Something Rhymes with Purple - Tufty

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Whether you’ve had a ruff day and need a Puple style re-leash, or you have dug out a paw-fect podcast listening moment, come hear about a man’s best friend on today’s episode of the podcast.  Today we will be laying low with the basset hound and paddling with the poodle as we hear the fascinating etymology of dog breeds. We will find out why Saint Bernards are so saintly and what we have to thank Mr. Doberman and Mr. Russell for. Gyles’ expertise in English etiquette help answer your correspondence queries and Susie’s Springer Spaniel Tufty is with us in spirit as for all us dog lovers, we know that you never forget your first furry best friend.   A Somethin’ Else production.  We love answering your wordy questions on the show so please do keep sending them into [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 Litotes - an ironic understatement Dactylology - tracing of letters using your hands and fingers Blunder-a-whack - ones whose carelessness has caused a total disaster  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up y'all it's your man Mark Strong Strizzy and your girl Jem the Jem of all Jems and we're hosting Olympic FOMO your essential recap podcast of the 2024 Olympic Games in 20 minutes or less every day we'll be going behind the scenes for all the wins

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with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main We'll see you next time. Annex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Something Rhymes with Purple Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. It's good to be with you.

And from my point of view, it's very good for me to be back with my friend, colleague, and lexicographical companion, Susie Dent. How are you today, Susie? Hello, Logophile. I'm very well thank you Giles, very well indeed. I'm sitting on a on a new stool, it's one of those kind of stools that tilts you forward which is supposed to be much better for your posture but I feel like I'm about to take off at any minute so if I look a bit weird that's what's going on. For people who are new to this podcast and we have many people coming every week who join the Purple family. It's all about words and language. We celebrate the richness of the English language, and we delve

into the origins of words. And Susie has already mentioned one word that has a variety of meanings, and I'm going to test her. She doesn't know I'm going to ask her this. I want to know, Susie, the origin of the word stool as something you sit upon, which is what you're doing at the moment, and why a stool is also what you describe a turd when it emerges from an animal. We're inspecting the poor dog's stools. So tell me about the word stool. Why are you sitting on a stool? Oh, lovely. Well, a stool has always been a seat for one person. And it used to be a throne, in fact. But if you imagine a seat, it's related to the German Stuhl, which means the same thing, a chair or a stool. You can imagine that some seats contain a chamber pot, don't they? And so it became used for a privy or a lavatory. And in fact, the groom of the stool was a really

important person in a royal household because they were, in medieval times, they were responsible for the royal commode. So that is why it then became, I think, attached to whatever plops into the royal commode, if you'll forgive me. And I think that's where we get the idea of that stool from, the bowel movement. Thank you for that. I know it's not a very flavorsome way to start the uh the episode but so the actual word stool then meaning the chair or the thing you sit on that's german in origin it's germanic well at least it's got it's definitely germanic and it's got lots of what we call cognates in linguistic terms so lots of relatives in other languages so the dutch have got still and the germans have got Stuhl. And I think it's

also related to stand, believe it or not, if you go back to its ancient root. But quite often you will find that a word with two very distinct meanings like that, the bowel movement, the poo, and the thing that you sit on, that, you know, they come from completely different ancestors. But this one is one and the same. Well, each week, one of the things that I've been doing recently is I've been reading the papers very carefully. And whenever I come across a story about words and language, I've been cutting it out. And one I cut out the other day has a link to what we're going to talk about today. The headline read, Time-honoured phrases ready for the knacker's yard. And, yeah. And the story reads as follows.

Those who pepper their speech with old and traditional phrases, that's something I do, may find they are casting their pearls before swine as younger people no longer use them, putting them at risk of dying out. According to research, the phrase, nail your colours to the mast, has never been uttered by 71% of the people surveyed. And 68%, they said the phrase, knowing your onions, meant nothing to them, never passed their lips.

And this was a survey of 2,000 adults aged between 18 and 30. Casting pearls before swine, obviously it means you're wasting your time by offering something that's helpful to someone who doesn't appreciate it. That came top with 78% of people saying they had never used the expression. Ready for the knacker's yard, unknown to 62%.

A nod's as good as a wink, no longer relevant for 66%. I mean, do you think it's a shame, Susie, that these old phrases, I suppose they're not archaic phrases, are no longer common currency? Well, I did a lot of interviews on this when this came out because particularly local BBC radio stations here in the UK were really interested in this story. And I would be really interested to know how this particular PR company, or it's actually a research company, how they conducted their tests. Because I think if I was to say to a 15-year-old, oh, I must just go and spend a penny or oh I really dropped a clanger I think in context actually they would still be understood and I didn't meet anybody on any of these radio stations and granted they were probably all about the same age as me maybe a bit younger if you hadn't heard of those before and who wouldn't readily recognize their meanings but

of course usage is king and if people are not using them then they might well drift away pearls before swine almost certainly I think at what's top of the list and i think very few people knew what that meant so yes it is that but you know we're creating our own as well so we're talking about netflix and chilling which as you might know has a bit of a double meaning these days so we're creating that i mean one that people keep saying all the time at the moment and i find it a little bit annoying, although I try not to be, is it is what it is. Have you heard that?

I have. It is what it is. It is what it is. Is Netflix and chilling then a euphemism for rumpy-pumpy? Yes. Oh, I see. Some people wouldn't know what rumpy-pumpy is. No, rumpy-pumpy is a euphemism. You've got a new euphemism treadmill there.

So, yes, it is. And, in fact, I think a lot of people were surprised by that because they were thinking that actually it just meant you know curling up and watching something on your favorite tv channel but but no this list this long list of phrases that apparently are falling out of use included being a dog in a manger and it being a dog's life and we're going to talk about dogs being a dog in a manger do you know the origin of that what what does that mean he's being a dog she's being a dog in a manger attitude i want to just like go back to one of esop's fables i'm going to look this one up actually probably does isn't it i mean the idea is that

you're just being cussed you're being you know you're being the dog who's sitting in the manger oh okay so i thought it meant to have a dog in the manger attitude. I thought it was a bit resentful and it is in a way. So it's defined as a person who has no need of a possession that would be of use to other people, but who prevents others from having it. In other words, I don't want it, but you're not going to have it. And it does go back to a fable of the dog that lay in a manger in order to prevent the ox and the horse from eating the hay, even though the dog, of course, was not going to have it. That's quite interesting. It is intriguing, you see. There's something useful there. And it's a dog's life?

Well, it depends on the dog, doesn't it? Some dogs have a great life, others don't. But I think it means, oh, it's a dog's life. It's tough being a dog. There is lots and lots of phrases in English which look back to how dogs have been treated really, you know, really roughly in the past. And I think we've spoken on the pod before, Giles, about how dogs and other animals were sometimes literally dragged into a courtroom and charged with ridiculous things like stealing a sausage or whatever, and then condemned to hanging. I mean, it was awful and ridiculous. So yes, a dog's life was a really unhappy one, an unhappy lot. Let us delve into the world of dogs. Let's make this a canine podcast. So purple pooch people,

this is your show. Susie, have you ever had a dog? This is your show. Susie, have you ever had a dog? Yes, I grew up with dogs. So I grew up with my first pet was Tufty. Tufty the Spaniel. So springer Spaniel. Absolutely gorgeous. Miss him still. And then my dad had probably about 10 golden retrievers whose names all began with B. And Bumble was the first one. And then Barty was the last one that he had. And I think he would love to get another one, but it's a lot of work, isn't it? But I adore dogs, I have to say. We just have a rescue cat, as you know, from Battersea Cats and Dogs Home. Newcomers to the podcast may not yet know, or won't yet know,

that one of the things that I do, encouraged by Susie, it must be said, is name drop. I'm not a natural name dropper, but she forces me into it. And her mentioning that her dad likes to name all his dogs with names beginning with the letter B reminds me that the late Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, always gave his dogs interesting names, and he had lots of them. And the last time I had a conversation with him about this he told me he was then naming his dogs after conductors so he had a you know down sergeant for malcolm sergeant um oh barbara raleigh isn't that an amusing idea yeah a whole range of dogs named after international conductors wow that's very highbrow. Yes. I used to have a dog.

Well, I inherited a dog when my wife and I got together. It was basically a smooth-haired fox terrier and lovely. And I love dogs, but living in London, it's really difficult. It's really difficult. I always say that we used to have a French poodle called Fido, spelled P-H-Y-D-A-U-X. And we had a mongrel who thought he was called Down Boy. Yes. But in fact, if I was going to get a dog now, I would get a retired greyhound.

Yeah. I would get a retired greyhound. Yeah. I did an event, a fundraising event for the Association of Retired Greyhounds. And because there was a lot of greyhound racing once upon a time in the country, there isn't now. There's a sort of superfluity of greyhounds.

And I got to meet these greyhounds. And I have to tell you, not only are they beautiful animals to look at, but their temperament is completely divine. They really are good companions. And you have to get a coat. A coat is a necessity. I actually really disagree with dressing animals up in all sorts of costumes, particularly at Christmas time.

I just can't look at all the photos on Instagram, et cetera, of dogs in all these really uncomfortable festive outfits. But with greyhounds, they just shiver otherwise don't they um and as you say they're so docile they're beautiful and actually their name is nothing to do with grey believe it or not because most greyhounds well a lot of greyhounds aren't grey it actually goes back to a viking use of that word for bitch weirdly so um i don't know why it was only applied you know the idea of a female dog was applied to them but it doesn't actually have anything to do with the colour grey. Well, we've discussed before how the word dog has an origin that is unknown.

Seems to me almost beyond belief, but that's what you've told me time and again, that we know about the origin of hound, as in greyhound, the hound, the German hund. Can we go into the actual dog breeds now? Sure. That's what I think we want to explore today. How dog, well actually, can we begin by how dog breeds came about before we talk

about their names? Do you know about the origin of breeds? I mean, I assume humans bred particular strains of dog to perform specific tasks, you know, hunting, guarding, herding. So there are different dogs

for those roles. And then they sort of selected physical character traits that would suit the required job. I do know, because having done the homework, the Kennel Club in the UK, which runs Crufts and the Big Dog Show, they recognise, I think it's 218 breeds of dog. Other countries have their own ruling bodies and lists. I think the American Kennel Club recognizes 197 breeds. I went to the Kennel Club once in London years ago, and the toilets there, they were not gender neutral. They were designated one on the front on the door of one of them that said pointers and on the door of the other it said setters.

Anyway, in the UK, the most popular choice is to have a mixed breed. And currently, the cockapoo is the favourite mix. They're beautiful. The most popular pedigree apparently is the Labrador retriever, here and in the US. Anyway, take us through that sort of breeds. We know we have breeds. What are the names of the breeds and just

give us some of them well shall i start with espanol which is what i had when i was young so that literally goes back to an old french word espanol which meant spanish dogs it was a a breed from spain and it's quite interesting if you look through shakespeare for example you'll often see espanol used as an adjective for a kind of submissive person so you know so you talk about spaniel eyes someone who's just kind of looking at you kind of dosingly and will do whatever you want so it's the idea of fawning almost so that one goes back to its country and you mentioned Labrador as well that obviously goes back to a country too oh now the country being

labrador yeah so that's where they come from where is labrador i'm looking this up region of eastern canada good so the labrador comes from eastern canada yes well now you know yes it came from the labrador uh peninsula good so yeah that's where that one comes from. So Spaniels from Spain, Labradors from Canada. Go on. I'll give you a few German ones. So a Dachshund in German is a badger dog because they were, you talk about how dogs were bred to cultivate particular characteristics, if you like. They were bred to chase badgers over 500 years ago. So, yeah, Dachshund, a badgerger dog is that the same thing as a sausage dog uh yes I think they are aren't they

yes because they look a bit sausage I mean that's because the the long the long side of the dog makes it look a bit like a sausage I assume yes and this kind of short legs very cute and then there's the Pudelhund in German which which is the splash hound, because they were water dogs, essentially. So they both play with water, but also were taught to retrieve game if they went into the water. So they're water retrievers, really, Pudelhund. Pudel means splashing about, which is great. And is that related to puddle, do you think? Pudel and puddle? Pudel and puddle, yes. Ultimately, I think they would go back to the same thing. Yes, the lovely idea of kind of splashing about in puddles.

And that's what the poodles were bred to do. Very good. OK, give me some more. Staying with German, which, as you know, I absolutely love. There's a schnauzer. And a schnauzer is a bit like schnozzle. I mean, so many words are kind of echoed in English. So it's all about its snout, its schnauzer. So, yeah, because it's got a very, very long and slightly droopy, you know, that kind of droopy moustache-like mouth. And in fact, it can also refer to moustaches because it looks very much like it is wearing one. I think they look magnificent schnauzers.

Tremendous. They are. Another German one, the Dobermann Pinscher. This is an eponym, Schnauzers. Tremendous. They are. Another German one, the Dobermann Pinscher. Ah. This is an eponym, this one, actually. It comes from a German dog breeder called Louis Dobermann. Apparently, Dobermann would go around visiting homes, collecting taxes, and so wanted a really strong-looking working dog to go with him.

I'm not sure for intimidation purposes or just because it had to travel a lot of miles, but that's the Dobermann part. And then the pincher, jury's out on this one, but some people think it comes from, because it means pinch in German, pinchen, or at least it used to, relating how the ears of the Doberman, they look a bit pinched, they're kind of clipped. While you're with the Germans and the Hunts, what about the Basset Hound? Is that an eponym too? Was there a mispronunciation? Basset. I just, do you know what?

That really made me think of Fred Basset. Do you remember Fred Basset? I do. It was a cartoon, a newspaper cartoon character. Yes. So actually, no, nothing. It's not an eponym, this one. It goes back to the French bas, meaning low, because they are quite low down, aren't they?

Oh, they're near the ground. Yeah, but apparently they're a hunting breed. I didn't realise this, but apparently, not that I agree with hunting at all, but apparently they were bred for hunting. Okay. I came across my first St Bernard in Switzerland. Does the St Bernard come from Switzerland? And this must be an eponym, I imagine, because it's named after St Bernard, I assume, whoever he was. Yes, lots of theories for this one. So I'll give you some of these. So St. Bernard Pass is a stretch or a crossing, really, between Switzerland and Italy.

And apparently it was quite a tough terrain. And so sometimes people would get lost. And so it's said that the dogs had a record of rescuing monks and other travellers when they did go astray on the St Bernard Pass, as you say, named after St Bernard. And another theory is that the monks at a hospice, a St Bernard hospice, kept these dogs as companions and monks would go out and help people after dangerous snowstorms. And as we know, they dig through the snow, don't they? And they find travellers and then lie on top of them to give them warmth, which is incredible. And they carry little barrels under their chins, don't they? Traditionally, I don't know if they still do. Well, in the cartoon versions, they always do, don't they?

Okay, give me some more eponymous dogs. Was there a real Jack Russell after whom the Jack Russell Terrier is named? There was a real Jack Russell. And this comes from John Jack Russell. So Jack was his nickname. He comes from Dartmouth and was born in 1795. Apparently a hunting enthusiast, really wanted to breed a special kind of terrier with shorter legs so it could climb more easily because where he lived near Dartmouth, sometimes you will find some, you know, quite a few hills. And so he wanted this dog to be able to hunt foxes amongst the hills. So, yeah, he was the one who bred that one.

And a terrier, because it's a terrier, isn't it? That goes back to the French, a chien terrier, which means earth dog, because they were very good at burrowing, apparently. We touched on spaniels a moment ago. The King Charles spaniel is named after one of the English King Charleses, I suppose. Charles I, Charles II, do we know which one? I think it's Charles II, and I think it is because, I mean, I'm guessing here, but because he either had one himself, or for me, you only have to look at a King Charles spaniel, and it kind of looks like a cavalier, don't you think?

Yeah. It's kind of got that appearance so yes you have king charles spaniel and then you have a cocker spaniel as well of course and the cocker bit here could refer to the dog's ability to flush birds like wood cocks out into the open so that's one theory it may also have to do with the fact that it had a cocked tail. But yeah, it was trained originally to push animals out of hiding without scaring them off. People who are into royal history do feel free to get in touch with us to tell us about the King Charles Spaniel. I suspect that King Charles kept Spaniels as part of a kind of hunting dog. I mean, royalty have long had a fondness for dogs. Obviously, our present queen is famous for her love of corgis. Do we know the origin of the word corgi? Yeah, so corgi, I always say this, is one of two sort of very well-known words, really, that have come from Wales and are in the English dictionary. And corgi means dwarf dog, the English dictionary and corgi means dwarf dog possibly because it's you know small short-legged or it might have to do with the fact that well actually I can't think of any other any other

is it a Welsh word then yeah corgi is a Welsh word as is penguin goodness penguin is a Welsh word you're joking penguin means I know it's very weird penguin means white head believe it or not penguin and it is it's a long story for this one but it was basically applied erroneously we think to the great orc so sailors and fishermen gave penguin as a name to the great orc around newfoundland because the penguin resembled it closely and then british sailors may have mistaken penguins for great orcs. That's what we think. But yes, it is originally from Welsh. It's very strange. Look, we've got to take a break because I need to text everybody I know saying, listen to this podcast. Susie Dent has just shown me something quite extraordinary.

The word penguin is Welsh. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick?

That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars like Ed O'Neill. I had friends in organized crime. Sofia Vergara. Why do you want to be comfortable? Julie Bowen.

I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons. I was so down bad for the middle of Miranda when I was like eight. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. Today we're talking about dog breeds. And a moment ago, I discovered that the cor corgi as in the queen's favorite animal a favorite dog anyway is a welsh word as is penguin i'm amazed by that the doggy which the queen now has doggies they are a cross aren't they between corgis and dachshunds which i think

gives you the doggy oh yes the queen now has doggies and i think that's what they are okay just sounds like a kind of kid's way of saying doggy doesn't it doggy if they're american uh okay that's a new one for me should i tell you about the shih tzu please i've been waiting all day for to hear more about the shih tzu okay guess guess which country uh shih tzu comes from at least in name which language well i don't know i'm gonna say um japanese almost chinese and it roughly translates as little lion. And that's because, well, there's a lovely story attached to this. So some people believe it's linked to Tibetan legends that suggest that a Buddha, Buddha Manjuri, who was a god of learning, could transform little dogs into full grown lions that would then protect him on his journeys.

Isn't that lovely? But actually, the most plausible explanation is that these dogs were bred to have features that were similar to lions. So little lion is a Shih Tzu. That's very good. That's Chinese in origin. I think of a very British dog as the British Bulldog. The breed is British in origin, but you think of the bulldog spirit. And during the Second World War, Winston Churchill,

the British leader, had a slightly bulldog-ish look to him, and I think rather encouraged people to think of him as a British bulldog. Bulldog, this is because they were used to chase bulls or to keep bulls in their pens. Why is it called a bulldog? Unfortunately so. Yeah, they were trained for bull baiting. Hideous, hideous thing. Outlawed, thank goodness, in the 19th century. 1835, I think it was.

But the breed still kept the name. But yeah, horrible, horrible beginnings. Lovely dogs. Very good. Excellent. Well, I mean, you've just lost a lot of our listeners in Spain. They were saying, ah, yeah, sure, anyway, that's by the way. Do you know what? I really don't mind. I'm sorry, but I hate bullfighting.

Good. Well, absolutely. I can't say I am particularly keen on bullfighting either. I've never been. Pit bull. What about the pit? I've heard of pit bull terrier. That again, is it again from being in a pit? And is that the origin of that? Yeah. So the cockpit originally, if you remember, was the pit in which fighting cocks would be set upon each other. Again, very cruel. And so any enclosed space eventually became known as a cockpit, including that on an aircraft.

In this case, the pit comes from another really cruel game called ratting. So after ball-baiting was banned, rats were placed into a pit with dogs, and the dog that killed the most rats would win. And pit bulls are now illegal in the UK, aren't they? I think they're one of four illegal breeds that we have over here. I didn't know that. Well, there we are. I brought up a picture on my screen of a pit bull.

It's not the prettiest looking animal i must say i love i just i look at all these pictures like just they all just deserve a hug yeah um they're just all gorgeous to me but um yeah i know what you mean some are more attractive than yes i know one shouldn't be lookist when it comes to animals but we are it's terrible but we are any more breeds yeah what about a pug so that's another one that, again, wouldn't be top of the beauty list. But actually, it's got a really lovely history to it because pug, along with cabbage, bag pudding, pig's knee, as in pig's eye rather, it was used as a term of endearment. So you'll find pug in lots of sort of love poems, for example, if you look back centuries. And it actually was also used

for a sprite, maybe a nod to Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream from Shakespeare. But ultimately, it's thought that the name of the pug goes back to the Latin word for fist, a pugnus, or pugnus, I should say, which of course gave us pugnacious because it's got that kind of slightly flat scrunched face as though it's been punched. Goodness. Oh, punched in faces. that's why it's called a pug i know wow possibly i can tell you about pointers and great danes to finish off if you like i'm sure we've missed some out and apologies to any purple people we can come back to this okay so pointers are dogs named for their tendency to kind of you know point towards something in other words

to show where game is for example in hunting and they became popular in the 1600s just because of that they assisted their owners in finding game where it might be undercover or difficult to see so it pointed the way and Great Danes actually there is a Danish connection in there but it's likely that they came from Germany and they've had lots of different names over their history there. So German Mastiff, German Boarhound, for example. But the Great Dane is said to have come about when a Frenchman who was a naturalist saw similar dogs in Denmark and believed them to be a Danish version of the Greyhound, believe it or not. I mean, a much, much bigger one, obviously. But yeah, ultimately from Germany.

Good. I've got one more to ask you about. I can remember hearing this joke told to me many years ago. And I can't remember the joke. All I can remember is the punchline. Yes, I've shaved my little chihuahua. And it's a story about somebody riding a bicycle and it being a bit uncomfortable. But anyway, that's by the by. Chihuahua.

What is the origin of that? Okay, first of all, I want you to spell it for me. C-H-I-H-U-A-H-U-A. Very good. Excellent. Well, this is another toponym because it's named after Chihuahua, the place in Mexico. It's the principal city of north central Mexico, as well as the state of northern Mexico. So that's where it comes from.

So it's because the Chihuahua comes from Chihuahua. Yeah, Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Excellent. Well, look, if anybody's got any queries about a dog breed that they're particularly fond of and would like to know the origins, Susie, if she doesn't have it in her head already, we'll be able to research it for you.

Do get in touch with us. It's purple at somethingelse.com, something spelt without a G. Have we heard from anybody interesting this week? We always hear from interesting people, so thank you, as always, to all the purple people who write in. So this is a funny one that came from Jason Barry Smith. Hi, Susie and Giles.

When it comes to things that rhyme with purple, something's been buzzing around in the back of my mind. Back in the 1990s here in Australia, I seem to remember the use of the word nurple to indicate the purplish colour of the human nipple. When I looked for confirmation of this rather dim memory recently, I saw that this may have come from the purple nurple, a school prank, the act of taking a person's nipple between the thumb and forefinger and then twisting it around roughly. Maybe it's not the most glamorous of rhymes, but I thought it might be of interest. All best wishes, Jason Barry Smith, Brisbane,

Australia. Well, it's extraordinary what's going around in people's minds, isn't it? My goodness, the act of taking a person's nipple between the thumb and forefinger and then twisting it around roughly. If this is not why you're listening to Something Rhymes with Purple, we should have issued a trigger warning at the beginning of the episode. I do apologise, but isn't it fascinating? NURPL, tell us more, please, Susie. Well, first of all, can we just very quickly talk about rhymes for purple? Because we often say, don't we, what does rhyme with purple? But we do get lots and lots of letters from people saying why don't you ever mention myrtle for example as one or hurtle and or turtle those are imperfect rhymes we're looking for perfect ones aren't we in which purple so turtle rhymes with myrtle

but it doesn't rhyme with purple it has the sound, but a perfect rhyme is if the final stressed vowel and all following sounds are absolutely identical, which is why we don't allow Myrtle and Turtle. Sorry about that. But yeah, purple, nurple. So first of all, I went to the Australian Macquarie dictionary thinking I would find it there, but actually I found it closer to home in a new edition of Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. So this is by Terry Victor and Tom Diel. And there it does indeed refer to a really nasty, violent, gripping twist

of a nipple. Sorry about this. And so he's absolutely right. And I don't know how playful that can be because it sounds excruciating to me. But that is exactly how it is included in there. And obviously then settled in Australia to mean that. Whether or not it does then refer to the colour of the nipple afterwards, which I assume it does, I'm not sure. But we can add that to the list if we like, to Herpal and Kerpal. And yeah, we can have that. Herpal, the list is growing. And if you want to add to it still further, do get in touch with us.

Purple at somethingelse.com. Now, who's next been in touch with us? Laura Hughes has been in touch. Dear Susie and Giles, my year nine pupils, Sean, Ollie and Jack, have a question for you that I was unable to answer. It is about the origins of the rules for formal letter sign-offs. I'll leave it to the boys to ask you. Dear Susie and Giles, can you explain something confusing to us?

Why do you sign off formal letters with your sincerely if you know the person? And yours faithfully if you don't know their name. From Jack, Sean, Ollie at Woodhouse Grove School. Yes, well, I think the rules on this are fairly clear, if now a bit outdated, really. But you would use yours faithfully, wouldn't you, Giles, if you say dear sir or madam. Correct. Whereas if you're saying dear Mr. Brandreth, you would sign off as yours sincerely. But Giles, I need your help here because try as I might, and I don't have lots of books of etiquette on my shelf, I can't find out why and when this originated. It's to do with the difference between a business communication and a personal communication. With a business communication,

you are showing faith. My word is my bond. It's a matter of trust. So you're showing faith to someone. So you don't know who they are, but you're writing, as it were, in good faith. faith to someone. So you don't know who they are, but you're writing, as it were, in good faith. Dear sir, I'm writing to you in good faith. When you know the individual, you have a personal relationship with them and you can look them in the eye and you're being sincere with them. So it's to do with the degree of intimacy. Right. Okay. And nowadays it's becoming less and less frequently, or they are becoming less and less frequently used, I think, aren't they? Because with sign-offs now, it's just... People send me letters I've never met before

and they're putting XX at the end, sending me double kisses. I mean, don't know who they are. And people regularly write darling childs or dearest childs, have no idea who they are. Yeah. Extraordinary. And you don't like that.

I'm guessing from your tone. To be honest, no, I don't. Frankly, it's jolly nice to be greeted by anybody. And I think in emails, I like a simple hi and a best at the end. Keep it short, keep it sweet. Kind regards, I really don't like. That's one that I just, kind regards, I don't know, just doesn't do it for me. But anyway, as you say, it's nice for anyone to get in touch.

So please, purple people, when you do email us, do not worry about how you're signing off. But Laura, I hope that helps with Ollie and Jack and Sean. Can I just say to Sean and Ollie how impressed I am that they are aware of the difference between yours sincerely and yours faithfully. I think this bodes very well for them because my experience is that if you can write a good letter, you're more likely to get on in life. If you're sending in a CV, you write correctly, you know, dear sir, dear madam, and then put yours faithfully, or dear Mr. or whatever the name is, your sincerity. Get those little details right. People will think, hmm, this person is, they know what they're doing. Yes. They've actually done their homework. Yes. So I think there's no harm in being formal

and being correct when writing letters. So I think things look good for Sean and Ollie. And Jack. So thank you, all three of you, for writing in. Or in fact, Miss Hughes as well, their teacher, for giving us that conundrum. I hope that's answered your question. I have a trio for you, Giles. Oh, good. Three interesting words that I may not have come across before, but I want to

know. One of them you definitely will have done. And I'll start with that one. Litotes. You know what litotes are? Yes, I do. I thought I did. Remind me, there's not a kind of punctuation mark, is it? No, it's a stylistic thing. It's where you say something. It's a, go on, tell me. It's an ironic understatement. So you might say, if your car engine has caught fire, you've broken your leg and you've spent eight hours in A&E, you might say, hasn't been the best day. Or if you have just bought the most expensive outfit

that you've ever spent money on, you could say, well, it wasn't the cheapest. That is Laito cheese. So just quite useful, I think. The second one was sign language has been much in the news in the UK recently. We had the most fantastic, brilliant contestant, Rose, on Strictly Come Dancing over here in the UK, which is the dancing competition. I think it's probably gone global. And she has been behind a campaign to teach sign language, not only to kids, but also to adults and to make it an official language,

which I think is brilliant. And talking with your fingers is known as dactyology. So D-A-C-T-Y-O-L-O-G-Y, dactyology. And that is either sign language or the tracing of letters using your hands and fingers. Very good. And then there is just one which I don't know, could apply to myself, could apply to lots of different people. Blunder a whack. Blunder a whack.

And that is one whose carelessness has caused a total disaster. Say it again. What's the word? Blunder hyphen a and then hyphen whack. W-H-A-C-K. Blunder a whack. Yes. Blunder a whack yes blunder away yes great could hardly be more well it's a marvelous and timely and useful word and following up with that

have you got a lovely poem for us this week well of course i've got a poem featuring dogs and it's a poem by a contemporary american poet alicia ostry, and the poem is simply called The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz. As if there could be a world of absolute innocence in which we forget ourselves, the owners throw sticks and half-balled tennis balls towards the surf, and the happy dogs leap after them as if catapulted. Black dogs, tan dogs, tubes of glorious muscle. Pursuing pleasure more than obedience, they race, skid to a halt in the wet sand. Sometimes they'll plunge straight into the foaming breakers like diving birds, letting the green turbulence toss them until they snap and sink, teeth into floating

wood, then bound back to their owners, shining wet with passionate speed for nothing, for absolutely nothing but joy. How nice to end on joy. That's such a rare thing. Yeah, you can actually see those dogs, can't you, there in the water? Fantastic. Lovely. Well, thank you, Giles. Thank you to all of those who are still listening to us after all the episodes that we've recorded, now in the hundreds, and we really appreciate it.

If you did love the show, you can follow us, obviously, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, and we would absolutely love it if you could recommend us to friends and get in touch, as you have been doing, via purple at somethingelse.com. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production

produced by Lawrence Passett and Harriet Welt with additional production from Chris Skinner, Jen Mistry, Jay Beal, and... Wow, is he a blundery or a whack? Jury's out. I don't think he is. No, never. It's gully.