Something Rhymes with Purple - Tidsoptomist

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

They say that time flies when you’re having fun, so this week’s episode should whizz by in a jiffy. Gyles and Susie tackle all things horological from clepsydras to obelisks and they reveal the musical history of the grandfather clock. They also chat about how best to use one’s time and the frustrating accuracy of Parkinson’s Law alongside the usual Trio and Poetry to finish on.  A Somethin’ Else production.  We love answering your wordy questions on the show so please do keep sending them in to [e-mail]  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple  If you would like to join the Purple Plus Club on Apple Subs please follow this link https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823 and make sure that you are running the most up-to-date IOS on your computer/device otherwise it won’t work.  Susie’s Trio: Bowerbird: a collector of useless objects or knick-knacks Mush faker: Victorian slang for an umbrella repairer Lubberland: a mythical paradise reserved for those who are lazy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello and welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. This is a podcast about words and language and much else besides. In fact, today, Giles Brandreth and I, and I will introduce Giles in a second, are going to tackle one of the biggest themes of life, a universal theme. So it's a big, big topic for us today. And actually, it's quite relevant to the person who is sitting opposite me on my screen in his Zoom dungeon, Giles Brandreth. Because Giles, you seem to make the most of every hour of the day.

And today's theme is time. How do you find the time to do as much as you do? I tell you, because I want to ask you a question, a big question too. And it's relevant for what I'm going to say to you now. When I was a small boy, I was sent away to a prep school. This is, I say this for our international listeners, because I think in America, a prep school is something you go to when you're in your teens. But in this country, a prep school is a kind of independent school that is preparing you for your public school, which is not your public school at all. It's a private school. Oh, language is complicated.

Anyway, and there was a headmaster of this prep school called Mr. Stocks. And he gave me five words of advice when I was eight or nine years of age. He simply said to me, Brandreth, busy people are happy people. called Mr. Stocks. And he gave me five words of advice when I was eight or nine years of age. He simply said to me, Brandreth, busy people are happy people. Remember that. And I think from that day to this, I remember those five words, busy people are happy people. I just say yes. And I do lots of things. The last few days, I have to say I've almost done too much. Because on Friday, I was in Chester, and the chancellor of the university of chester had giving out degrees on and then i went back to london because i had an engagement that evening in london then on saturday i went to harrogate but that was wonderful because i went to the

harrogate theater yeah a beautiful theater have you been to it built in 1900 yeah it's fabulous all the greats have been there sarah bernhard had been there. But the next day, I had to be in High Wycombe. Sarah Bernhardt's theatre on Saturday night, Sunday night. Well, at least Rod Hull and Emu had been to this theatre. So I was following in the footsteps of greats. So every day, something new, which is what I like. Now, what I wanted to ask you, before we get round to time and how we fill time, is was there anything I ever said to you when you

were a girl like those words that I think really have been formative in my life busy people happy people was any advice given to you or did any teacher influence you in a way that actually has touched your whole life I've been offered so many pieces of wisdom in the course of my life, but I'm not sure that many of them have stuck. So, for example, the one that I often return to is, and a lot of people have said this to me from sort of my mum to my earliest teachers, my dad, I mean, everybody, stop worrying about what other people think. And I partially take that in, I partially absorb it, and then it just kind of gets lost. And I go back to kind of thinking, oh, gosh, but how's that going to look? So that's the one thing I wish I could get rid of. But when it comes to time, I think I have actually really improved in carving out some time for me,

particularly with COVID, which is, you know, I've just recovered from. And I knew that I could try and weather it and just sit at my desk for days on end and try and keep writing. Or I could just succumb and watch endless episodes of Borgen, which is my absolute new favourite, which is the Danish parliament drama. It's absolutely brilliant. And I did the latter. And do you know what? It was just so necessary and so lovely and so I think I am finding niches of time I didn't have before unlike you because you seem to fill every space in your diary but I remember you saying to me that if you're not working actually you feel quite depressed well maybe because I haven't this is probably my fault I have not

created other things in my life but I do have enthusiasms and passions. So much of what I'm doing wouldn't seem like work to other people. And I'm very lucky that I have a great deal of variety. And so I'm doing different. I mean, I was a friend of the famous theatre director, Sir Peter Hall, the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, later the second director of the National Theatre here in the UK. And he was a workaholic. And he said, well, what's wrong with being a workaholic if you've got interesting work? Of course, ghastly if you're doing, you know, laborious work that doesn't interest you or stimulate you.

But if you've got exciting work and varied work to do, how lucky you are. Count your blessings. You mentioned that you've had COVID. Are you feeling better? I am, just still, as our listeners will discover, still very much mired in brain fog, if you can be mired in fog, which is a classic example of how my brain's not working. I don't. Yeah, just very foggy. Your fog, your brain in a fog is like most other people's

brain on a crystal clear day. I think not. I think you might be disappointed. Wonderful blue skies. So we are going to talk today about time, filling the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run to quote Kipling. So time itself, what is the origin of the word time? Yeah, time itself. Well, it is very much related to the word tide. So, oh, there's someone at my door, which is brilliantly done. I haven't seen Lloyd for ages, our postman. Excuse me for one second. Yes, excuse me. Just time-wasting here. Susie leaves the room to answer the door.

I don't know the first name of my postperson. And when he does ring on the door, I'm always so disconcerted because he's usually wearing shorts, which most people seem to do nowadays. When was a child they never wore shorts does lloyd wear shorts sometimes uh he does actually that wasn't lloyd that was another parcel deliverer yeah uh but uh yes he does he's great he's the best postman in the world. Okay. We're talking about time. Time. Yes. It's actually very closely related to tide. And these seem to come from very ancient roots and we're not completely sure of them. Some people believe that it's linked to a Sanskrit word meanings to divide, because obviously when you mark out time, you were dividing day and night into chunks, if you like. Other people see it

as going back to an ancient root, meaning for a long time or always indeed. But what we do know is that it is a sibling of tide. And of course, you've got the proverb, time and tide wait for no man. And that sounds rather poetic, but it's not from Shakespeare or Milton or anybody else. It's older than that, the phrase, is it? It is older than that. And actually, I was surprised by this because I did assume that it was, you know, from Shakespeare's time. So what it means is that no one has the power to stop the march of time, you know, no matter how great or how powerful. And it seems to go back to a proverb dating from at least 1225, the 13th century.

And tide here shows its link to time because it didn't refer to the rising and falling of the sea, but indeed to a period of time. So it could be season or a time or a while. So it's almost tautological time and tide, wait for no man. Are you a good time manager, you personally, Susie? I used to be. I used to be too early to things, which was deeply annoying for me because I ended up waiting around for ages.

But I have become what is known in Swedish as a tid optimist, a time optimist, meaning I always think I'm going to get there on time, but I'm usually just a tiny bit late. But generally, for work, for filming, et cetera, in in studio I am pretty much on time how about you you're always on time actually I think aren't you well I try to be always on time yes I am very busy all the time and I sometimes wish I wasn't quite so busy it's why it the best moments in my life are when I disappear and sit in the back of a Starbucks or a cafe Nero with no obligation you know just there for half an hour it It's a sort of gained thing. And there is, of course, there's the famous Parkinson's law.

Do you know the origin of Parkinson's law? No. You remember what Parkinson's law is? Parkinson's law is, it's an adage, really, that says, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Yes, that is true. And this was first promulgated in the mid-1950s by C. Northcott Parkinson. He wrote an article, I think, for The Economist and then sort of turned it into a book.

And it led to all sorts of other interesting and amusing laws. But this one has, I think, some validity to it. You know, if you've got that long to fulfill a task, it takes that long. Yeah. That's the reason I always wait for it. Well, I've got that long to fulfill a task it takes that long yeah that's the reason i always wait for it when i've got an article to write i write a column every month for a magazine called the oldie i only write it the day before i've got to deliver it because otherwise i would just be you know it would go on and on and on whereas if i know i've only got that morning to

do that article i do it in that time so here are with time. We've found the origin of time. Have we discussed before the units of time? We may have done hours and minutes and seconds. I think we probably have. Remind me where they come from. I mean, the history of timekeeping is absolutely fascinating. And obviously, it's ancient and originally was done by the stars, the sun, and nighttime. And people divided things up in very, very different ways using different mechanisms, whether, as I say, it was from observing the stars or observing the sun, etc., or actually using sundials or water timekeepers. I mean, we can talk about those in a minute. But when it comes to the seconds and the minutes, so the second, as in one sixtieth of a minute, that comes from

secunda pas minuta, the second diminished part, because originally the hour was divided into 60 parts once, which created prima pas minuta, the first diminished part or the prime minute, and then divided again for the secunda pas minuta or the second minute. And those were eventually shortened to minute and second. I wonder why it's 60 as opposed to, you know, divided into a hundredths. Hundredths would make more sense, wouldn't it? I don't know. Well, it is quite complicated the way that people broke time periods up, if you like. So the Egyptians broke the period from sunrise to sunset into 12 equal parts. So that gives us the forerunner of today's hours, if you like. So the Egyptians broke the period from sunrise to sunset into 12 equal parts. So

that gives us the forerunner of today's hours, if you like. But their hour wasn't a constant length of time. It was really complicated. It was a kind of variable thing because it varied with the length of the day and it varied with the seasons, etc. And then the need for a way of measuring time independently gave rise to people looking for various devices like sunglasses and water clocks and that kind of thing to try and measure time but they weren't very accurate and for most of history you know people were trying to find something that they could regularly access that didn't depend on the sun for example because within religion you know the benedictine, they had really important

regulated prayer time. So they needed something as well. So we've been looking for these for ages, but I think going back to your question as to why there were 60, why we divide the hour into 60 minutes and then the minute into 60 seconds, it's ancient. I think it might go back to the Babylonians who counted in 60s for their study of mathematics and astronomy. But if purple people know more than me, which is totally probable, I would love to hear because I think it does go back to these ancient civilizations, but why they conceived it in 60s, I'm not sure. And what I want purple people to explain to me is why the same amount of time feels much longer or much

shorter depending on what you're doing. As in the famous story of the person who went to a Wagner opera, which began at 7.30. Three hours later, he looked at his watch and it was only 10 to 8. Sometimes, if you're in the company of the most brilliant and beautiful person in the world, I feel time has just gone. We've just hardly started talking and it's over. Other times, when I was with my late great uncle Albert, even having as a child, you know, just a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit with him for half an hour seemed to take years.

So it does vary, doesn't it? Well, it does vary. I tell you when I most notice time just sort of ticking down in the most kind of relentless way is when I put the bins out every week because I can't believe it's bin day again. Do you know what I mean? It just feels like I'm on a sort of hamster wheel or a kind of film that's been speeded up of me kind of pushing the bin

in and out, in and out, in and out. And that just kind of underlines for me that it is just kind of inexorable, really. Well, wait till you get to my age, Susie Dent. I mean, it's terrifying. It's almost next Christmas. And when we get to next Christmas, it'll be almost immediately the Christmas after. I mean, it is, as the years go by, it goes faster and faster and faster. Quite alarming.

So we better seize seize we better seize the moment uh our our is the word that gives us horology isn't it it is yes and horology is the technical is that the study of time or the study of clocks it's the science of measuring time yeah so it kind of encompasses both really and clock is a nice one because clock is actually linked to a cloche oh a cloche which which is a bell, but it's also a hat, isn't it? And it's related to clock as well, because all of these are bell-shaped and they go back to the Latin clocker, C-L-O-C-C-A, meaning a bell. It reminds me of the beginning of one of my favourite poems. I am having a rapprochement with galoshes. And some would say

this heralds middle age. Yes, sneering, they would say, does he also wear pince-nez? Old Josses wore galoshes when women's hats were cloches. And I think it's the sort of 1930s, those hats that looked a little bit like the bells. Yes. So horology is the science of measuring time. Clock is lovely coming from cloche. What about alarm clock? Because actually, if you stop to think is lovely, coming from cloche. What about alarm clock? Because actually, if you stop to think about it, alarm is quite frightening.

What is the origin of the alarm clock? And it was quite frightening. And I think we have talked about this before, actually, because it always reminds me of alert as well. So alarm is from the Italian alla armi, meaning to arms. So it would be a rallying cry to soldiers to pick up their weapons and prepare to fight the enemy. So actually, it was pretty serious. And alert goes back to the Italian alla arte, to the watchtower. In other words, go and look and be on the lookout

and beware. Yeah, so the alarm clock that kind of annoys us from our bedside table actually has quite profound origins, really. Well, of course, a lot of people no longer have alarm clocks. I don't have them because it's on my mobile phone. That's why I from the alarm, the grandfather clock, from the door of the grandfather clock to the banisters to jump over as a kind of, you know, anyway. He created a high jump and he tripped. And he pulled the grandfather clock, this wonderful old grandfather clock, to the ground and it shattered. The clock mechanism was fine. We still have that, but the wood shattered. So we used to have a

grandfather clock. Why is a grandfather clock so called? Oh, it always goes back to an American song, an incredibly popular song that sold over a million copies in sheet music at least. And it was written by an American songwriter, 1875, he wrote something. Well, no, first of all, in 18 music, at least. And it was written by an American songwriter. In 1875, he wrote something. Well, no, first of all, in 1875, he actually stayed in a hotel in Yorkshire. Now, he was called Henry Clay Work. And it is said that in the foyer of the same hotel, there was a broken, beautiful, long case clock. And he was totally fascinated by this. And in some accounts of it, there are, you know, quite complicated stories as to how it was, it was broken, but still remained the sort of symbol of

the hotel. And so he wrote a song about it, which opens with the line, my grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf. And it's definitely worth reading about because it's a lovely, lovely story. But yeah, so he related it to a particular grandfather and of course it fits because grandfather clocks are very sort of large and stately aren't they and authoritative really and then there's the grandmother clock which is slightly smaller they are beautiful beautiful things do you have one well we had one the one that shattered on the floor but we have the remains We have the workings of it. We have got the face of it and the thing that goes tick, tick, tick, tick. Yeah.

If you don't have a new one. We've got all that. But we haven't got a new one. We decided not to replace it. And 30 years on, I'm still reprimanding my son most days about it. But he has got, I mean, every gizmo you can imagine. He no longer has an alarm clock. He does everything via what seems, what looks to me like a wristwatch, but it also is, it's a computer.

He pays his bills on it. It's got his, you know, everything on his watch. Now, what is the word watch? Where does that come from? How long have watches been around? And is the watch, is it to do with the verb to watch? Are we watching the time on our watch? Yes, it is. It is all to do with that. Just, just before we, we go onto that, I have a similar watch, but I don't use it very often because whenever my phone rings and I know I can answer it on my watch that I have on my wrist, I feel like a spy. It just feels absolutely ridiculous talking to your arm. So there is something very full of subterfuge about it, really. You now see people in the streets, wandering down the street, just talking into thin air

and gesticulating. They're obviously talking to somebody on either one of these watches or you get used to it. I mean, when I was a child, people like that were either arrested or people in white coats came and took them in a caring way off to a home of some sort yes now we're all doing it no we are with our little um earpieces but yes go back to watch and so in old english to watch meant to remain awake and so it comes from the same root as wake and awake. And the reason why it was connected with timepieces is because the first watches, this was in the 15th century, were alarm clocks of some kind. So their function was to wake you up. Now, I don't quite know what those actual alarms were,

but it basically was still connected with that idea of being or remaining awake, which is why we have a watch for the dead, for example, as well. Very good. And indeed, in Shakespeare, there are characters who are the watchmen, you know, who go out and keep the watch overnight, telling you what time it is. And then we get, I suppose, the pocket watch, which was one of these little watches that you kept in your pocket,

leading on to the wristwatch. And then we have the fob watch as well. Oh, what's a fob watch? A fob watch is the one where you've got a chain attached to it for carrying in a waistcoat. I imagine you might have a fob watch. I like the idea of a fob watch. And in Harry Potter, of course, they have witch watches. But a fob watch, I like the history of this because it might be linked to fobbing someone off because if you fob someone off you cheat or deceive them don't you that goes back to medieval days uh so we're not completely sure but the fob that is the small pocket in the waistband of a pair of breeches which you put your watch in hence a fob watch there may be a link to the idea of

deceiving because the pocket was secret. So you were guarding it against deceivers, in other words, pickpockets. So you put your watch or whatever valuable you have in this little fob, this little pocket, and as I say, guard against being swindled. So there probably is a link between the fob watch and fobbing someone off. I'm just looking at my clock and I think we're in the nick of time for our little break. And when we come back, I want to know why it's the nick of time. Oh, 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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Wednesday as we set off on a stunning journey of curiosity on a new subject and dive into the archive of more than 370 episodes. Listen to Getting Curious wherever you get your podcasts. This is Something Rhymes with Purple, and I'm Giles Brandreth about to ask Susie Dent, because we're talking all about time, the phrase in the nick of time, meaning just in time. Why is it the nick of time? Well, they have to go back to the old tally sticks. So to keep tally of something, it looks back to the tallies or the notches that were scored into a piece of wood. So you would put in a notch every time you owed some money, for example. So

say you were drinking a tabern, instead of opening a sort of, you know, putting something on tick or on credit or whatever, you would score a notch or the publican would score a notch in a tally stick. And that would accurately display how much money was owed. So from this sense of notch, cut or groove, nick then went to kind of mean anything that was very very precise so in the nick of time was a metaphor for a little notch or a groove that indicated when something absolutely had to be done the precise or critical time or moment and in the mid-16th century it was simply in the nick or in the very nick and now we elaborate a little bit and call it in the nick of time but those tally sticks gave us keeping tally,

they gave us scoring, because of course, if you score a piece of wood, you are cutting it with a knife. So a football score actually looks back to that old method of calculating. Yeah, it's fascinating, actually, I think how keeping check from that point of view has percolated into lots of different English expressions. In a jiffy. Where does that come from? No one knows. I've done a little bit of detective work on this. So the dictionary will tell you late 18th century of unknown origin. But some people will point to the use of jiffy to mean 33 trillionths of a second. In other words, if you do something in a jiffy, you do it very, very quickly indeed. But the jury is still out

on this one. I have to say that detective work goes on. Well, also this trillionth of a second, that can't date back to, if the word's been around since the end of the 18th century, that means about the year... 1785 is the first. Forgive me, 1785 is the first use of it. Well, did they have trillionths in those days?

No, so it couldn't be the trillionth of a second. Probably not. I mean, the first record that we have is someone saying in 1785, and it's a travelogue, in six jiffies, I found myself and all my retinue at the Rock of Gibraltar. So it was six jiffies originally, nothing to do with a jiffy bag, which is a proprietary name, isn't it for the sort of padded envelope. They may have taken that word because it has a kind of speedy, we'll get something from A to B in our Jiffy bag. It has a kind of, like one of those words that might come to us from the Indian subcontinent, Jiffy. Do you think it could be one of those words? Quite possibly.

But as I say, the work still goes on because nothing has been found so far. You know, we've been talking about timepieces, etc. The one thing I would love to tell you about is the Klepsydra which is a word i've never heard of it oh it's i've never heard of a klepsydra it sounds like an unfortunate illness i'm afraid i've got a touch of the klepsydra it's the chill you know it does well it's one of the oldest time measuring instruments that we have and the ancient e ancient Egyptians probably invented what is essentially the klepsydra or a water clock. And it essentially keeps time by measuring the rate of water flowing from one container into another. So much like the sand in a traditional hourglass, for example.

And the Greeks who then took it on and improved it, gave it the name klepsydra from their words kleptane, meaning to steal, steal, and hydor, meaning water. Now, if you remember that kleptane meaning to steal and the klepsydra, that also gave us kleptomania, the compulsion to steal. But using the same idea of stealing time, and that's why I love it so much, it's the idea of kind of stealing it in some way. A klepsamia is a really old word for a sand timer or as I say what we would today call an hourglass I love hourglasses I could be transfixed by them I just love watching them and feeling that flow yes I'm sure I've told you before about the person who put their husband's ashes into an hourglass into a big egg timer saying he did not useful during his life,

he can do something useful now. That's not a bad idea, actually. The ancient Egyptians, I seem to recall from school, used obelisks as timepieces, like a kind of vertical sundial. Is that right? Have I got that right? Yeah, I think they did. I don't think I've ever seen, I think we need to go to a time museum, don't we?

Yes, obelisks were used for lots and lots of different things. So an obelisk really is a stone pillar, isn't it, that's used to commemorate an event or honour the gods originally. But in terms of timekeeping, that was definitely the shape. And it had this sort of similar function function if you like that the moving shadows formed a kind of sun dial and that enabled people to kind of divide the day into morning and afternoon so it was all about where the shadows fell and a sun dial the sun part we understand but the dial part why is a sun dial so called yeah well the dial is essentially uh one week obviously the face of a clock or a watch these days, but it's always had

that idea of almost like a mariner's compass. I think that was probably the sort of first meaning of it, but it is linked very much to this idea of timekeeping because it goes back to the Latin dies meaning day. So it was a way of kind of dividing the day into convenient chunks of time. Do you have a favourite time of the day? chunks of time. Do you have a favourite time of the day? Yes, I think it would probably be just as I'm drifting off to sleep. I love that. That's just sort of, you and I have talked about what the Anglo-Saxons called the Uchtkeare, which is the sort of grief of the dawn where you're just kind of lying awake and I'm really worrying. It's actually, it usually comes just before dawn, doesn't it, where you're sort of feeling alone with your worries, I suppose. And by contrast, I think just before you drift

off into sleep is just a lovely period of kind of security somehow. How about you? I have two good times of the day. I do like six o'clock. If I'm having a break between, if that's the end of a working day, I reward myself with my glass of Fortnum & Mason's sparkling tea. Sparkling tea. I like that moment. But actually, I like dawn, daybreak, or even just before if I've got up. I don't like it if I'm lying there worrying. I like it if I'm able to get up and get going.

And I love being at the desk at 6 a.m. Not before, because that's still the night, but 6 a.m. with a cup of tea at the desk, getting ahead of the world. And that hour between 6 and 7, before people start calling you, before the emails start coming in, when you are ahead of the game,

that's, for me, the best time of the day very brand with that i have to say it's impressive no it's happy it's really happy um i have to say and you feel you do feel fresh um they say you know a stitch in time saves nine trying to think there there are probably lots of proverbs to do with time aren't there but that actually has nothing to do with time a stitch in time it's to do with the stitching isn't they? But that actually has nothing to do with time, a stitch in time. It's to do with the stitching, isn't it? I assume it means if you mend something, one stitch at the beginning of something unravelling will save you having to do nine stitches later. Exactly right. So deal with the problem promptly, and then you will avoid the need for greater effort later on. But nine was introduced arbitrarily, we think, just because

it's got that sort of assonance with time. But yeah, it's not particularly linked to the theme of time, but it is very old. 1710 is the first record of a stitch in Time Saves Nine. We have some lovely, lovely correspondents that have come in. I don't think it's particularly related to time, but I really enjoyed looking through these. So, shall we have a quick look and see what's in the bag? Let's see what people are corresponding with us about. And if you've got further thoughts on time or questions about time, it waits for no man nor for any woman either.

So get in touch with us. It's purple at somethingelse.com. Who's been in touch and what have they been in touch about, Susie? We have an email from Pete Van Fleet. What a name. He says he was wondering about goats, sports goats in particular. As a child, Pete said he had a book that was titled something like

Sport, Heroes and Goats, and went on to tell the stories of those who succeeded in the biggest moments, who were the heroes, and those who succumbed to the pressure, who were goats. But now I see the word goat being used to describe those. They've done really well. When did this term change and why? So the positive goat is an acronym, isn't it? Or an initialism, G-O-A-T, which stands for what? Greatest of all time. The greatest of all time is a goat. But in the old days, the hero was the up there person and the goat was the, you know, the giddy goat, the silly goat, the know the giddy goat the silly goat the well that is that i never heard that expression i haven't heard it either i do feel like goats rather like

mules get a bit of a rough ride in english um i like goats but uh yes i have not heard of that kind of comparison or contrast if you like between heroes and goats but i can tell you a bit about the acronym the g-o-a-t so if i was to say to you, Giles, the greatest of all time, is there any particular person that would spring to mind? Yes. I'll tell you why. Muhammad Ali, the boxer, because he said he was. Exactly right. He looked so good. He was extremely handsome. He obviously was right fit and very strong, but he was amusing and boasted about being the greatest of all time in such a charming way

that it stuck in my head so I'm going to say greatest of all time Muhammad Ali. Spot on absolutely spot on because the earliest use that we have of GOAT as an acronym is the name of a company that Muhammad Ali owned so you're absolutely right he frequently referred to himself as the greatest of all time. So the first quote we have is 1965. And from there, it crept into mainstream news when talking about sports people in particular, the GOAT. Well done. Well done him. Now, what about this? We've heard from Ian in Essex. Hi, Susan Giles. I'm an avid movie buff and many times have heard the word rookie used, usually to refer to a young trainee police officer still learning the ropes.

It's a strange word, and I wonder if you know its origins. It sounds like it could be short for something, but I can't work out what. Many thanks for your fantastic podcast. Kind regards, Ian Essex. Oh, it's a nice message. Thank you very much, Ian. Well, what's the answer? Rookie.

Where does it come from, Susie? Rookie. Well, Ian says that he wonders if it's short for something. And our best guess is that it is. So the origin is a little bit uncertain, I would say. But the dictionary suggests that it's a shortening of recruit. So rookie going back to recruit. But there may also be a link, as there so often is, because there's so many little tendrils coming from other words that sort of,

you know, they all kind of merge into this kind of composite picture that's hard to unpick. But we think it might be linked with the rook, the bird, which also gave us a rook as a verb, meaning to swindle someone, perhaps because the rooks are seen as being sort of slightly unscrupulous. So it might have an association with the rooking or swindling someone, perhaps because new recruits were a little bit gullible and sort of easier to cheat. So that's our best guess. But it reminded me of snooker, actually, because one very popular theory about the origin of the name of the sport, snooker, is that it is a use of the term for a newly joined cadet. So we know that Neveson Neville Chamberlain called his fellow officers snookers. And particularly when they

played this game, which was particularly very, very popular amongst officers. And if they were very sort of raw and not particularly good at it at the beginning, the idea is that they were kind of newbie, if you like. And so if you've been snookered, you have been thoroughly outdone by somebody who's a little bit better. So it reminded me of that, the snooker, the new recruit. And I think it does sound plausible that rookie does somehow play on recruit and just became a slang term from there. Good. If you have got questions for Susie or indeed for me, just get in touch with us. We're purple at somethingelse.com. That's the best way to reach us. The best way to improve your vocabulary is to keep a notebook and in it each week record the three interesting, intriguing, unusual words that Susie Dent introduces us to, or in some cases,

reintroduces us to, because some of them I've actually heard of. Not many, it must be said. What trio have you got for us this week? I have one you might have heard of, actually. It's usually Australian slang, and it is a bowerbird. Do you know what a bowerbird is? No, no idea. This is a sort of metaphorical use. It is a collector of knickknacks, also known as a knickknackitarian, which I think has been one of my trios in the past.

But somebody who collects fairly useless objects is a bowerbird. I like my Victorian slang, as you know, Giles. So I like the fact that they called sausages bags of mystery, that they called hands your daddies, that they called umbrellas your bumper shoots, et cetera. Here's another one that is actually linked to umbrellas. A mush faker. A mush faker was Victorian slang for an umbrella repairer I mean

that was a job oh I love that so they were because an umbrella looks a bit like a mushroom they kind of were a mushroom faker if you like so they were sort of designers and repairers of this strange looking object so that's the second one a mush faker. And the third is somewhere, well, I have to say, I've been feeling since COVID quite lazy or lubberly, where, you know, actually all I want to do is be horizontal and close my eyes. And so I think I would like a trip to Lubberland. And Lubberland you will find from the 16th century in the OED. And it's a mythical paradise reserved for those who are lazy. Lubberland.

Lubberland. I love it. Yes, I'm off to Loverland. Off to Loverland. And I should just say, Giles, that each trio that I come up with is also included in the programme description for each episode, so the purple people can find them there. And you have a poem for us, I hope. I have a poem.

And if you like poetry, incidentally, I ought to mention that we do have our special club that people can join. And we've done a little series for the club about individual poets, just some fun things. What do we call the club? The Purple Plus Club, she said as she slurped her tea. The Purple Plus Club, which you can join with a little subscription, and then you can get the show ad-free as well. So if you're interested in that, feel free to join us. We've talked about all sorts, haven't we? We've talked about Wordle, we've talked about cheese, and, as you say, some of your favourite poets. This is a poem called The Year's Midnight,

and it's written by Gillian Clarke. And I was looking at poems that had a connection with time, the passage of time. And Gillian Clarke is a wonderful Welsh poet. Now I think in her mid-eighties. But she's got a way with words that for me is quite hypnotic. The Year's Midnight. The flown, the fallen, the golden ones.

The deciduous dead, all gone to ground, to dust, to sand, born on the shoulders of the wind. Listen, they are whispering now while the world talks and the ice melts and the seas rise. Look at the trees. Every leaf scar is a bud expecting a future. The earth speaks in parables. The burning bush, the rainbow. Promises, promises. Promises. Promises of time.

That's beautiful. And I love poems that are like that, that you don't quite understand, but there's something there that's intriguing. Anyway. And wistful. I like the wistful i like the wistful poems um thank you so much for joining us today thank you for joining us always because

you are well really special to us and that sounds incredibly cheesy um and in fact i think aren't we going to be talking about cheese in our uh in our next episodes when we're talking about photography say cheese and I shall give you what my alternative to say cheese is, which I think is even more effective. And by the way, if you're listening to this live, as it were, on the first day it goes out, it'll be a back catalogue forever.

But if you're listening to it live, it's just coming up to April the 23rd, traditionally Shakespeare's birthday. So give yourself a treat for Shakespeare's birthday and read a Shakespeare's Summit. Oh, lovely idea. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells,

with additional production from Chris Skinner, from Jay Beale, from Teddy, who is doing our tech today. And have I left someone out? Oh, we've forgotten all about him. What was his name? Bully? Sally? Molly? Oh, we've forgotten all about him. What was his name? Bully? Sally? Molly?

Oh, golly. Yeah, he's off mush faking somewhere.