Something Rhymes with Purple - Triskaidekaphobia

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

For those Purple People among us who refrain from walking under ladders, avoid social engagements on the 13th or live in fear of a broken mirror than this is the episode for you, as Susie and Gyles will be discussing superstitions.  From Saluting magpies to knocking on wood, Susie will take us on an exploration encompassing the biblical and mythical in an attempt to find the origins of these compulsions. We get a double helping of poetry today as Gyles celebrates the birthday of Einstein. However, Susie is quick to point out that he has missed celebrating one other annual event pertinent to today’s topic: the national ‘Open an umbrella indoors day’. Always next year.. A Somethin’ Else production.  If you have any superstitions you’d like to share with Susie and Gyles or have any theories for the ones discussed today, then do get in touch at [e-mail]  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple  If you would like to sign up to 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.  If you would like to see Gyles and Susie LIVE and in person on our Something Rhymes With Purple UK Tour then please go to https://www.tiltedco.com/somethingrhymeswithpurple for tickets and more information. Susie's trio:  Gallitrap - A dialect word from Devon, Gloucestershire and Somerset for fairy ring. Summer geese - Steam that rises from the moors when rain is followed by hot sunshine. Haze-fire - The luminous morning mist that the dawn sunshine breaks through. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. This, if you're new to the podcast, is a podcast and it's all about words and language. The fun we can have with language, also what we can learn from language. I learn a lot every week from my companion, my friend, the person I describe, I think with justification, as the world's leading lexicographer, it's Susie Dent. No justification whatsoever, but it's a joy to be with you, particularly at the moment, Giles, because do you remember during lockdown, I always said this was my oasis when we were kind of stuck inside and everything seemed very uncertain. And I think that's even more acute now. So thank you for being there today.

It is a very grim world, isn't it? Yeah. And I was with a psychiatrist this week, talking about Ukraine and the world and explaining to the psychiatrist that I've got living with me at home now, my children or some of them and my grandchildren who are watching all this or catching up on this. They don't watch television in the way we used to when we were young, but they have screens and on screens things pop up. And I was talking about the anxiety that people are feeling and the sort of hopelessness and helplessness. the anxiety that people are feeling and the sort of hopelessness and helplessness when you see the horrors unfolding from the news. What can we do? And she was very interesting. She said, well,

lots of research has been done on this. And she said, essentially, what you need to do when you're feeling anxious is do what you can do. And then she said, turn down the sound. I said, what do you mean by that? She said, well, you know, there's not a lot you can do, but you can actually donate to help refugees. Although lots and lots of different websites and amazing humanitarian charities. Yeah. You can make your contribution and that's the practical thing you can do. Or if you have friends who come from Ukraine or that part of the world, you can do something practical. But once you've done the practical thing, she said, turn down the volume.

Don't keep feeding yourself endlessly the bad news. Turn down the volume and do something else once you've done the practical thing. So in a sense, that's, I imagine, what you and I are doing. Well, I'm not sure I'm that good at it, really. So that's very good advice. I mean, I think right at the beginning, I would honestly find myself at 4am having to check the news to see what else was unfolding. And obviously that's a recipe for disaster. But I think there's also the guilt

of not looking, isn't there? I mean, her view was once a day is good enough to keep yourself abreast of what's going on. The other thing, as she said to me, it's dec.org.uk. They're amazing. You know, that's it. The disastersemer's dec.org.uk. They're amazing. You know, that's it.

The disastersemergencycommittee.org.uk. Do what you can there. Yeah. And obviously there will be lots of similar charities across the world because we have lots of listeners outside the UK. So yes, from that point of view. So how's your week been otherwise? I mean, my back has gone, incidentally.

You mentioned this. I saw you said it on Twitter. So what you need is one of those really hard foam rollers, which are agony, but I think also really helpful. And you're doing your standing up working, aren't you? I'm not. I'm sitting at the moment, but I may stand up later. I'm standing up working. I also am back on the low carb diet because I think it's the 10 pounds I put on as well that doesn't help. I mean, to be honest, I have been distracting myself. I've been to the cinema. You went to see Batman. How was that? The Batman. I went to see The Batman because my daughter-in-law, who's actually living with us at the moment, is in The Batman. She plays, no spoilers, she plays the widow of the mayor of

Gotham. Amazing. Yeah, exactly. So that was quite exciting. So we went to see that at the local cinema and lots of squeals of excitement whenever she appeared on screen. It's, I mean, I don't know. It's dark, isn't it? It's dark. It's dark and it's full of violence.

I mean, there are people who talk about the pornography of violence. And certainly for somebody like me, who doesn't get to TV that's more exciting than Bargain Hunt, I mean, Holmes under the hammer is a bit rough for me because it involves a hammer being beaten. I was watching Escape to the Country the other day, literally because I just needed some escape. Yeah, exactly. Normally I would just go for drama and I tried Peaky Blinders, which everybody of course says is absolutely brilliant. And I think it is totally brilliant, but again, too dark, too dark for me right now. So Escape to the Country was just what I needed. Well, if you want something light, can I recommend The Duke? Okay.

Do you know about this film? I don't. It's got Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent. And it's about the burglary in the early 1960s, the robbery from the National Gallery of the painting of the Duke of Wellington. Oh, okay, brilliant. And a fellow came forward and said he'd done it because it was a part of a campaign to get free television licenses for older people. And he was a do-gooder, and he thought he'd seen that the government paid whatever it was, £160,000, the equivalent of millions in those

days, for this painting. And he felt that was wrong and stole the painting from the National Gallery and it's a most charming witty intelligent touching movie I recommend that and have you seen Belfast I still haven't seen Belfast I've got so many films to watch which is lovely actually to know that I've got those up my sleeve you must watch those so let's try and intrigue people with a world of words now okay what we thought we'd talk about this week, because funnily enough, I was with one of my grandchildren. I was walking down the street the other day, and there was a ladder. And I said, are we going to walk under the ladder? And they didn't understand what I meant. I said, but it's supposed to be bad luck to walk underneath the ladder.

They'd never heard of that. Do you avoid walking under a ladder if you see one in the street? No, I think I did used to. I went through a phase of being quite superstitious and knowing that I was probably being very irrational, but it's just that fear that if you skip it once and something awful would happen. So magpies were my absolutely big thing. I would never not salute a single magpie. But if it means otherwise stepping into the road, yes, I will walk under a ladder. Fine. I mean, just to explain the ladder one, basically, I think the idea was walking on the ladder, there might have been somebody up it,

holding a pot of paint that might fall on top of you. But I think people also don't walk under signposts. And there's a good reason for that, I suppose, because there was, I remember, I do is kick off with some of the most common superstitions. And I know that Lawrence, our producer, he and Harriet, they did a little bit of a straw poll in the Something Else offices and came up with the top hit list, if you like, of superstitions. So I'm going to ask you whether any of these apply to you. Okay, so you can give me, this is a quick fire question round. You can say yes or no. So do you step on three drains in a row? Never heard of that one. Nor me. What about the magpie thing? Do you salute a single magpie? I don't, but my wife does. She says something like, good morning, Mr. Magpie. How's your wife and how's your family? Exactly.

My best wishes to your lady wife. I have no idea why she does that. No. What about opening an umbrella indoors? This is quite a common one. Now, yes, I don't do that. And I know it's supposed to be bad luck. I have no idea why. Okay. So you won't open an umbrella? I don't open an umbrella indoors, nor even a parasol. Okay. What about this? I wasn't sure about this one, but again, this was on the, towards the top of the list in the Something Else offices. They won't cross someone on the stairs. I do that all the time. No, I never do that. No, I think I know that's supposed to be bad luck.

So you'll go out of your way. Yes, absolutely. I wait at the bottom of the stairs till they come down. Interesting. And this was a new one to me as well. I know about making a wish when blowing out a birthday candle, but what about when blowing away a shed eyelash? Good grief. Well, I have absolutely no idea where some of these come from. That's only who we need for all of these is Iona Opie, who we often talk about in terms of playground language and folklore, et cetera. And I think they also were heavily involved in the study of superstitions but

just should we dig a little deeper into some of these i know nothing about most of these go on okay well first of all i'll tell you where superstition itself comes from it's from the latin super meaning over and stare meaning to stand and so the idea was probably standing over something in amazement and awe. And by the time it arrived in English, this was about the beginning of the 15th century, it referred to an irrational religious belief that was based on fear or quite often based on a religious belief that was considered to be pagan and so profane from that point of view and the more general use today which is the kind of irrational or you know i would say unfounded i suppose but obviously superstitious people feel

feel differently that sense is first recorded in the 1790s but yes superstitio was to stand over so that's where it comes from i'm going to start with knocking on wood so touch wood is something we say quite often. Do you touch wood? Do you say, oh, yes, all's going well, touch wood? Yes. Yes. Yes, all the time.

Lots of different theories to that. And I tap my head usually. Yes. Lots of different theories for that one. One is that trees, I mean, for centuries, quite rightly, have been regarded as sacred, you know, entities of nature. And if you touch a tree, you are being in touch with, you know, centuries and centuries and centuries of experience and beliefs and reverence, I suppose. So if you're touching wood, you are kind of spiritually connecting with something existential that is much bigger than ourselves.

Something a little bit more everyday, I suppose, looks back to a 19th century children's game, certainly in Britain, called Ticky Touch Wood, where touching the nearest piece of wood gave you immunity. It was like your safe place. So you couldn't be tagged if you were touching the nearest piece of wood, which again, probably would be a tree. And in Italy, it's iron, apparently, but lots of different cultures have this idea of touching something in order to prevent bad luck. Well, this is not at all what I thought. I assumed, and I must have heard this when I was a child, that it was to do with the crucifix, and it was a Christian symbol, and that you were touching, as it were, the wood of the cross.

And that was, as it were, giving you a kind of blessing and saving you. That's quite possible. Touch wood. I think with all of these, and again, if you dipped into dictionaries of superstitions, you will find, I'm sure, so many theories. Because, of course, so many of these are part of an oral tradition and stories that are passed on from generation to generation and not written down. So there will be hundreds and hundreds of versions, I think,

and variations and different suggestions. Now, we mentioned the walking under a ladder you know and the pragmatic reasons why you might not want to do that but apparently there is one theory that if you lean a ladder against a wall you're creating a bit of a triangle aren't you with the wall and the floor and that or the ground and that triangle is for some supposed to represent the father and the son and the holy spirit so the trilogy and by. And that triangle is, for some, supposed to represent the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So it's a trilogy. And by walking through that triangle, you're breaking that divine union. Could that connect then with the three drains in a row? Is it a trio thing? Actually, you'll find the trio in, I think, lots of different things and lots and lots of

religious references, as you might expect. So we'll come to, you know, beliefs about Judas, for example, quite soon. What about breaking a mirror? That's because this is quite big in showbiz, isn't it? The superstition about breaking a mirror, and then it will bring you seven years bad luck. Yeah, I didn't, I think it was just generally known. I mean, my view is that we should all break the mirror. It won't bring you seven years bad luck, it'll bring you seven years longer life, because happy people live seven to ten years longer than unhappy people. live seven to 10 years longer than unhappy people.

And people who spend all their time looking in the mirror are in for a bad time. And particularly this week on my birthday, I looked in the mirror. Oh my God, I saw my father looking out at me. Oh dear. Oh, good grief. You know, there's that ageing app.

There's the ageing filter on things like Snapchat. You get your grandchildren to show you this. So one of the Snapchat filters is how you supposedly will look. This was quite a meme on social media, if you caught this for a little while. And I absolutely look like my mum. I mean, it's astonishing. So what is the origin of seven years bad luck coming from breaking a mirror? Because I'm going to go around breaking them all. Well, some people believe it goes back to the ancient Romans and a piece of Roman folklore, I suppose, that every seven years life would renew itself

and any broken parts of your life would then be fixed. So if a mirror was smashed and your image was the final thing it reflected, you'd have to go through seven years of misfortune before good luck was then restored. But there were things, as always, there were kind of antidotes. So much like the magpie thing where you say, you know, good morning, Mr. Magpie, how's your wife, how's your family? There are measures that you can do to prevent this bad luck, apparently. So you can take the shattered pieces and bury them by the light of the moon. That's quite poetic, isn't it? Or one supposed remedy suggests taking a fragment to a graveyard and placing it against a tombstone. Yeah, so that's quite interesting. I mean,

there are lots of other, I suppose, possibilities like the mirror is a window to your soul. And, you know, if you go back to very ancient times, I mean, really ancient times, it was believed that if you glimpsed your reflection, you were actually seeing your soul staring back at you. So if you damaged a mirror, you would be essentially damaging your soul. They're all quite deep, aren't they? One of the ones I didn't ask you about is spilling salt. So if you spill some salt, do you throw it over your left shoulder? I do. I don't know why. It's ridiculous, isn't it? Totally. It is. Well, I mentioned,

you know, the Holy Trilogy earlier and all the religious associations, but throwing salt over your shoulder is supposed to deter the devil. So apparently, and I need to check this out, but Judas is depicted in the Last Supper, one of the very famous paintings of the Last Supper, Judas is depicted as having spilt the salt cellar. this ring any bells to you i need to check this out so in other words salt is evil by association with judas iscariot and then more generally by throwing the salt over your shoulder i don't know what has to be the left one because that's normally considered unlucky you're supposed to blind the devil behind you again Again, very, very dark. And Judas is the 12th disciple, for those who are not, as it were, familiar with the Christian story. And he is the one who betrays

Christ. So at the Last Supper, there are 13 people at the table. And Judas is, as it were, the 13th person at the table. And that's why it's unlucky to have 13 people at table, yes? Yes. And I think possibly why the number 13 perhaps is considered to be unlucky. And of course, I think we've mentioned before that a fear of Friday the 13th, or the number 13, is triskaidekaphobia. Are you triskaidekaphobic? Every time Friday the 13th comes along, it kind of takes me by surprise. And I think I give it a momentary thought and then forget about it.

How about you? kind of takes me by surprise and I think I give it a momentary thought and then forget about it. How about you? I'm quite relaxed about the 13th because I'm a Piscean, born on the 8th of March. My wife was born on the 14th of March, same day as Michael Caine, not many people know that. And my son was born on the 13th of March. So the 13th is always considered a good day in our household. But Friday the 13th, I imagine, again, Friday is because of Good Friday. Again, going back to the Christian story, the day on which Christ was crucified. Okay, that's interesting. That's how you bring the two together, which takes me, I think, definitely to the one I know,

which is keeping your fingers crossed, which I think is creating a cross out of your fingers. Again, a Christian reference. Am I right? Yes, probably. And kids still do this today. If you make a pinky promise, for example, as a child might say, you link your little fingers together. So perhaps the idea is that you are in union and joining up with somebody as a kind of blessing or, you know, way of ensuring safety or good luck, etc. So that kind of symbolism is still there today, even in kids games. And in fact, I think you will find a lot of superstitions

are remembered in kids games. I've never heard of a pinky promise. Tell me, pinky is your little finger or what finger is your pinky? Yeah, your pinky is your little finger. And why is it called a pinky? It's called, I think, because if you think about pinking shears which are shears used in the garden to prune plants and things the idea is of cutting short and because your pinky is from the dutch pink i think meaning short your pinky is the shortest finger of the lot so i think it's related to as i say pinking in the garden rather than the color pink and i think you use pinking shears too for dress

making i do i think so what do i what do i know interesting i mean i've not done either dress making or much gardening or making pinky promises so yeah so if my daughter for example wants to absolutely promise me something and make sure this high you know we used to say i swear on my life i suppose or something like that but now they say pinky promise and you you wrap your little fingers together. And then unless they're crossing their other fingers behind their back, it's all very complicated. In a moment, I'm going to ask you about, I'm going to say to you, penny for your thoughts, Susie, but I can do that after the break. Should we take a quick break? Yes. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you.

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Why is weed not legal yet? I'm Jonathan Van Ness. And every week on Getting Curious, I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. Join me every 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. Penny for your thoughts, Susie Dent. Penny for your thoughts what what is the meaning of that i don't

know i think it's just why a penny i mean we know about spending a penny don't we which actually goes back to the physical sort of slot mechanism coin mechanisms that were needed to go to the loo but it dates back to 1535 and thomas moore who says as it often happens in such wise and not without some note and reproach of such vagrant mind other folks suddenly say to them a penny for your thoughts it goes back a very long way and it's obviously it's an invitation to a person lost in thought to share their whatever is preoccupying them at the time. But why a penny? I suppose it's just, you know, I will pay you something if you tell me what's worrying you sort of thing. And it's unbelievable that it goes back to Thomas More, isn't it? Amazing.

Yeah. See a penny, pick it up. And all day you'll have good luck. I do do that. If I see a coin, I will put it in my pocket. Again, why a penny should be particularly associated with good luck i'm not sure but if the purple people know we would absolutely love to hear all the you know the superstitions attached to coins not just coins i want to know why you're not allowed to open an umbrella indoors seems to me to be ridiculous but purple people all over the world may know about that in which case get in touch with us purple at something else.com and also i want to know about blowing away that shed eyelash i mean where does that come from

is really interesting and there is apparently going back to the umbrella you know there are always ridiculous national days of this and national days of that i don't know if this one is ridiculous at all some sometimes they seem very flimsy indeed, but there is a national open an umbrella indoors day, which is March the 13th. And I suppose intended to be an experiment to see if you do do that, what happens and what the superstitions are really true or not. And there is some suggestion with the umbrella that ancient Egyptians thought it would offend the gods to open an umbrella and if you remember an umbrella has at its heart umbra meaning shade because they were parasols they were essentially to protect you from the shade rather than the sun rather rather than the rain so the

offense to the gods would be if you opened an umbrella when there was already shade but you know how that has persisted for absolutely centuries, I'm not sure, but clearly it still makes people uncomfortable. And it's March the 13th. Apparently. We've just missed it. I missed the opportunity. And that's called International Open an Umbrella Indoors Day.

It's national. So I think this is probably national in the US, but why not? It's an experiment to see what happens, I suppose. Why not? And, of course, the 14th of March, as I mentioned, my wife's birthday, also the birthday of Michael Caine, is the birthday of Albert Einstein. And one of my favourite short poems was written by Tom Stoppard, and it's called The 14th of March, and it celebrates Albert Einstein's birth. And it goes like this, 14th of March. Einstein born, quite unprepared for E to equal MC squared. That's excellent.

Neat, isn't it? Very, very indeed. I like those. Well, look, if people have got queries or in fact, they've got answers about superstitions, please let us know, purple at something else dot com. Have people been in touch with us? They certainly have have but before we get to the wonderful emails that we get sent just to remind people we absolutely love getting your

emails we do read all of them even if we can't obviously respond to every single one but do remember if you would like to you can get all episodes ad free and access our bonus episodes too when you sign up to our premium offering which is on apple subscriptions this doesn't affect the normal podcast so please don't worry if you can't do this because we will continue with our regular podcast this is just extra content if you would like it for a small monthly fee and if you want to hear us chatting about word law about the shipping forecast or a new mini series on the nation's favorite swear words and let's face it a lot of us probably do feel like swearing through stress and anxiety at

the moment then please follow the link in the program description and thank you for your support and thank you no matter what you decide because it is fantastic to have you with us but yes Giles we have got some fantastic correspondence in and the first one comes from Matt Starr. Hi Susie and Giles. I teach English to refugees so I'm fascinated by where our language stems from. I've recently come across your podcast and really enjoy it. I have one question. The word condone. In my head it sounds negative but yet we use it with a negative auxiliary when we mean positive. Why is this and where does it come from? Thank you, Matt Starr. Well, that's intriguing, isn't it? Well done him, first of all, teaching English to refugees.

Agreed. And the word condone, explain to me what he's trying to say to us. I think what Matt means is that you would say, I can't condone that behaviour or we cannot condone. So it's almost sort of used with a negative in front of it. Although Matt is saying actually intrinsically sounds negative itself. So why do we need a negative in front of it? And it's a really interesting one and just shows the kind of, you know, the complexity of the language, I suppose. I think possibly it sounds negative because in our minds, perhaps we're linking it with condemn and similar words. And so we will say, for example, we cannot condone that behaviour, as I say. And I think when we use it without a

negative in front of it, it means to approve something or to sanction something, but it is usually when you're doing that with reluctance. In other words, the school had no choice but to condone this new measure, for example, but it's always kind of slightly reluctant. So I think it is intrinsically quite a negative word. It goes back to the mid 19th century and a Latin word, condonare, which means to refrain from punishing. In other words, that punishment is there and you are stopping yourself from punishing someone, but it kind of implies that the justification for that punishment is still there. So that condonare is from con meaning altogether and donare meaning

to give, which of course gave us donation and et cetera. So yes, to stop yourself from punishing someone, even though perhaps that punishment was justified well thank you very much for that matt star and as i say well done your work with refugees explore the word refugee for a moment obviously it comes it comes from refuge seeking people who are refugees are seeking refuge refuge is that latin and origin is i've got some vague memory that fugari means fleeing i mean to flee exactly yeah exactly right and i think a lot of people particularly those who are perhaps against immigration etc confuse refugee with immigrants or migrant workers etc and there are distinctions between the three and that's not

to say any of these people are you know no less human beings yes, originally a refugee was a Protestant who fled France to seek refuge from religious persecution. So that's how it emerged in the 17th century. And as you say, Fugere is to flee. But now it is very specifically someone who's been forced to leave their country to escape war or persecution or a natural disaster. So it is somebody who is seeking and deserves refuge. And Star is the surname of Matt. And this is what you call nominative determinism? Yes, that's right. Where somebody's name actually touches on what they do. Yeah, we did lots of those. Do you remember? It was quite a fun thing. When times were freer,

we did lots and lots of examples of nominative determinism. And if anybody wants to send in their latest ones, that would be fantastic. I will have a latest one to tell you about when I next see you, because I'm having lunch shortly with Sir Roy Strong. Do you know who I mean by Sir Roy Strong? Yes, I do. He's now in his mid-80s. He's a brilliant man. And when he was very young, he became the youngest director of the National Portrait Gallery, and he went on to be the director of the National Gallery. He's an art historian. But his whole life, I think, is because he's called Roy Strong.

Roy is a version of King, isn't it? Yeah, Roy. And Roy, of course. Roy Strong, well, there you are. So it's great to be called Matt Starr, Roy Strong. These are the names that we want. Susie oh dearie me what's that about never mind yes i know but we've got another interesting name now somebody who is marshalling the language for us it's tom marshall hi there thanks for helping educate us all i've just got a few questions here there are loads of words i believe that we can learn by assumption i've never been given an actual definition so i'd like to know if there's a word for that process i do it a lot a word that i've never been given a reason to understand is fray as in into the fray as opposed

to to fray the rope or wire so as you see i know what context to use it in, but where does the fray come from? Well, that's very intriguing. That's Tom Marshall. Can you marshal an answer for Tom? Yes, I can certainly try. So first of all, Tom asks, is there a name for words that we learn having never actually officially formally learned an actual definition? And I suppose that would be immersion because it's your native tongue and so a lot of the time we are simply absorbing words that are all around us or assimilation either of those two would explain how we absorb the vocabulary around us even if it is not part of our formal education so fray so fray has two distinct words

so the verb meaning to unravel as in a frayed rope, that actually goes back to the Latin fricare. So it looks slightly different, which means to rub, and you'll find that in friction, for example. So I suppose the idea is that something is rubbing or wearing away. And then the second meaning is a person eager to fight, and they might plunge into the fray. And that actually is a shortening of affray, might plunge into the fray and that actually is a shortening of affray which we still use as well and that goes back to the french which means to disturb or startle and it is so funny how words kind of change appearance over time because if you are frazzled with exhaustion that is probably linked to the first meaning of framing, to unravel. In other

words, if you're frazzled, you are literally coming apart. Very good. Well, not literally. I've just used literally metaphorically, which will annoy a lot of the purple people. I do apologise. Brilliant purple people. If you're annoyed, write in to tell. Well, actually, we don't want to hear if you're annoyed. No, it's fine. Do keep in touch. That's the point. You know our email address. It's purple at somethingelse.com and there's no G in something else. Questions, corrections,

ideas for topics for future episodes and the truth about your favourite superstitions or your least favourite, all are welcome. And very welcome every week are the trio of words that you give us. Unusual words, Susie, that perhaps we should be more familiar with.

What have you got this week? Yes, well, because we're talking about superstitions, I thought I'd give you three words. They all come from a book that I have praised to the skies before, and it is absolutely beautiful. It's by Robert McFarlane, if you know him, and he's written something called Landmarks, as well as the Lost Words, which has been a huge success in the UK, certainly in every school was given a copy. So I have to thank his book for these three. And I'm going to start with, now this is something that I had when I was growing up. I was very, very lucky to have a tiny, tiny little area in our garden that my parents just let it do its thing. We call it

rewilding, I suppose, these days. So lots of trees and plants and things, you know, just grew naturally without being tethered at all. And my dad, with his lawnmower, cut this little beautiful fairy ring inside it. And for ages, it was the secret magical path that I really believed was a fairy ring and so Robert in his book has included the word galley trop now I'm not sure where this comes from at all but a galley trop is a fairy ring in the local dialect of Devon and Gloucestershire and Somerset a galley trop fairy rings quite quite magical the next one is summer geese. Summer geese. Now this is steam that rises from the moors when rain is followed by hot sunshine. So that's something sort of otherworldly about it. Summer geese, steam that rises from the moors when rain is followed by sunshine, which is beautiful.

And the third one, again, quite beautiful, I think. Haze fire. and haze fire is the luminous morning mist that the dawn sunshine breaks through the haze fire which again quite beautiful I think wonderful so there's my tree extraordinary how about a poem do you have a poem for us today well I was torn and I was looking through war poetry inevitably and I came across this poem, Everyone Sang by C. Creed Sassoon. It's a poem from the Great War, as it was so called at the time, the war to end all wars back more than 100 years ago. It's a famous poem and a short one. And it's about a moment in war, a moment of, well, this is the moment,

the moment everyone sang. Everyone suddenly burst out singing, and I was filled with such delight, as prisoned birds must find in freedom, winging wildly across the white, orchards and dark green fields, on, on, and out of sight. Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted, and beauty came like the setting sun. My heart was shaken with tears, and horror drifted away. Oh, but everyone was a bird, and the song was wordless. The singing will never be done. The singing will never be done. And it's a poem about hope and heartache at a time of war. Not sure that I completely understand it, but it certainly touches one, doesn't it? Oh, it's just beautiful.

And it reminds me of the pictures and the videos that we've been seeing, certainly on social media, of, you you know even in the midst of carnage really musicians playing in the streets of Kyiv and you know in other cities in Ukraine just bringing the music back just for a little while absolutely astonishing I love that just thank you and I hope that you have loved it too and that you've enjoyed the show please do keep following us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher wherever you get your podcasts and please do keep following us on apple podcasts or spotify amazon music stitcher wherever you get your podcasts and please do recommend us to friends if you have enjoyed it and most importantly get in touch via as giles said purple at something else.com and if you would like to please subscribe to join the purple plus club too it's quite fun in there something rhymes with

purple is a something else production produced by Lawrence Bassett and Harriet Wells, with additional production from Chris Skinner, Jen Mystery, Jay Beal, and, oh, who is he? Is he here? Is he there? It's Gully.