary when they found what we call an anti-dating so an earlier record than we'd found so far of um the phrase big hair day which no not big hair day bad hair day phrase big hair day, which no, not big hair day, bad hair day, not big hair day, although I'm sure some people do have big hair days. But yeah, we discovered or somebody discovered that bad hair day was around as early as 1988, which seems incredibly recent to me. But actually, I think before then it was a lot later than that. And that's because the day on which your hair is just so unmanageable and everything else seems to follow on from that. Can you begin at the beginning and explain, unpack the word hair itself?

Starting point is 00:05:16 I can. It will take me one second because it comes from the German haar, H-A-A-R. So it's a Germanic word and we inherited it straight from the german ha h-a-a-r so it's a it's a germanic word um and we inherited it straight from them and the french word cheveux is that anything to do with cheval and horses no i don't think it is actually let me that's interesting i've not looked at the and why would a word like hair come to us from the german and not from either the Romance language, you know, Latin or Greek or French. Why are we taking these? What sort of words do we get from German? What are the Germanic words usually? Well, quite often it's words that were

Starting point is 00:05:56 so fundamental to life that actually, you know, they were there in Old English. And I mean, but not exclusively because, of course, very often we had a term for them in old English. But then, as I always say, the French came along and French became incredibly fashionable, so we swapped. But we didn't in this time. We didn't go for the French. But actually, we did have for a little while, chevalier, or chevalier, I don't know how we pronounced it in English, in the Middle Ages, they did borrow the French just for a little bit, but not for very long. And I'm just looking to see where cheveux actually comes from in French.

Starting point is 00:06:34 I'm pretty sure it won't be related to cheval, which ultimately goes back to the Latin cabalis, meaning a horse. But let me have a look. This is the sort of thing I love. Well, I hope. I think we should start with male hair. Though I suppose there are women who have moustaches, beards, a little goatee. Sorry, I'm just going to...

Starting point is 00:06:54 It does go back to the... Chavut does go back to Latin as well, but this time it probably goes back to caput, meaning head. Very good. Okay. So we've got hair. Staying with male hair for the moment, and we'll come on to things like wigs later. What is the origin of the word moustache? Now,

Starting point is 00:07:10 that does sound French to me. Moustache. Yes. But it travels a long way. So it travels to us from French, but actually via Italian and that in turn from Greek and so on and so on, where it has always meant, and possibly goes back even before Greek, it's always meant something to do with the lips and actually may have begun with the word meaning that with which one chews, C-H-E-W-S, although, you know, nobody eats with their moustache, hopefully. That would be a very messy affair. Well, often you get food. I mean, I have occasionally had a moustache, hopefully. That would be a very messy affair. Well, often you get food. I mean, I have occasionally had a moustache, and you do get the soup and the food all mixed up in it.

Starting point is 00:07:50 And then you've got to suck the moustache. You've got to put your tongue up and sort of put your upper lip inside your lower lip to get rid of all the clean it up. I mean, what do you make of a moustache? Do you like the look of a moustache? And have you ever kissed a man with a moustache? And what's it like? I haven't, actually.

Starting point is 00:08:04 I don't. I don't. I certainly wouldn't put it on my bucket list. Things I must do. Not on my bucket list. But it's definitely not on my essentials list. And yeah, I don't know. It can be quite a scratchy affair. I was going to tell you, of course,

Starting point is 00:08:22 worthy of this entirely, that moustache isn't recorded in English until 1585. And of course, in American English, it's moustache, moustache, M-U-S-T-A-C-H-E, whereas we keep the French M-O-U. They spell it differently, do they? Moustache. They do.

Starting point is 00:08:38 How intriguing. So the big question is, Giles, have you had one and what was it like? I have had one, but only briefly. I had one when I grew a beard. I grew the full set. And so I had a beard and a moustache. And when I took off the beard, I thought I'd leave the moustache for a short while. And I think I looked like a sort of Second World War person from the RAF. That's what I looked a little bit like. And I didn't look like Hercule Poirot, nor did I look

Starting point is 00:09:05 like any of those 1930s actors who had those thin pencil mustaches to make them look stylish. I wouldn't have mind looking like someone like Terry Thomas. Do you remember he had the actor who had a sort of mustache? So I abandoned it pretty quickly. Didn't he have that big gap in the middle? No, he had a gap, not in the middle of his mustache, in the middle of his teeth. There was a gap in his teeth, but you saw a little gap in his moustache. Yeah. His moustache went from side to side.

Starting point is 00:09:29 There may have been a little gap to echo his teeth. But a beard, I have to say, I'm not going to have a beard again because it's itchy, it's scratchy, and you have to maintain it as well. You can't just, you know, let it grow. You've got to trim it. Well, we do know someone who's just let it grow don't we our colleague well our colleague richie yeah and i have to say it does really suit him but back to mustaches i'm gonna i'm gonna give you some of them i mean you will have heard of all of these you will have heard of handlebar mustache which is you know resembles a

Starting point is 00:10:00 pair of bicycle handlebars you've already already mentioned the pencil moustache as worn by Vincent Price. There is the toothbrush moustache, which... Oh, yes, as worn by Hitler. Well, yes. But actually, the first OED record of the toothbrush moustache dates back to 1904, so 26 years before the Hitler moustache is recorded. Forgive me for a bit of name dropping, but many years ago, I went to interview the president of Switzerland.

Starting point is 00:10:31 This is many years ago, more than 50 years ago. I went to interview the president of Switzerland and Switzerland, as you know, was neutral during the Second World War. I met this man and his moustache was absolutely a dead ringer for Hitler's moustache. He even looked a bit like Hitler. His hair was like Hitler's. His moustache was like Hitler's.

Starting point is 00:10:46 He himself was a very moderate and nice man. It was an extraordinary thing to do. And this was, you know, as I said, this was in the 1960s. The war was only 20 years over. What an extraordinary thing to do. That is extremely weird. Very, very weird. Anyway, go on.

Starting point is 00:11:00 Well, there's the Kaiser moustache as well. Also the Kaiser Bill moustache. So that's in the manner of William II, the Emperor of Germany, the Kaiser. Wilhelm, yeah. Wilhelm. There's a walrus moustache. Oh, I love that. Which is the long, thick and drooping one.

Starting point is 00:11:16 It's so cool because it's a resemblance to the whiskers of a walrus. And the soup strainer is a soup strainer as well, which I'm not sure I know what a soup strainer one looks like. Well, it means it's so shaggy. It's so shaggy. It comes right over your lips. And as you drink your soup, you have to drink it through the moustache. Oh, I see.

Starting point is 00:11:36 It's a long, straggling moustache. Yes. And then there's the burn side. Now, this was a moustache in combination with whiskers on the cheeks, but no beard. And eventually, of course, this gave us sideburns. And is this named after a general called General Burnside, who was in the Civil War? Tell us about him. Absolutely. General Ambrose Burnside, 19th century US Army officer, who sported these.

Starting point is 00:12:02 And over time, we flipped Burnside to Sideburns because we thought oh well these are sides that are on the on the burns so yes there we go sideburns how interesting yeah it's a funny source of the um of the word isn't it Burnside becomes Sideburns yeah I can't I can actually I can imagine you with Sideburns yeah well I suppose when they were fashionable I'm just a I just followed the crowd. But I won't be having a beard again. It didn't suit me, though perhaps I should now because I've got these jowls. I should cover them.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Now, a beard. A beard is a strong word, like hair and like moustache, which does feel continental. Is beard Germanic in origin? Well, yes, we have a bart in german and actually the most wonderful word for a mustache in german is a schnurrbart which i love but all of them are related to the latin barber b-a-r-b-a the beard which of course gave us the barber who cuts our hair and that's the same as the french of course in barber is the french for barb exactly and it's also used for the chin tuft of some animals like a lion or a goat yeah and if you heard the expression to beard the lion

Starting point is 00:13:13 in its den yes or it's there which is to challenge someone or to confront them on their own turf if you like and it was interesting look the history of um mustaches and beards are really interesting so to invade someone's personal space enough to be able to pull their beard was always seen as quite an aggressive or provocative act you can imagine that and in fact when francis drake described his expedition to cadiz he summarized it as the singeing of the king of spain's beard in other words the sort of ultimate act of defiance and so in the middle ages to run in someone's beard was to defy them and then by the 16th century you could beard them and then we upped the ante by adding a lion into the mix a little bit later well there's another phrase that is connected with the face

Starting point is 00:14:02 and beards or lack of them, a bare-faced lie. What's the answer of that? Yes, well, that's simply because a clean-shaven face can't conceal any lies. So for a long time, beards were, I mean, honestly, the fashion goes around and around in circles, but for a long time, beards were associated with being underhand or cunning or crafty or duplicitous. Beards were associated with being underhand or cunning or crafty or duplicitous. And so if you were barefaced, you didn't even care whether people saw your deception. It was just all out there, really.

Starting point is 00:14:38 And then staying with beards, there's a really interesting theory, which I don't think has been proven yet, which is that the word bizarre comes from a Basque Spanish word, bizarra, which meant a beard. In the same way, actually, that the Spanish for a man with a moustache, hombre de bigot, was a man of spirit. And it's possible that we got bigot from there as well, a moustache. So what we do know is that the Portuguese bizarra, I don't know how to pronounce that in Portuguese, actually, but that meant a handsome or a courageous man. And then the meaning slipped weirdly to mean weird, grotesque or surreal.

Starting point is 00:15:11 But maybe, just maybe, that's because we viewed beards that way over the years. So it's possible that bizarre goes back to beard. But what we do know is that if you make a rebarbative comment, it's an objectionable one. It's a not very nice one. And that does go back to a beard because it means you're standing beard to beard against someone and being quite confrontational. Barbaric, on the other hand, you might think goes back to the Latin barba, meaning a beard, but that has nothing to do with it. It goes back to the Greek. Do you remember this? Barbaros, which was based on ba-ba barba, meaning a beard, but that has nothing to do with it. It goes back to the Greek. Do you remember this? Barbaros, which was based on ba, ba, ba, because they thought that all

Starting point is 00:15:49 foreigners spoke in a completely unintelligible way, and therefore they were heathens and, aka, barbarians. Let's take a quick break, and then I want to ask you if you can explain why my wonderful, handsome grandson, Keo, who's only about 18, is wearing a mullet. Ah. Oh, my goodness gracious me. They're back in fashion, aren't they? Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey.

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Starting point is 00:16:42 Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is anime. Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore.

Starting point is 00:17:10 So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. This is Something Rhymes with Purple and we're talking about hair. Do you remember the musical called Hair? I do, but I don't think I saw it. I remember the film Hairspray, which I love. Ah, much more recent. Yes. No, in the 1960s, there was a big show, controversial at the time,

Starting point is 00:17:33 because it included a moment, literally a moment of nudity in it. And it was called Hair, and it was a kind of alternative musical. Hugely popular. I remember seeing it in the West End when I was still a teenager. Great show. It tells the story of the tribe, a group of sort of long-haired hippies of the age of Aquarius. And they're living in New York, and they're fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. It comes from that 1960s rebellion. Anyway, it was huge off-Broadway, then on-Broadway, and then came to England. And there was this moment where everyone was supposed to take off their clothes. And I remember Flora Benjamin, who I love, telling me, now Dame Flora Benjamin, Order of Merit,

Starting point is 00:18:14 telling me that she was in the original cast in London of Hair and wouldn't take off all her clothes because she thought her mother might be coming to one of the performances. So when everyone did take off their clothes, she was, I think, the only member of the cast who was still wearing brown pants. That's incidental information. Incidental. But I do remember also, because my mum loved musicals, the South Pacific song, I'm Going to Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,

Starting point is 00:18:38 which is superb, isn't it? Wonderful song. It is a great song. Right, mullet. The mullet. The mullet is back in fashion. And I don't know who in their right minds ever thinks that a mullet is a good look. Because it's just not.

Starting point is 00:18:52 What is the source of the name mullet? Where does that come from? Okay, well, possibly, and quite fittingly from my point of view, you can tell I'm extremely biased when it comes to this. We should explain in case, just in case, other countries don't have the mullet. This is a hairstyle that's really short in the sides, but then inexplicably long in the back. And it is possible that it comes from the term mullet head, meaning a stupid, dull person. Oh, really? Yes. But it's also the name of a North American fish, which has a large

Starting point is 00:19:24 flat head which apparently has got a reputation for stupidity i don't know but the reference to the haircut definitely came into the mainstream with the beastie boys do you remember them they sang a song called mullet head number one on the side and don't touch the back number six on the top and don't cut it whack jack oh so um yes so mullet goes back much further than that but mullet head is from the 19th century and the mullet haircut is thanks to the beastie boys oh fringe and quiff where do they come from fringe and a quiff so quiff is nice actually the quiff is that sort of brushed up or whipped up curl or lock of hair that goes up over the

Starting point is 00:20:05 forehead um and we're not completely sure but it may be connected to the use of quiff to mean a puff or whiff of tobacco smoke so it's almost as if your hair has been taken up in a gust of wind which i quite like so that's a nice one and what was the other one you told me about, Quiff? Fringe. Oh, fringe. So a fringe has been used to mean, obviously, a piece of decoration on a piece of furniture, for example, or anything that sort of skirts the edges of something, the border or outer edges. We are not completely sure where it comes from, but it may be from a Latin word meaning fibres or little shreds. So the idea is that these are very thin pieces that adorn or embellish something. And of course, in America, they call them bangs. And not completely sure about that, but we think it's just a bang cut is a very straight cut, which a lot of fringes are, you know, much as you might

Starting point is 00:21:02 have a slap bang meal or that kind of thing so simply the idea that something is extremely straight and quick so fringe in america is a bang or bangs your bangs yes bangs what about braid is those is that hair that is braided yes your braid braids can be really really beautiful so they're interlaced strands really of any flexible material um but braided hair is lovely and actually that also goes back to the same idea as bang something sort of fast and quick because there's an old english word that meant to make a sudden move movement such as you might make when you're interweaving or knitting very good well look you've made my day today by telling me that when people are saying I'm bizarre, my appearance is bizarre, it's actually a compliment. Not what I thought it was, which is good. Lovely. Well, look, we now have some correspondence. And if there's ever anything you'd like us to talk about, you just have to get in touch with us. We like talking about anything and everything. And if you have things you feel you haven't covered satisfactorily,

Starting point is 00:22:06 come back and say, I want more. I need to know more about hair or whatever it might be. So who have we heard from today? Well, our first one, we don't have a voice note. I don't think for Bob. Bob Corliss. Dear Susie and Giles,

Starting point is 00:22:18 I've only recently stumbled across your wonderful podcast on Spotify, which is both a curse and a blessing. Although sad I haven't heard the podcast before, I've nonetheless found that there are over 500 episodes that I can now browse and listen to more regularly other than weekly, especially when washing the dishes in the evening. If in one of your podcasts, Giles mentioned Frank Muir. Ah, of course, Frank had a marvellous moustache, didn't he? Anyway, and I immediately recalled Frank being a team captain on Call My Bluff in the 1960s and 70s, and also recalled both Robert Morley and Patrick Campbell as opposing team captains.

Starting point is 00:22:52 This is such a trip down memory lane for me, Bob, because I appeared on Call My Bluff in those days with Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell. And indeed, it was at one of those recordings, I remember Frank Muir was boasting about his place in the local rifle club. And Frank Muir was going on and on about it, and Patrick Campbell felt he had heard enough. And so when Frank Muir mentioned the rifle club again, under his breath, Patrick Campbell muttered, small bore, I assume. Anyway, Patrick Campbell was a very funny man with a stutter. Robert Morley was a very stout man who made you laugh a lot. Frank Muir was a very tall man with a moustache. Anyway, Patrick Hammer was a very funny man with a stutter. Robert Morley was a very stout man who made you laugh a lot. Frank Muir was a very tall man with a moustache. Anyway, that's by the by. There was only one occasion in all the episodes we had watched on BBC Two when I recognised and knew one of the words, because it was a word that my dad had used all the time,

Starting point is 00:23:38 and still does. I've looked online and it appears that the meaning we knew and know is no longer reference. The word is sleds, S-L-E-D-S. The correct answer definition that Frank gave was a word of Northern origin. We're from North Lancashire, meaning slippers for your feet. Is there any evidence other than my memory for call my bluff in which slippers can be known as sleds? Many thanks, Bob Corliss. Oh, I remember Call My Bluff as well, which I absolutely loved. Well, Bob, this took me on a bit of a world goose chase, I have to say, but I finally found it. I looked in so many different dictionaries and glossaries on my shelf and online, etc. But I looked again in the wonderful English dialect dictionary, which was this wonderful

Starting point is 00:24:27 venture started by Joseph Wright, who was just a collector of dialect and a wonderful lexicographer. And there under sled, there were so many different senses, as you would expect, you know, something that you sit on that you just kind of go down snow upon, etc. But there, in tiny, tiny, tiny writing writing with two lines saying that sleds could also mean worn out shoes so not exactly slippers but worn out slightly have seen better day shoes so it is still there hanging on in the english dialect dictionary bob but certainly not in any standard english dictionary that i can find. And I have to say, I haven't heard it, but that doesn't mean anything. So I would just say, if there are

Starting point is 00:25:09 any other purple people who do use sleds for slippers or shoes, please do let us know. Well done. Very interesting. And thank you for doing the research, Susie. See if you can answer Remy's question. Hi, both. Regularly listen to the pod and even play ones I've already heard before bed as I find your voices calming and it keeps my mind present. Tonight, as I was listening to an old episode, when a question came to mind, why does the English language sometimes allow plural words to be used instead of the singular? For example, you don't wear a knicker, it's knickers and even a pair of knickers. But we are referring to one item. Were knickers multiple items at some point?

Starting point is 00:25:44 We'd love to know the answer. Well, I get asked this one quite a lot, actually. And there is a theory, Remy, that the sort of pair of trousers, pair of pants, pair of scissors, etc. harkens back to the days when trousers particularly consisted of two separate items. So they were like breeches, really. So they came up over your thigh, but they weren't attached by the crotch or by the waist or anything. They were put on one at a time, but they were then secured around the waist. But they were always these two separate items, in which case a pair of usage goes, it's essentially restricted to items that have two components. So binoculars, they have two lenses for your eye, scissors, they have two blades, etc. And so it's very likely whether or not it began with the trousers being as two separate items, it came to be referred to things that had two separate holes like knickers, trousers, you know, boxer shorts, etc.

Starting point is 00:26:48 And what these are called linguistically are plurale tantum, which means plural only. And that's a noun used only in the plural form. So you couldn't have knicker, for example, and you couldn't have panty. I think somebody has tried that on Countdown before and I've had to say, no, it's panties only, I'm afraid, which is a bit of a weird thing to say. But anything that's bifurcated, that can be divided into two, falls into the category of a plurale tantum. That's very good. Can I ask you something about twins? Is it a set of twins rather than a pair of twins, or is it a pair of twins? Or is that tautological? I think a pair of twins would be tautological.

Starting point is 00:27:26 So I think you just say twins. Because you'd imply that in fact four people there. Yes, yes. If a pair of twins came into the room, it would be four people coming in. Exactly. But if a set of twins came in, it would be two people coming in. Yes. Very good.

Starting point is 00:27:40 And confusingly, twin can mean... No, that's not confusing. It can mean a pair of. So a pair of twins is a pair of a pair of. Yes, you're absolutely right. Yeah, it is confusing. And nobody ever said that English wasn't a little bit eccentric. I suppose two twins could come into a room.

Starting point is 00:27:59 And they might well be just two people, but the two twins are from different families. Otherwise, it would be a set of twins if they were the same family. Oh, I love all this. I love all this. Well, keep your letters coming because you take us down interesting paths and you take us into interesting remote places with your trio of words. I don't know how you keep on coming up with... I think you invent some of these words. You think, oh, well, it's time to do the recording. What haven't we done? Oh, I can't remember. And you just think of a word like tab think, oh, well, it's time to do the recording. What haven't we done? Oh, I can't remember. And you just think of a word like tabanka, you know.

Starting point is 00:28:29 Is that one of your threesomes this week? And what does it mean? Tabanka, how did you know? Is it there on your script? Yes, tabanka is a word from Caribbean English, actually. And it is all about the pain and the frustration and the anger as well, all the mixed emotions that come from unrequited love. So, yes, it's a sad, sad word that packs a whole host of emotions, but we've all been there. It's a wonderful, wonderful word, Tabanka. It is, isn't it, Tabanka? Oh, great.

Starting point is 00:29:02 And my second word is actually the antonym, really, to Tabanka, because this is requited love. And it's a strange sounding word that I'm sure I've mentioned to you before, redamancy. So, R-E-D-A-M-A-N-C-Y, redamancy. And it is really the state of being adored in return. In other words, you adore someone and they adore you back, which is really quite lovely. The most wistful line in Shakespeare, I often think, is spoken by Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Do you know the line I'm thinking of? The line is simply this. I was adored once too.

Starting point is 00:29:40 It conjures up so much wistful sadness, doesn't it? Absolutely. Anyway, redemancy is mutual, having been adored and loving and loving back. Can you imagine anything worse than putting into the air the phrase, I love you, expecting something reciprocal and silence. Well, the worst response to that would be, I know. Oh my gosh. That would not be good. Moving swiftly on. Well, the next, the third word actually might describe how you would feel if you told someone I love you and weren't quite sure what you get in

Starting point is 00:30:12 return. It's from Norwegian. And I am sure that we have talked about this when we talked about emotions, because it's just such a pithy way of describing a mixed emotion. Gruglede in Norwegian. And Gruglede means looking forward to something, but dreading it at the same time. So it's a happy dread. So it's almost as you feel when you are heading to the airport to go on holiday, you are sort of dreading the whole charade and process of it. But equally, you are quite betwitted and excited. Gruglede, which is pronounced, sorry, you've just pronounced it for me, which is spelled G-R-U-G-L-E-D-E, Gruglede. I think you should produce a dictionary of Susie's trios one day.

Starting point is 00:31:00 Yeah, I do, because I think people would love to, because unless you write it down at the time, you can't remember these words. No, no, I just, I hopefully will just give some people satisfaction that these words even exist. Like your poems, which you often remember off by heart. Yes, my poem today, and once upon a time, I probably did know these words because they're lyrics, really, rather than a poem. We talked about the musical Hair from the 1960s, the alternative musical. And there was a wonderful song called Hair. Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair.

Starting point is 00:31:30 Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it. My hair, I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty, oily, greasy, fleecy, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen, knotted, polka-dotted, twisted, beaded, braided, powdered, flowered, and confetted, bangled, tangled, spangled, and spaghettied. Oh, say, can you see my eyes, if you can, that my hair's too short? Down to here, down to here, I want hair down to where it stops by itself. They'll be gaga at the go-go when they see me in my toga, my toga made of blonde, brilliant-eened, biblical hair. My hair, like Jesus wore it. Hallelujah, I adore it. Hallelujah,

Starting point is 00:32:14 Mary loved her son. Why don't my mother love me? Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair. Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it. Hair, my hair, my hair, hair, hair. Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it. Hair. My hair. My hair, hair, hair. Flow it. Show it. Long as God can grow it. Long as God can grow it. My hair. Wow.

Starting point is 00:32:33 That one is made for performance. And boy, did you give it some welly. Are you going to flow it and show it? Well, you know what my head looks like. I wish I'd started getting hair transplants or wearing a wig years ago. Now people would know that I was doing it. It's quite thick at the back, isn't it? Maybe you should consider a mullet. Well, indeed. Or maybe a comb over. Or the long stuff at the back could be combed over to the front. Please don't. It's a funny idea, isn't it? I won't do that.

Starting point is 00:32:59 Oh, thank you so much for keeping us company today. Not just to you, Giles, but to all the Purple people who are listening around the globe. Please keep following us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, you name it, wherever you get your podcasts. And as Giles mentioned at the top, for more Purple, please consider the Purple Plus Club if you fancy ad-free listening and some exclusive bonus episodes on words and language. episodes on words and language. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production produced by Naeodeo with additional production from Jen Mistry, Charlie Muddle, Ollie Wilson, and oh, the man who, well, what a beard. It's bizarre. It's brilliant. It's bushy. It's Richie. It's Richie. And boys, he's flowing it and showing it as, I have to tell the purple people, he's sucking a lollipop

Something Rhymes with Purple - Schnurrbart

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