Something Rhymes with Purple - Semiquincentennial

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

PURPLE PEOPLE! Today is an extra special day for Something Rhymes With Purple - we are celebrating our 250th episode! So to celebrate, we have decided to rifle through our glorious inbox, and answer YOUR questions. Thank you so much for tuning in each week, here's to the next 250! - from Susie, Gyles and everyone down at Purple HQ. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Foozle: to bungle. Otiose: serving no useful purpose. Tongue-hero: a braggart or self-confessed hero. Gyles' poem this week was 'You Know How A Cat' by James Laughlin You Know How a Cat will bring a mouse it has caught and lay it at your feet so each morning I bring you a poem that I've written when I woke up in the night as my tribute to your beauty & a promise of my love. A Sony Music Entertainment production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience and the Purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Welcome to a special moment in the history of podcasting. Welcome, in fact, to the 250th episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. My name is Giles Branruth, and for 250 episodes, I have been co-presenting this podcast with my good friend, who I speak of as the world's leading lexicographer. She's much more modest than that. How would you describe yourself, Susie Dent?

What does it say on your passport? I don't think I... Do we put an occupation on our passport? I don't think I've got one on mine. I don't think we do anymore. When I was young, you did, but maybe you don't have to any longer. Well, I can tell you my bio on my social media account says simply that woman in dictionary corner, because it would be, you know, like Richard Whiteley used to call himself Him Off. Do you remember that was the title of his autobiography, Him Off? Because people would look at him and say, oh, it's Him Off, you know, Him Off off the telly. So yeah, I've put myself in that category. You've made references there to Richard Whiteley and to Countdown. And so for our international listeners who may not be familiar with either Richard or Countdown, Susie there is referencing a program called Countdown, which was the first

program broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. And it's a game featuring words and numbers. And in Dictionary Corner sits Susie Dent, and she's sat there for a long time now. That's how we first met. Do you remember our first meeting? Do you remember what we thought of each other? Well, I was still very scared of the whole thing because, of course, I wasn't supposed to be on telly. I just had gone into a publishing job and it just genuinely just so happened that job was part of, you know, was in a team who regularly went up to Countdown in order to provide sort of dictionary refereeing. So I was still very bemused by the whole thing. So I think I

would have looked at you and your jumpers and been slightly in awe and not said a lot. Well, and that I ought to explain to people who have only listened to the podcast. I am noted for wearing jumpers in this country, or sweaters as they're called in America. I am noted for wearing jumpers in this country, or sweaters as they're called in America. Anyway, here we are, five years after we started this podcast, at our 250th episode. And I think the one thing that both Susie and I agree on, without any doubt at all, is that the real joy of this podcast is you, the people who listen to it, that we came to call quite quickly the Purple People.

Would you say that's true? Absolutely. And we often talk, don't't we about the live shows that we did the live recordings of the podcast where we were so touched i mean genuinely we were both very we were quite emotional weren't we in the wings because there were just so many loyal listeners and i think that is going to be confirmed actually in our episode and i'm really looking forward to this one because we've decided for the 250th to actually include some of the very best purple people and try to answer their myriad emails. And what I also think is going to become clear is just how global this podcast is, but just how many people we have in different pockets of the world, which is just thrilling, I think. Well, it is thrilling. We have had literally tens of millions of downloads. We are so grateful to

you. This is our semi-quincentennial episode. Is that a word? Have I invented that? Or is that a legitimate word? No, I think that is a legitimate word. There is also sestacentennial or a quartermillennial. I suppose a quartermillennial is easier, isn't it, to grasp. But anyway, it's a wonderful thing. And I would never have guessed, much as I wouldn't have guessed that I'd still be sitting in Dixmy Corner in 30 years at the time, I would never have guessed that we would get to 250. So yeah, very chuffed about that. Hold on, you've just thrown in sestercentennial, as though everybody understands what a sester is. I mean, I could see my logic with semi-quincentennial is that centennial is 100, as in a century. Quin is from the Latin for five, I assume, and semi is half of five, which is 250. How do you get to 250 from SESTA Centennial? SESTA Centennial. Now, I think this might be an informal term for 250 because I'm just looking up to see whether it is in the OED.

Anyone who is new, who's joining us in 2024, will know that I regularly tap away on the Oxford English Dictionary. It's not in there, actually, interestingly enough. So SESTA, originally in Old Old English was a vessel for holding liquid and it was also a liquid measure for beer and wine and that kind of thing and for wheat, etc. And I am now just looking up to see, yeah, so if you take it all the way back to sextory or sextarium that was anything between about four and six imperial gallons so i think this might be a movable feast and we can probably apply this number to anything we want to looking at this but i'm going to stick with quarter

millennial because as i say i think that's the most transparent one well come what may this is a celebration and is there an interesting derivation of celebration I mean where does that come from to celebrate? Came from the Romans and celebrare also gave us of course celebrity someone who is celebrated and yeah nothing nothing sort of particularly interesting to say except it's one of the many many words that we owe to the Romans. And it was all about honour, which of course in Roman society was absolutely huge and was a catalyst for many words such as triumph and rostrum and so many different words. So yeah, we have them to thank for celebrations. Well, we are honoured that the Purple people listen and we are thrilled that they've responded to our invitation to send us some questions and

queries to mark our quarter millennial and who are we going to hear from who can begin with suzy well this is very exciting because we actually have a lot of voice notes today so we not only get to read the words we actually hear the words from their speakers so the first one is from christian knudsen Christian, apologies if I haven't got that quite right. He's from Denmark. Dear Susie, and according to my husband, my favorite jigglemug, Giles. Having just listened to the Santa Claus episode, I'll buy it. What is the origin of Prince Albert's? And from where does Giles know whether or not Prince Albert had one? Kind regards, Christian Knudsen, Rødover, Denmark.

Ah, I love that. Christian Knudsen. Well, thank you, Christian. And just to remind you, Giles, this is from a previous episode where, for some reason, and I really can't remember why, I mentioned a Prince Albert. And I said, is it true? Did Prince Albert actually have a Prince Albert, which, as most people will know, is a penis piercing? And you very definitively and quite defiantly said absolutely not. But how do we know? Well, we don't know, do we? We do know that some of his family, I think his sons definitely had, and certainly grandsons, had tattoos because they were visible when they appeared without jackets, and they were from a naval tradition, and tattoos were popular. But do you know the origin of the phrase Prince Albert? I just think it's so unlikely. But we do know that Prince Albert,

who was German and who married his cousin, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. We do know from her diaries that they clearly had a very lively private life. She writes most enthusiastically about their passionate nights together. And clearly, really, the physical aspects of their marriage seem to be both lively and satisfying, at least from Queen Victoria's point of view. She does indeed speak of her adorable Albert, but whether she's referring to his penis piercing or simply to the man as a whole, I do not know. Why is it called a Prince Albert? Well, I think this theory was put about in the early 70s, so quite late, really. The 1970s rather than the 1870s.

1970s, yeah. And it was by somebody called Richard Simonton, who was also known as Doug Malloy. And he published a pamphlet in which he apparently concocted quite a few, let's say, fanciful histories of genital piercings. And so we do think that this is apocryphal. And it included the notion that Albert, Prince Consort, invented, well, he didn't invent the piercing, but he had one in order to tame the appearance or to play down or to hide the appearance of his rather large penis in very tight trousers so that was what was circulated as an urban myth there is no uh no historical proof of this but you know such was its appeal to the imagination that actually you know that's how that's how it came about is thought i mean it you know instead of cod pieces the idea is but why would a piercing

actually i i don't know j, you have to tell me this. Well, I think the piercing, the weight of the piercing may have pulled him down. I mean, either this is the explanation of why we have had millions of downloads in our five years, or this is going to be the end of people thinking, oh, I thought it was going to be a family, thought this was a family podcast. Yes. And we are normally. A strange one to open with. We can blame our producer Nair for this one. Well, but it is nonetheless a fascinating topic. And I know very little about it until I began watching the programme Naked Attraction, which was also, like Countdown, on Channel 4, and I think has now ended its run. Thank goodness. I do remember you talking about this on at least 10 occasions in 2023. Well, at least 10 occasions.

I became so obsessed with this programme that, you know, I was invited with the first person that I shared the sofa watching these programmes with, Sheila Hancock. We were invited to go to Leeds to audition for Celebrity Naked Attraction. You are kidding, right? You've said this before.

Is this absolutely true? It's absolutely true. We both went. We stripped off. They offered her the job, and they told me to. Okay, that's not true. That bit is not true. I exaggerate.

But I don't exaggerate. There was an episode where we saw a gentleman of riper years who had, I mean, not just a Prince Albert, but I mean, he had a Prince George and a Prince Charlie and a, you know, you name it. They were indeed Tom Jones, who happened to be watching the singer Tom Jones, said, my God, that man's got a load of bollocks on his bollocks. I mean, he had so much clutter down there. It was incredible. You can imagine if he went wearing this stuff through, tried to board an aeroplane, the security machine would have gone berserk with bells ringing all over the place. Well, mine, I have to say, that always happens to me as well,

which is extremely annoying. Do you have any of those? I don't have any of those. I didn't realise. No, I don't. But it's very annoying. But I do wonder if people assume this. Anyway, thank you, Christian, for that brilliant episode. And the episode turned into an episode. But that brilliant question, you're right. Christian. Yes. We'll leave it to another week for Susie and I to discuss,

unless it's a later question, whether we have any body piercings. I will throw in that I don't. I don't either. So there we are. But we have talked a bit about tattoos and what we would do if we had one. But anyway, that's a whole other subject. We now have a voice note from one of our listeners. I think he's just given us the name Sam. So thank you to Sam for this. Dear Susie and Giles, I'm a relatively recent listener to your podcast and I thoroughly enjoy it. I moved to Nairobi a year or so ago and I've come into contact with a whole host of new collective nouns for animals. Previously, I was aware of the

famous ones like a pride of lions, parliament of owls and a murder of crows. I hadn't realized this quirky naming of collective nouns was a thing. The ones I've learned include a tower of giraffes, a cackle of hyenas, a dazzle of zebras, a thunder of hippo, a crash of a rhino, a memory of elephants, and a coalition of cheetahs. I think they are all wonderful, and these collective nouns seem related to a feature that animals possess. But how have all these collective nouns come to exist? I would love to know. Your avid listener, Sam. Very good. Well, what do you think? I think for purple listeners,

would it be a diaspora of purple listeners? Well, it would be, wouldn't it, in a way? It's wonderful. We did do an episode, actually, Sam, on collective nouns, where you can find a lot more info if you wanted to look in our archive. But just to give you a quick overview. So we tend to think that there are very set and established terms for different groups of animals and that these are codified in the dictionary and they're the ones that we should all use. But like the rest of English, there is no prescription as to what we should call these groups. It is all voted for by democracy and by usage. But the surprising thing about many of these, and I think it's fairly obvious to most of us that they're fairly old, but actually they're really old because a lot of them, including,

you know, a gaggle of geese, murmuration of starlings, exaltation of larks, they sprang from the medieval imagination. And they surfaced in the middle ages they were written down in books of etiquette that were aimed at instructing noblemen on how to not to embarrass themselves basically went out hunting or hawking or fishing or doing any of those aristocratic pursuits so it you know it was it was the right thing to know the correct term for a group of ferrets, which was a busyness. For hares, that was a flick. For hounds, it was a mute. So, knowing these was actually all part of the etiquette and the sort of underscoring of social status, I suppose. And it marked the gentry out from the so-called peasants. What's also surprising is that there was one primary

source for so many of these terms that was born in the 15th century, and it was the Book of St Albans. And we don't know exactly who wrote it, but it's usually attributed to the prioress of a nunnery in Hertfordshire, Sopwell Nunnery, and she was called Dame Juliana Berners. Not sure whether it was her or not, it's quite possible that lots of different sources were pulled together in this one compendium. But her work gave us over 160 group names for beasts of the chase, as well as individuals. So individuals who strutted the medieval stage. So we had an impertinence of peddlers, for example,

peddlers going from house to house trying to sell things and being quite annoying. We had a superfluity of nuns, so-called, because any woman considered a spinster at probably ridiculous age of around 25 was often sent to a nunnery by their family to avoid social disgrace. And so nunneries became very full. So we have a superfluity of nuns and so on. And this book was such an instant hit it was reprinted over and over and it had you know amazing I think it had some of the first images ever to be printed in colour and to this day we still use things like a murder of crows or as I say an exaltation of larks we had other ones misbelief of painters because portrait artists would often bend the truth you know much like modern filters in photographs they would be

very flattering in their in their portraits a misbelief of painters and so on and so on an unkindness of ravens so there are lots that have become lost over time but so many of them are rooted in those and of course we continue to make up our own as well um too which is wonderful and the one i think i mentioned in our previous episode that always makes me laugh is someone talking about the collective noun for lego pieces and it was a foot hurt oh that's nice yes which i quite like as you know i'm very into cats and i think you are Yes. And am I right in thinking that the correct collective noun for a group of cats is a clowder of cats?

Yes. C-L-O, and that is correct in the sense it's been around for a long time. Yes, not correct in that it's the only one that you can use. I think I've heard glaring as well. And actually, that clowder is probably from a dialect word related to clutter. So the idea possibly is that people again thought there was a sort of, you know, that cats would group together, which in my experience is not true, and that they could be maybe slightly superfluous. I mean, obviously, that's not what we think, but it's definitely, we think, related to clutter. Well, I've heard also people talking about a clutter of cats and a pounce of cats and even a glaring of cats.

Yeah, I've heard a glaring. With kittens, is it a litter or a kindle? Kindle's lovely. Again, you can use either, but kindle is beautiful and it's just got that lovely alliteration as well. So I don't think, yeah, so when a hare or a rabbit gives birth, it kindles. And I think that's related to kind. But other than that, yeah. Wildcats, I've heard called a destruction.

But that sounds like one of those invented ones to be vaguely amusing. Well, there are lots of those. And, you know, nothing to say that those are correct. There were some really interesting ones in the past that, again, I think we talked about before. So they're all wrapped up in superstition. So they had, for example, not a murmuration of starlings, but a mutation of starlings, because it was believed that at some point in their lives,

starlings lost a leg and then grew one back again, which is extraordinary. So they tell us a huge amount about life of the time. Can I test you with a couple of ones that I think are quite well known? What would you call a collection of cobras, the snake cobras? Oh, I'm really bad at collective nouns. Don't remind me. It's a quiver. Oh, a quiver of cobras. And what about, this is one of my favourites, because I think it can apply to so many things, a group of cheetahs, by which I

mean the animal, the cheetah, spelled C-H-W-E-T-A-H-S, as opposed to somebody who is cheating. What is a group of cheetahs? Don't know, tell me. A coalition of cheetahs. Oh, that's interesting. Now, I remember Colin Murray, who presents Countdown, and he's absolutely obsessed with penguins. Now, he says that we actually distinguish between penguins in the water

and penguins outside of the water. So penguins outside of the water so penguins outside of the water unsurprisingly are called waddles and i think in the water i think there might be raft or huddle possibly actually what the huddle would be outside wouldn't it now it's interesting because when i went to see the penguins at the zoo yeah maybe this is a long time ago they were known as a colony of penguins there There is a colony as well. So, I mean, you can tell that actually, you know, these things are quite fluid. And as I say, like the rest of English, it's all kind of, they're all elected democratically.

So use what you want, I would say. Some's unfair. I think an unkindness of ravens is unfair, whereas a prickle of porcupines seems to be spot on. Yeah. Anyway, do, I would say, if anyone's interested, including Sam, do go back to the episode that we did because it was a lot of fun and I remember that. We have to go over to Igor now. Great names today. Oh, great name, Igor. I wonder where he comes from. Hello, Giles and Susie. Serbian fan here. I started listening to your podcast during the recent pandemic. Then I moved to the Netherlands and I'm still listening to it. English is my favorite language after Serbian, of course. And I really enjoy learning about different etymologies and

also occasionally finding out links to Serbian language as well. For instance, muscle is literally called little mouse in Serbian, which I only found about through the podcast is linked to Latin. I have a question about colors and names. Why in the UK are some colors used as surnames and others are not? I presume ones such as black, white, and red are to do with a person's hair color. But if that's the rule, what about surname green then? Gray could be linked to hair color as well, but seems a bit unfair. And why are then other colors not surnames, such as purple? Thanks a lot, and keep up the stellar work, Igor. Brilliant question from Igor then. I know. Wonderful. And do you know what the answer could be?

Well, I was going to say, what I love about questions from people for whom English is perhaps a second or a third language is that they notice things that we as natives don't because we're so immersed in the language and I absolutely love that. So, yes, it's a kind of slightly complicated answer, but Igor is right.

Brown, white and black does usually suggest hair colour. And you have to remember that before surnames came about, which was predominantly after the Norman conquest, we did used to name people after their personal attributes. That was just a way of distinguishing between individuals who had the same name. But it could be clothing as well. You think of black friars, for example, order of monks who wore black robes. So, you know, there are other things in there as well. And similarly, green, the surname green, that isn't

directly necessarily about the colour. It could be about the place. So it could be a topographical pointer because a green for us, of course, is this sort of lovely stretch of grass in a village normally. So it could be that it was somebody who lived by the green. So there are various factors at play here and it doesn't necessarily all relate to personal appearance. And you'll remember when we talked about names, Giles, that there were some really strange ones like Pex, not Pexeneth, that's Dickensian, isn't it? There was Sweat in the bed and there was black mouth. I mean, there were some pretty horrible ones, you know, which were all about sort of personal descriptions.

So when it comes to other colours, you know, names like Rufus came about, that's from the Latin for red. That probably referred to hair colour. But you have Reed as well as the surname. That's from Scott, the Scots for red. It could have been somebody with red hair, could have been somebody with a ruddy complexion, could have been somebody who liked wearing red, although harder to get from natural dyes, that one. And I think the reason, and this is just me guessing, Igor, the reason there are not things like purple is obviously, as you said, there's

no hair colour there. At least I don't think anyone in the Middle Ages would have been having purple hair. But, you know, perhaps it was associated with people who were of extremely high social standing. So emperors traditionally wore purple. It is also the colour of royalty, for example. And quite often, no surname was needed or no further indication was needed. Purple, incredibly expensive and produced by the dye from a mollusk and was always reserved for very expensive, lavish occasions. So I don't think you would find Tom or Sheila on the street. I don't know if Sheila existed then, but, you know, having purple in their name. But there are a few, you know, exceptions. There is Lionel Blue, Rabbi Lionel Blue,

Thomas Pink, the tailor. So there are some, and they will have all come down to choices, habits, personal attributes, but it's very hard, you know, centuries on to pinpoint exactly what it was for these individuals. In the room I'm sitting in, we keep a lot of old books. And my wife, many years ago, did a book about first names. And she's got lots of books about first names. And I pulled one of them down simply to look up Igor. And it tells me that Igor is a boy's name, Russian origin, with old Norse roots, deriving from the name Ingvar. It's a classic name, perfect, according to this little book, for your little fighter.

It means warrior. Igor is short, sweet and strong. And I think his question was quite short, very sweet and certainly strong, kept us on our toes. Wonderful. So thank you. Thank you, Igor.

Should we take a quick break before we have some more questions and queries in this, our special 250th episode? I am loving these. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome?

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This is the podcast where we put our favorite fictional tv characters into therapy join me ben bailey smith and our brand new psych therapist namone metaxas hi ben yes this season we're going to be putting the likes of tommy from peaky blinders cersei from game of thrones on the couch to learn why their behavior creates so much drama so make sure you press the follow button to get new episodes as soon as they land on apple podcast spotify amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts shrink the box is a sony music so much drama. So make sure you press the follow button to get new episodes as soon as they land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Shrink the Box is a Sony Music Entertainment original podcast.

Welcome back to the semi-quincentennial, also sestera-centennial, or even quarter-millennial episode of Something Rhymes with Purple, which is dedicated to you, our listeners, the purple people, and who has been in touch most recently? Well, and now we have Neil from Glasgow. We can hear from him too. Hi Susie and Giles. We badger and nag, hound and bug when we describe being a pest.

How did these animals come to be associated with being pests, and how did rodents get away without becoming synonymous with pestering? Are there any other terms that are described so much using one specific group? Thanks for keeping me entertained with your podcasts. Neil from Glasgow. What's the answer to his pestilential question? quite interesting about these types of verbs that reference animal behaviour is that actually the animal in question is often human because it's about our behaviour towards these animals. So when we badger someone, we're not actually referencing any habits of a badger who, you know, they're nocturnal, they are usually quite quiet and other lovely creatures. I'm sure that they can become fierce if cornered. But the idea of badgering someone actually comes from the horrible so-called sport of baiting badgers with dogs.

And when we hound someone, we are again setting the hounds upon prey. So it is all about sort of human motivation, noctically nice ones in those cases. When we snipe at someone, we may well be referencing the bird of the Sandpiper family. And just as a hunter hides in the reeds to hunt snipe. So to snipe or being a sniper means to, you know, to sort of get someone from a concealed location or from far away. And the idea when we snipe at someone is that we're doing it in a slightly sideways, you know, just a sort of slightly cunning and conniving way, I suppose. So that's all about human behaviour. But sometimes there is a direct association and quite often they're quite obvious, I suppose. So we ferret something out. So ferrets naturally flush out rabbits and other things that are buried underground although I'm sure humans get them to do that as well we squirrel something away which is lovely

just as a squirrel will hoard nuts for the winter we repeat something parrot fashion which of course we know parrots absolutely do it's called asceticism with a silent p or we ape another person and quite often ape families are shown to imitate each other and other people you know humans in a very sort of wholesale way rather than just verbally as parrots do we can weasel something out of someone and weasels are very stealthy and so became associated with sneakiness and insincerity and that kind of thing and we do use rodents a little bit Neil because we talk about getting ratty with someone don't you're ratting on someone which is a bit unfair because you know

it's understandable that we associate rats with pestilence because of the great plague but actually they can be quite beautiful very friendly creatures as well and what else do we have we've got lots and lots really we we have again to with human behaviour, we have the idea of guinea pigs because they were historically used as objects, sadly, inging the same nags. Old, worn out, jaded horses have never had a very good reputation, sadly. And so they too became associated with something that is sort of unpleasant or derogatory, I suppose. Very good. Okay, who is next, Susie? Next, we have Craig Dealey. So I think this one would be quite simple to answer, but it's a nice one. Hi, Giles and Susie I love the show I've listened from the very beginning and even re-listened to old episodes so I can rediscover things that I'd

forgotten so my question is Christmas themed ish how come the verb to trim means to cut but when we talk about trimming the Christmas tree we add things to.e. decorations. The same as a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. It's the one meal a year where we're expected not to cut back on anything. Anyway, Merry Christmas, and here's to a purple new year. Best wishes, Craig Dealey. Oh, lovely. He's the first to wish us Merry Christmas for 2024, and I appreciate that very much indeed. Well, I mean, tell us, is it because to put on your decorations, you do trim the tree as you put them on because you need to have the branches shaped correctly? Do you know what? This is such a sort of mixed picture. So a trim in the sense of having turkey

in all the trimmings is directly related to a trim being any ornamental addition to the fabric of a dress for example so it could be a really lovely hemline or some beautiful sequins or whatever and from there it came on to mean accessories or accompaniments if you like so that was quite simple when it comes to trimming or looking trim or whatever and the idea of sort of being cutting something down. That is probably all related, but sort of a slightly strange, you know, branch off, I suppose, because from the 16th century, trim really burst on the scene as a kind of multi-purpose word, and it could mean fitting out ships for sea. So maybe putting on all those accompaniments that we talked about, preparing a candle wick for use. Now that again is fitting out a candle, but because we trim down a candle wick for use. Now that again is fitting out a candle,

but because we trim down a candle wick quite often, perhaps the idea of cutting down began to come into play then. It could mean repairing something and it could mean cutting away the unwanted parts of something. So it is all about putting something in order, really, whether or not you are adding the last bits to your Christmas dinner, or whether you're talking about a trim ship, which is well equipped and in good condition, hence a sort of slightly fit person is looking trim and so on. So we think it all goes back to the same idea of equipping in some way. But it's just very strange, as Craig points out, that in some cases we're adding and in other cases we're taking away but that's the eccentricity of English and I bet you do know without having

to look it up which I did what the origin of Craig is the first name of our correspondent Craig Dealey Craig Scottish yeah masculine name Gaelic origins as we know and comes from the Gaelic word Craig C-R-E-A-G, which translates as rock or rocky. I thought it might be related to crag. That's interesting. Not that Craig has got a craggy face. It is. If you're strong.

Anyway, thanks for your question, Craig Dealey. Who's next? Oh, this is a lovely name. Ira. Ira. I'll enjoy looking up Ira. For years, I thought Ira and George Gershwin were a husband and wife act, but I think they were brothers. Anyway, I'll discover that. It's from Oklahoma. What a

wonderful. Ira from Oklahoma has been in touch. And what is the question? Hello, Susie and Giles, Giles and Susie. This is Ira from Oklahoma. I love the podcast and have been a fan for a long time, but this is my first time writing in. I'd like to know about the word season and how it can mean something we put on our food and also the time of year. Are they connected at all and how? Thank you. Well, Ira, thank you for that. So the word season came to us from old French, as so often with the French terms that came into English. Ultimately, it began with Latin and a Latin term in this case,

which meant sowing, as in sowing seeds. And from there, it developed the broader meaning of the time of sowing. So when we are sowing our crops, and then the sense of adding savory flavoring to a dish as in seasoning it with pepper and salt or herbs or whatever that goes back to the sort of primary sense in old french which is you know where it was before us which was the lovely idea of making something palatable through the influence of the seasons. So in this case, the suggestion is that what was being added to increase flavour was something that was seasonal at the time. So it was something that was readily available and then was added to a dish to make it more delicious. So it is adding taste from the influence of the seasons, which is quite lovely.

Well, let me add something, which is what I now know about the name Ira. Do you know much about the name Ira? No, I hope it's not related to Ira as in Roth. No, it isn't. It's actually a gender neutral name of Hebrew origins found in both the Torah and the Bible. It translates as watchful and refers initially to one of King David's mighty warriors. That's Ira. And Ira came from Oklahoma. And I don't know if I've ever told you this story. People find it hard to believe, but I promise you it's true. I went to see a play some years ago about Virginia Woolf.

Yeah. And it was called Virginia. And it was written by, I think, as well as starring the great Dame Eileen Atkins, who was an authority on Virginia Woolf. I think she'd compiled the show from the letters and diaries of Virginia Woolf. Anyway, it was a marvelous piece of theater. And my wife and I, we sat there behind two Americans who left at the interval. They were so disappointed. They'd come to see Virginia, assuming it was a musical and a possible sequel to Oklahoma, the famous musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. So they thought, oh, this is going to be another

great musical. And they were sorely disappointed to find it was Virginia Woolf and not a wonderful... And this is just like the story that we always tell about one of our live shows where we were in the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden. And we got to the end of part one of our podcast that we were recording. And you can to the end of part one of our podcast that we were recording, and you can tell the rest of the story. No, but it's true. I mean, somebody in the, was it the, they were upstairs. American gentleman, wasn't he? Yeah. And he was, you know, what's going on here? He thought he'd come to see the woman in black, which had been running there for sort of 20 years. And he was waiting for the mystery and the ghost story

to begin. Instead, he had the bed of us wittering on. That was really funny. We've got time for one more. We must get one more. One more that I would love to go to. And there is no voice note, but it's from Julia Barrow. And I suppose it's a fairly dark one, but it's a nice piece of English history. She says, Hello, Giles and Susie. To raise my spirits on a damp afternoon, I lit my fire pit outside and stood beside it with a glass of red wine. How lovely. A very effective therapy. And as I stood watching the smoke, I wondered about the origins of the word bonfire. Is it something to do with bones and cremation or the French word bon meaning good? I'd be interested to know at this appropriate time of year. Well, the answer, Julia, is that

there is a folk etymology, so a sort of popular urban myth, if you like, that it has got something to do with bonfrench for good. But actually, no, we are talking about bones here, we think. So the significance of bones in midsummer fires, which is when the idea of bonfires were first recorded, is a little bit unclear. But we do have records, for example, something that was noted in the New English Dictionary from 1887 under the entry for bonfire. It says, for the annual midsummer banefire or bonfire in the Burg of Howick, is it? Old bones were regularly collected and stored up, up until the 19th century. So I think we're talking animal bones rather than the bones of heretics, etc. But the record suggests that they were involved in some of the early bonfires. So yeah, fairly grisly,

but little fascinating snapshot into life centuries ago. And Julia Barrow, do you think the surname Barrow is because her family came once upon a time from Barrow, Barrow-in-Ferns? Possibly. Or because they made wheelbarrows? Or she lived in a barrow, possibly. So it could be a topographical one where she sort of lived in a sort of valley. So we don't know. Leave that one with me, because I think there's a lot more to do with names, actually.

We've explored names before. We should do it again. Because Julia, I do know this without having to look it up. Julia, I think, means youthful, because it comes from Jove's child, Latin origin, youthful, Jove's child. And I think I'm right in saying that it was a Roman name, particularly given to those born in the house of Julius Caesar.

Yes, I'm sure that's true. And he was again in July, of course. Absolutely. Look, we've had so many more questions. We'll have to put these into later weeks. People will have to keep listening. Let's just do it. I love these episodes.

You know, I honestly could do one of these every week because it just takes us to so many different places. Not only the places of the purple people who are writing in, but also just in English. It just takes us on so many travels. Well, you take us to different places every week, and you have done for 250 weeks, with your trio of words. And these are words, I mean, how do you, do you collect them in a book yourself? Or when you come, when you come to think, oh, I've got to think of my trio for this week, they come into your head? Or do you look them up? Or do you have a notebook? Something comes to my head. But you know, I've got to think of my trio for this week, do they come into your head or do you look them up or do you have a notebook? Something comes to my head.

But you know, I've got so many wonderful old glossaries and lexicons on my shelf that what I love doing most is just pulling one down randomly and just riffling through its pages and finding something. So it's a sort of potluck, but a lovely kind of potluck. OK, so my first one is just a nice word because it just almost sounds like the thing it describes. And it's a word or a verb meaning to bungle. And it's foozle.

So if you get something wrong and you're a bit of a bungler, you might also be a foozler. So you're just sort of foozle. But it's got that kind of affectionate edge to it, I think, which I quite like. got that kind of affectionate edge to it, I think, which I quite like. The second one, I think people may well be familiar with already, but it's just quite a useful one to keep up your sleeve. And that's otios. Do you know what that one means? Otios, it means superfluous, not necessary. Yes, serving no useful purpose. And it's very pithy, which is why I like that one. So I just thought I would throw that one in. I love the way you assumed that I would know what otios meant I said you said yes I assume you know the author's means as if I've heard it so many times because people have used

it about me no not at all no it's just uh it's as I say it's it's a kind of it's not quite as obscure as many of the ones that I do and the third one again it just sort of does what it says on the tin, but I quite like it. It's a tongue hero. And a tongue hero is a braggart or someone who considers themselves to be a hero. A tongue hero. In other words, you know. They do all the talking. Yeah, they do all the talking. And let's leave that one there.

Do you have a poem for us? I do. And I thought carefully about the poem because I've enjoyed reading so many of the poems and looking them up. And often I think of them during the episode. But for today, I wanted, I tried to think of the poems that people have enjoyed. And I know people seem to have enjoyed poems about cats. And you know, you and I love cats. So I thought, let's do a cat poem.

And I thought also people seem to have enjoyed, over the many months we've been doing this, poems about love. And I came across a poem that is, well, it begins as a cat poem, but it turns into a love poem. It's quite short. It's written by an American poet called James Loughlin.

I think that's how you pronounce his surname. Born 1914, died 1997. He was a poet and a publisher. And this is the short poem. It's called You Know How a Cat, and that's the first line as well. Let me read it to you. You know how a cat will bring a mouse it has caught and laid at your feet. So each morning I bring you the poem that I've written when I woke up in the night as my tribute to your beauty and a promise of my love. It's a sweet idea, isn't it? An analogy between the cat that you love bringing you the mouse to show it loves you to writing a poem overnight to, well well to salute your beauty and a promise of

my love it's beautiful it's very tricky i have to say i i always need to hold on to that fact because when bow my cat does very occasionally bring in a mouse i actually get really cross with her because the mouse has become obviously her play thing and more often than not the mouse plays dead and then when both gone away i just sort of shivvy out the door but i never i have to say i'm never grateful even though i'm sure her bringing it in is a sign of love it's not something i want to reciprocate i know but it's a natural thing for them to do isn't it yeah i suppose it is oh life is life is difficult we don't want it to be susie you and i want it to be why I've totally... I mean, I know terrible things are happening in the world,

but I don't know the detail because I've stopped reading the newspapers. Yeah. And I can't watch the television anymore. It's too grim. It is. That's why we love spending time with the beautiful people

who are the purple people and in the world of words. So thank you so much for being with us for, if you have been, all 250 episodes. If you've joined more recently, they're all available. So please feel free to go back on them and we will keep going for as long as you keep listening. So thank you for being part of our story for these past five years. And don't forget, you can find us on social media, should you wish to,

at Something Rhymes on Twitter and Facebook or at something rhymes with on instagram there's also the purple plus club where giles and i are going right now to just chat a little bit more off the record i suppose about some of our favorite subjects we're doing a long run at the moment of wit and wisdom from a to z choosing people who have contributed we think much to the you, to the pool of wit, not just to do with language, but just life in general. And I think we're going to talk about Barry Humphreys next. I'm really looking forward to that one. Oh, I hope we are. One of the great entertainers. I think Barry Humphreys and Ken Dodd are the two funniest people I've seen live on a stage. Oh, really? So we'll go through to the Purple Plus Club now.

It's ad-free listening when you're there, but we love you listening here. And actually, I rather like the ads, particularly when I'm reading them. Anyway, Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production. Maybe we need more music in the show. It was produced by Naya Deo, with additional production from Ollie Wilson, Charlie Murrell, Chris Skinner, Poppy Thompson and... Ritz. The person who you said looked like one of those old games where you could migrate the hair, if you can use migrate in that way, to either the top or the bottom of the face or indeed to the sides. And you decided that Ritchie, our lovely Ritchie, had all of those magnetic filings rushing down to the

bottom of his face because he is very hussied, not unlike Gully, actually. But thank you, Richie. And yeah, thank you for being our helm. Long may it continue. Thank you, team. Thank you, listeners. This has been Something Rhymes with Purple, episode 250.