Something Rhymes with Purple - Testiculate

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

The hidden meanings concealed beneath our clothes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. in your kitchen. We are back in my kitchen. I'm very grateful that you come to me rather than the other way around. Well, it's been quite a week for me because I have been all over the place and not just metaphorically, like the country. I have been literally all over the place. I have been to Edinburgh, to Inverness, to Manchester, to Birmingham

and to Chelmsford all in the past five days. On tour? No, I've launched a new book. My new poetry book, which I'm getting a copy to you so that in a few weeks' time we can talk about it because I've made all these amazing discoveries about learning poetry by heart, the value of it,

how it can delay dementia, that's what interests me, but also how it can improve your children's capacity with the English language, which will interest you. And it's all about learning poetry by heart and it's an anthology of 250 poems. And I've been trooping around. You've done this with books. It's basically a book tour. And we began at Toppings in Edinburgh. And we've been going ever since. So it's been fun. But it means that, well, whatever day it is today, Tuesday, I'm in Oxford. Tuesday, it must be my kitchen.

It must be your kitchen. How's your week been? My week has been fine, actually. Thank you very much. It's been fun because I have been researching one of my favourite subjects, clothes. We're going to talk about clothes today. Well, we are going to talk about clothes. And I have to say, I've noticed since I came into your house, in your house, as in my house, when visitors arrive, we are expecting to take off shoes. And we do that at our house, where I live, because my wife and I,

we have seven grandchildren and some of them are little ones and they're crawling around on the floor. So it seems sensible. So we take off our shoes and we take off our shoes here at your house too. I have got now, not quite bare feet, I've got little socks on.

Very nice socks, actually. I got them on an aeroplane. So I've got little socks on. Very nice socks, actually. I got them on an aeroplane. So they've got little logos on the side. But you have got clogs on. I have got clogs on. I've got some really, really comfortable, what do you call them, clogs? They don't make clatters on the floor. Clogs have had quite an important part in English language, actually.

We will come to that. But yes, I have. I'm in my very comfort. I guess they're just sort of almost slippers, aren't they? They're slippers with great big heels. you somebody who is uh clothes obsessed no I'm really not when I say it's my favorite one of my favorite subjects it's not for the reasons that I love wearing new clothes because I really don't and um I'm in the enviable position of having a small budget from countdown to buy clothes for the show but actually I, I hate shopping. I really, really hate shopping.

So I will do it online, try stuff on, and then send it back. But I'm beginning to realise that's not very eco-friendly. But I really, really hate it. I have an older woman in my life, and that is the actress Sheila Hancock. And she and I did... She dresses amazingly. Doesn't she look good? Yeah, she does.

She will not mind me telling you this, because she shares it with other people. She is 86, 87. She looks amazing. And dresses... She will not mind me telling you this because she shares it with other people. She is 86, 87. She looks amazing. And she looks completely stunning. But she told me this week, because we're doing something together on TV and people were saying, we'll get you this outfit.

And she said, no, thank you. They said, well, we've got a budget. She said, no, thank you. She said, I am a Quaker. And I recently signed up to not buying any new clothes. There's a big movement for this, actually, for this actually, which is great. And she looks so stylish. And she dresses from secondhand shops.

Yeah. But the reason, it's one of my favourite subjects, apart from the fact that linguistically speaking, clothes are intriguing. And again, we'll come to that. But also my whole family has worked in the textile trade. So I am a real anomaly. My dad was a textile agent. My sister went into fashion.

Both of my sisters went into fashion, actually. So, yeah, by going into words, I really bucked the trend. I let the side down. I was once a director of a hand-knitting wool company, and we had 31 shops around the country. What have you not done, Giles Brandwith? Gradually, I closed them all down. It didn't quite work out. I got into hand-knitting just as everybody else was getting out of it. Because the advent of, there was a time when

people knitted their school jumpers for their children. And then M&S came along and provided you with a beautiful jumper for your children to go to school in that didn't cost very much and didn't take hours to knit. But when in the 70s and 80s, I used to have colourful knitwear on television, which I did in order for it to be noticed, I got involved in hand knitting and created lots of jumpers. You can perhaps tell me which is correct. A jumper, when you're wearing a jumper, is it a jumper? Is it a sweater? Is it a guernsey?

Is it a jersey? What is it and why? All four. All four. You can, I mean, they're so interchangeable these days. Cardigans, obviously, everyone knows what a cardigan is. Cardigan named after Lord Cardigan? The Earl of Cardigan. The Earl of Cardigan

who was in the Battle of? He was. The Crimean War. The Crimean War. Exactly right. So he was in the Crimean War and the soldiers wore something which looked vaguely similar. Lots of clothes come from wars, actually. Balaclava, another one. And a cravat

as well. Cravat comes from Croat because it was worn by croatian soldiers um so yes surprisingly they're looking with clothes we're already learning something that's very good but would you say essentially that the right word for i mean i know a jersey is got a certain particular collar to it made fashionable on the island of jersey made that on the island of jersey but i'm not even sure people make that distinction. And a Guernsey, I know, has got a high collar. Yes. And that does come from Guernsey. Of course. Why it comes from those two islands, I don't know. But jumper and sweater. Is sweater more American? Definitely North American. But again, interchangeable. I call them jumpers.

I call them jumpers too. And I wrote many years ago when I was an MP, a biography called Under the Jumper because I was known for the jumpers and it was, you know, Under the Jumper. And they got a copy at the House of Commons Library because they get copies of all MPs' books

and I was an MP at the time. And they filed it under the juniper. They misread it. I love that. They couldn't believe that anything could be called Under the Jumper. And it was a quotation from a poem by T.S. Eliot. Okay. Under the juniper they misread it i love that they couldn't believe that anything would be called under the jumper and it was a quotation from a poem by t.s elliott okay under the juniper tree under the juniper tree he said it was a great wonderful title and under the juniper and it did very well

as under the juniper but it was actually called under the jumper so when people bought it flicked through and saw all these pictures of me in my funny jumpers they possibly were disappointed i love that i think i prefer under the juniper. Okay. The one thing I would like to mention before we go into anything else, because there's so many close terms that we can discuss, but it's how many hidden behind words that we use. What do you mean hidden behind?

Hidden behind words such as robber. Robbers used to steal robes. So they were... No. Yeah, because sumptuous clothes were obviously worth quite a lot so they they were sort of good booty really um and it booty incidentally nothing to do with boot um so they they might you know somebody came and disturbed them they might have to escape and escape is from ex capa meaning out of one's cloak so they would throw their cloaks off

perhaps they were the their cloaks off. Perhaps they were the stolen cloaks from the house they just plundered and run off. This is already incredible. I love that. So robbing comes from robe, as in a grand robe. The people who stole those robes came to be known as robbers. Yes. So robbing a bank, daylight robbery, it all comes from robe.

And escaping from the scene of the crime is literally getting out of your cape. Cloak, yes. Your cap. Exactly, your kappa. Your kappa is something that goes over the head. No, kappa was your cloak. So it's linked to cape.

So yes, it's right over your cape to make it run for it. Not as in cap, as in head. No, that goes back to kaput, C-A-P-U-T in Latin, which means head. So the cap on your head, the schoolboy is wearing a caput, and that's a head. But the cape on your shoulders comes from? Double P, cappa, C-A-double P-A. Again, that's Latin. And dismantle.

To dismantle is to take your coat off. To invest is to put your vest on, literally. Or it was actually to put on your vestment rather than your... As in a church vestment. Yes, or just, you know, your sort of professional clothes. That's why we have an investiture. And to invest in stocks and shares, et cetera, the idea is that you're actually putting on,

you're sort of, how can we say, you're actually kind of taking on something of value. That's the idea, is that you're sort of putting on something valuable. And you call these hidden? Well, no, I just think they're sort of hidden etymologies, really, because you never think that clothes are lurking behind words like this. Chaperone's another one. As in chapeau?

Chaperone. No, not as in chapeau, but the same sort of cloak hat question, actually, because it actually goes back to chaperone, which was a cloak with a hood. So if you think the ad for Scottish Widows, is it Scottish Widows? Yeah. That kind of, you know, wonderful black flowing cloak. And the idea really is that a chaperone would shield their protectee. So the people that they were looking after in the same way that a hood on a cape would shield your face. Do you know the story of the unfortunate man

whose wife died on holiday when they were in the south of France? And he'd gone, they'd gone for a summer holiday wearing their holiday clothes. And unfortunately she died and he discovered how expensive it was to bring her back to England. So he decided to have her buried locally,

made all the arrangements and then he only had this sort of sports gear. So he thought, I'd better get a proper hat and suitable morning clothes. So he went out and bought a suit. And he couldn't find a hat anywhere. And his French wasn't very good. And so he thought, I know what the word is. It's capot, capot, as opposed to chapeau, which is the word for hat. Capot is, of course, a French word for a prophylactic, what we the word for hat. Chapeau is, of course, a French word for prophylactic, what we call a French letter. Anyway, the poor man went to the clothes shop and said,

je veux un chapeau. And they said, oh, monsieur. And they sent him anyway to the chemist. Anyway, he arrived at the chemist's and he got to the front of the queue and he said, je veux un chapeau. And they said, Certainement, monsieur. Certainly, sir. What size?

Well, no. They said that. No, they did say. Then he said, Oui, c'est important. Je veux un capot noir. I want a black one. And the chemist said, Un capot noir, monsieur? Pour quelle raison? For what reason?

And the man said, Parce que. Because my wife est morte is dead And the chemist said Ah monsieur quelle délicatesse So that's my story

about Chapeau and Capot Where did you pick this up? It's a true story It was told to me by the relative of the person to whom it happened So you are telling me that Chapeau, where were we?

Shaper is a hat. Chaperone. Chaperone. Chaperone. So I guess there's a sort of slight element to the hat. So it's the hood. The hood that protects the face as a chaperone would protect their, you know. Well, that may link to the kapu, the same thing,

the prophylactic of being a kind of. Well, actually, it's a shield. It's a shield for the head, but of a different kind. Different kind. Moving swiftly on. Moving back to clogs very quickly, we have sabotage, which I think most a shield for the head, but of a different kind. Different kind. Moving swiftly on. Moving back to clogs very quickly, we have sabotage, which I think most people know about. I don't know about sabotage.

Okay, sabotage goes back to the French sabot, clogs. D'ami sabot. Yeah, lots and lots of theories about this. Some is that factory workers would throw their clogs into machinery when they were angry in order to break it and stop work. But certainly in Northern England, clogs were absolutely standard. Everybody wore clogs. They were made of wood, weren't they? They were. I mean, I know a little bit about it because many years ago, I wrote a biography of a man called Dan Lino. Have you heard of Dan Lino? I've heard of Jay

Lino, but not Dan Lino. Interestingly enough, Jay Lino said to me when I met him, oh, do you people say I may be related to Dan Lino? Do you think I am? And I said, well, I don't think you are Jay Lino, because I know that you changed your name from something else. You adopted the name Jay Lino, so you couldn't possibly be related to Dan Lino. Dan Lino, 120 years ago, was the most famous man in the British Isles after the King. He was the biggest entertainer of his day. You heard of Mary Lloyd, a musical singer. Basically, Mary Lloyd and Dan Lino were the two most famous stars in the British Isles in the year 1900. When Dan Lino died, there was an 11 mile long queue of people processing to his funeral. It was the front page news. He was known as the King's jester.

funeral. It was the front page news. He was known as the king's jester. People just adored him. And he was a pantomime dame, maybe talking about men dressing as women in relation to language. Anyway, he had been champion clog dancer of the world. And clog dancing in those days was like tap dancing. And before they invented shoes with taps on, people danced in clogs. And of course, the clatter, clatter, clatter of the clogs sounded like tap dancing. Yes, of course, the noise. And before they invented shoes with taps on, people danced in clogs. And of course, the clatter, clatter, clatter of the clogs sounded like tap dancing. And he became famous as a boy, as champion clog dancer of the world. Famous from the age of 40 to the age of 44,

when he died, unfortunately, insane in a lunatic asylum. It may have been some kind of inherited syphilis. Nobody's quite sure. But isn't that funny? He would one day be the most famous man, without exaggeration, in the country. 120 years later, an educated woman like Susie Dent hasn't heard of you. No, I feel bad about that. Yeah. No, but it's a reminder to modern entertainers, you know?

Well. There it was. If you're listening, Jack Whitehall. Dan Lino was the Jack Whitehall of his day. I like to say that because I've known Jack since before he was born. We're so blessed, Susie Dent and I, in that we know everybody. Not necessarily well. Well, you know everybody. I know everybody in the sense that I've met most of them in the lift of the BBC. Some I claim to know. I was with Miley Cyrus for all of 20 seconds. It was a very short lift journey, but I'd been dining out of it for several years because I did twerk. We twerked together. So she gave us the word twerk, didn't she? She didn't actually give it to us. It's been in the dictionary for a while,

but she definitely popularised twerking. Let's not think about just twerking. Back to clothes. Domino is another word, just to finish my sort of, you know, words that conceal quite appropriately. Domino is an outfit worn by who? Yes. So domino was originally a hood or habit that was attached to the cape of a priest. So it had a strong kind of religious context. And it comes from the Latin dominus, meaning lord or master. So from that point of view. But is that a word used in relation to clothes now? Do people talk about?

No, but they were like dominoes were the sort of high fashion of masquerades if you look back to sort of 19th and 18th century. And do you remember Fanny Burney in her diaries? I remember Fanny Burney in her diaries i remember her diaries um she wrote admiringly of a miss strange who had a white satin domino trimmed with blue so the domino effect was you know it's pretty strong even then in the game of dominoes yes so the idea we think it seems a bit far-fetched isn't it you know the spotted tiles that we know in the game and the stylish mask but the idea i think is that the back the black back of these robes must have, sorry,

of the tiles must have brought to mind the style and the traditional colour of these domino capes. Very good. So a domino was a cape. Yes. Domino's game may be based on the look of the cape.

Yes. Very good. Exactly. Well, look, it's all too exciting. I've learned so much already. Can we take a very quick break? Okay. And after the break, I'll tell you about the Incredible Edible Candy Pants.

The Incredible Edible Candy Pants? Yes. Oh, we'll be doing tongue twisters another week, but I'd love to know more about that. Okay. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away?

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Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Hello, I'm Elizabeth Day. You might know me as the creator and host of the How to Fail podcast, but I want to tell you about a new podcast I've made. How to Write a Book is for anyone who wants to get their story out there. Fronted by a best-selling author, a super agent, and a powerhouse publisher, this 12-week masterclass will take you right through from developing an idea to nailing the plot. If you want to get all episodes at once and completely ad-free, subscribe now. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Giles, the Incredible Edible Candy Pants.

The Incredible Edible Candy Pants. Tell me more. Giles, the incredible edible candy pants. The incredible edible candy pants. Tell me more. Well, all I know is that in California in the 1970s, they hit the market, edible underwear, and they were a massive success. But they didn't last. They didn't last. Well, clearly they didn't last for a reason.

I remember I was in California at that time, and I bought some. I also bought, which was very popular for a while, paper underpants. You would be amazing on Would I Lie to You. I mean, it's true, but it is, no, this is fact. And I've kept- What flavour were they?

Because I happen to know. I can tell you what the flavour. Okay. Interestingly, there was a peppermint one. Apparently they were licorice. Oh, no. Those are the all sorts. No, they weren't licorice.

They may have been licorice ones, but I got the peppermint. Yeah, I did. Okay, let's leave it there. I've been looking for the rose sorts. They may have been licorice ones, but I got the peppermint. Yeah, I did. Okay, let's leave it there. I've been looking for the rose hip. Maybe we should, because pants is such a big issue. There is a huge lexicon of underpants and underwear. So should we, in fact, dedicate an entire programme to underwear?

I think we should. Okay. What I really wanted to ask you was this, because when I set off this morning to come and see you, my wife said to me, well, you're hardly dressed to the nines, are you? I said, oh, dressed to the nines. That's an interesting phrase. Where on earth does that come from?

I'll find out from Susie. Dressed to the nines. I wish I could give you the answer. Well, no, it's one of the big etymologicalth Wiltshire Regiment, known as the Nines, who are apparently famous for their very pristine, smart appearance. But that reputation goes back to the 1850s, as far as we know, when in fact, dressed to the nines is from the 1700s. So it's unlikely from a date point of view, but no one knows. In some phrases, like belt and braces, it's obvious. Yeah.

The origin of that, it's because you've got like belt and braces it's obvious yeah the idea the origin of that it's because you've got a belt and a brace braces speaking of belts and the one i didn't mention actually which i love um because i love roman history is succinct succinct goes back to a latin word for a belt um and succinct was first applied um or at least the latin version to togas that were kind of tucked up um above the belt and so made to look very kind of neat and concise, if you will. So they would be hitched up so they weren't quite as long. You're tucked up toga.

So succinct. You're succinct. Yeah, isn't that great? That is amazing. So it means be succinct, put it all in together, be brief. And we've talked before about how candidate goes back to the white togas worn by political candidates. So that goes back to candidates meaning white.

So togas came in there anyway. Sorry, I'm slightly obsessed with togas. No, that's good. Cloak and dagger? Cloak and dagger is an anglicization of a French phrase, which was de cap et de paix, so of cloak and sword. And it was just applied to those kind of melodramas involving intrigue and espionage and that kind of thing. So we got that from the French. Literally a cloak and a sword or cloak and a dagger.

Exactly. And you're creeping about the stage. Very good. Yes. What about giving somebody a dressing down? Dressing down, yeah. That just became a byword for a sort of drubbing or a kind of scolding. And it was used metaphorically pretty much from the start.

There was no down in it to begin with either. It was just a dressing. You would give somebody a dressing um well i want not to disagree with you because you know best but i remember seeing a film many years ago about dreyfus the the french soldier who there was anti-semitism and he basically was cashiered from the french army and under false accusations and there's a moment when he is cashiered and he comes onto the parade ground. And as I recall, his sword is broken and his pips on his shoulders, the badges are stripped off him.

Yes, it might be a dimension. So it's a kind of public undressing of him to humiliate him. Could that be to do with dressing down? It might well be. People have said to me over the years, oh, Charles, you're all mouth and trousers. Hmm. What on earth does that mean?

It's funny, I had always heard it as all mouth and no trousers. Oh, I think that's different. Well, no, it's the same. That's all talk and no trousers. Yeah. All talk,

oh, she was all talk and no trousers, you know, meaning that it was a fur coat on the outside but, oh, nothing underneath. Yeah, what did you say? I'm trying to do my impressions

of the late Les Dawson, you know, hoisting my cleavage. You're supposedson, you know, hoisting my cleavage. You're supposed to be, yeah. Well, thank you. All mouth and trousers in your view, what is the origin? Joke business. Okay, so I was familiar with the no trousers thing, but in fact, the OED has all mouth and trousers coming first. Goes back to the 1960s.

I think the idea might be of testiculating, as Rickick waitman once told me and i love the word to testiculate testiculate yes and my daughter's just walked in at a really inappropriate time because testiculate means to talk bollocks basically so i think the idea is that the trousers are simply an empty cover for something with no substance within them and that they've got no corners i think that's the idea that all mouth badges have got nothing to back it up. Fine. All mouth and no trousers. Very good. Well, we have had people writing into us, haven't we? I ought to explain.

People get in touch with us via purple at something else something without a G dot com. Purple at something else dot com. And I think among this week's haul was somebody asking a fashion question. Yes, and I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly. It's Simran Hans.

And what's her name? Hi, Giles, Susie and Paul. I was watching Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo for the hundredth time the other day, and it is a brilliant film. I was struck by the scene in which Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak are in a department store dressing room watching a series of models trying on Bertrand of Madeleine's grey suit. They're strutting, catwalking even, which caused me to wonder,

where does the word catwalk come from? While you're researching that, or maybe you know straight away. I think I do. I think I, well, no, I think this is one I do know. Means I can't tell my Jimmy Stewart story. Well, I love Jimmy Stewart. Let me answer this,

and then let's hear about Jimmy Stewart. I think it's simply because it's a narrow walkway, a narrow platform along which the models strut. And of course, cats are renowned for tiptoeing along. Oh, cats walking along the wall. Yeah. So it's how interesting. So we'll create a catwalk, like a narrow walk.

When does it go back to? Early 20th century. No. Well, 1917, it was, in fact, a narrow passage in the interior of an airship, according to the OED. But there is a reference in 1885 to a slip of the garden at the back of catwalks. That's more of a literal catwalk. But yeah, so it's been with us over a century.

Yeah. Now, I was just, you mentioned, or rather she mentioned James Stewart. And since I've met him, and you know I'm rather passionate about him. You really have met him, wouldn't you? I thought I would just mention that. He was hugely tall. That's all I can remember about him. My mum.

Hugely tall. He probably still is massively in love with Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Stewart films. With good reason. And Gregory. Maybe it was because I was so young or maybe it was because of that golden era of Hollywood. There was something extraordinary about him. The fact that he was so tall. He was so elegantly suited.

Effortlessly elegantly suited. Completely amazing. So appearance does count while name dropping and suit incidentally goes back to the french suite because it's a sequence of clothes that you put on so i'd throw that in you can here is a sort of fashion related question it's from thomas langford i've got a question for suzy a friend recently said she was dressed head to head in designer labels instead of head to toe. Is this a malapropism, an acorn or something else? As a neuroscientist, says Tom, I would say this is a

semantic error, but want to hear what a lexicographer would call it. She was dressed head to head. I'm with, I'm not sure who it was who wrote it. Thomas Langford. I'm with Thomas on this. I think it's a semantic slip. And we often change expressions to the point where they become nonsensical, but somehow we don't notice it because it's so gradual. So we'll talk about head over heels, but actually head over heels is the normal way up, isn't it? And it used to be heels over head. Likewise, you might say it's cheap at half the price.

Well, yes, it is cheap at half the price, or at least it's certainly cheaper, at least because it's cheap at twice the price. And there are various sort of errors like that, talking 10 to the dozen. It's 19 to the dozen, but a lot of people talk 10 to the dozen now. So we often do this with language without noticing it, and I think it's one of those. Head to head doesn't really make sense. Doesn't make sense. 10 to the dozen. I rather like the idea of talking 10 to the dozen. Dear Susie and Giles, ever since I was a small girl, says Alyssa McCarthy,

I remember my parents using the term slugger bed for when one was slow to get out of bed in the morning. I love that word. I pass the term down to my daughter, but I've always wondered about its origin. Any ideas? Love the podcast. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Alyssa McCarthy from Phoenix, Arizona. Amazing. Isn't that amazing?

Thank you. This is a global, we are a global podcast. And if you do like it, please do tell your friends. Spread the word. I would just say also, I'm really, really touched by all the tweets and the letters that I've seen. And I know, Giles, you are too. And they do actually mean a lot. So we're genuinely not taking them for granted.

And yeah, thank you. You're touched. I'm chuffed. What's the origin of chuffed? Is it to do with a bird? Yes, it's to do with a bird sort of, I think, just... Being fluffing up its feathers? Fluffing up its feathers.

Being happy? Yes, I was very inarticulate there. No, it's not a good word. No, and it's also, chuff was also a cheek that was puffed out with fat. So if you sort of had a good... So if you're happy, you're all puffed up and excited. So thank you for making us feel chuffed. Slugger beds.

Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't say that very well. I have to say, I have accused my children and my grandchildren of being slugger beds. Have you? Sometimes, yes, because I don't know why. I have this sort of, I feel that the whole world needs to put its socks up. We're all slugger bedding all the time. A little bit slumy, yes. I'm using this phrase.

Shakespeare first used it, as far as we know, or at least he certainly popularised it. 1599, Romeo and Juliet, a slugger bed. So it's somebody who lies in bed through laziness, somebody who herkle-derkels. I'm sure that's been one of my trios before, herkle-derkel to lie in bed long after it's time to get up. And yes, it's simply that.

Somebody who's limacious, i.e. slug-like, and just basically slobs in bed. What does limacious mean? Limacious means slug-like. Why does it mean slug-like? Is it lim, lim, lim, lim, lim? Well, it is literally applied to slugs. So they might leave

a limacious trail across the garden path. I like to apply it to humankind, especially myself. This is the reason, if you're listening to this, we do this programme, because we believe that language is power. We want to extend your vocabularies. And I expect people to be saying, oh, it was a limacious trail that he left. Well, that's slug-like fellow. I love it. Limacious trail. L-I-M-A-C- Oh, that slug-like fellow. I love it. Lamaetius Trail. Lamaetius, yes. L-I-M-A-C-E-O-U-S. That's very good. Very good.

Susie, we've got so much to pack in. We have to do pants another week because I want your trio. My trio, okay. If you're new to this podcast, what happens every week is that Susie gives us three words. We may be familiar with them already, but perhaps not know something about them. Or they may be words with which we are unfamiliar. What have you got in your trio bag? Well, we just talked about being a slugger bed.

If you are feeling very lazy, perhaps hungover, can't stand the thought of human company, you might want to latibulate. Latibulate. It sounded a little bit rude. It means simply to hide in a corner. And how does it get to mean that? Because it simply comes from Latin. I think it's had one record in the OED,

which I love. And it simply, we'll go back to this. Yes, one, litibulate, privily to hide oneself in a corner. And it simply goes back to the Latin, latibule,

which is a hiding place. A hiding place is a latibule. Yes. I'm nipping off to the latibule. Yes. You know, another person to the latibule. Yes. Yes. You know, another person you won't have heard of, given you hadn't heard of Dan Lino or Ellen Terry.

Oh, have you heard of Ellen Terry? A Victorian actress called Ellen Terry? I'd love to say yes, but... Anyway, she was in a play and she was playing, I think it was The Many Wives of Windsor. Off she ran, ran off the stage. She was supposed to say, let us go and find a cosy nook.

A nook's good. She said, let us go and find a cozy nook and she said she said let us go and find a newsy cook oh cozy nook newsy cook i like that i love nook though that's nice anyway um okay this is a nice one if you've had a bad day i will return to something cheerier in a minute but if you've had a sort of difficult day maybe it's quaffed maybe you want to have a little drink you will then experience reciprocance. Reciprocance. Nothing to do with alcohol. Reciprocance.

R-E-S-I-P-I-S-C-E-N-C-E. And it means simply the return to a better state of mind. Very good. Say it again. Pronounce it again. Reciprocance. Reciprocance. I feel reciprocance.

Very good. Yeah, which I like. This is a nice one. Hopefully we can all describe ourselves as this. It doesn't actually sound particularly attractive, but the meaning is nice. Oscillable. Oscillable. It means able to be kissed.

Oh. Yes. I know because osculatory is under the lips, isn't it? Exactly. An osculatory emotion when you pucker up your lips. Isn't it funny? I keep meeting people with huge lips on the train coming here today. On the train coming here today, there are people sitting near me, the most amazing lips you've ever seen. I didn't think, to be honest with you, that it was

entirely natural. And I knew because of knowing you, one shouldn't make personal remarks. But I have to say, these lips were huge. Yes. Lips and brows seem to be the thing at the moment, don't they? I had no time to get up to the brows. I was fixated by these massive lips. This is supposed to be fashionable, isn't it? I think so. I think so, yes. So it's an osculatory... Work.

Yeah. Possibly a disaster. An osculatory job. Yeah, exactly. Putting emulsion into the osculatory passages. Anyway, osculatory is lips. And what was the word? Oscillable.

Able to be kissed. So kiss? Osculable. Osculable. Able to be kissed. Kissable. Kissable. Yes. Osculable. I tried to put all these words onto my blog, on my website. Oh, yes, thank you.

So people want a record of them. Look, I think that's all we have time for. If you've enjoyed this, don't please forget to give us a nice review, recommend us to a friend. And as you know, if you've got a question, we will do our best to answer it in a future podcast. It's purple at somethingelse.com. The something doesn't have a G in it. No, and Something Rounded with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Paul Smith with production also from Lawrence Bassett, Steve Ackerman and...

Golly! If you told me you were going to wear your gym jams, I'd have worn mine.