Something Rhymes with Purple - Tuxedo Park

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

We can hear the bells today, Purple People! Here in the UK, we have hit wedding season so Susie and Gyles have decided to provide you with some charming titbits to entertain those table guests you’ll be next to on the big day.  The time for firkytoodling is done so, get out your best tux (or morning suit as Gyles will passionately advocate), find your finest corsage and we hope you remembered to RSVP because the ushers will be showing you to your seat shortly. Susie will walk us - not down the aisle - but through the big day explaining how a bride swigging her ale at the bridal party was always the way, what tractors and the bride’s dress have in common and why personal hygiene issues were to thank for a key component of the bridesmaid attire for the day.  But smelly wedding guests aren’t the only people making their mark on the big day as Gyles reveals his legacy regarding the civil wedding service. We also have the latest instalment in the etymological battle for the word ‘Digs’ with contestant Brandreth coming in with some further evidence. Purple people are promised front row seats as this war of words continues to unfold.  Alongside wedding invites and ‘save the date’ postcards, Susie and Gyles would love receive a correspondence from you. If you would like to get in touch with either Susie and Gyles please get in touch with us at [e-mail]. A Somethin’ Else production  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple Susie’s Trio: Procaffeinating - to put everything off until you’ve had at least one mug of coffee  Conjubilant - rejoicing with others Introuvable - not capable of being found, specifically of books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play LEGO Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. Welcome to another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. This is a podcast presented by Susie Dent, the world's leading lexicographer in my book, and her groupie friend and admirer, Giles Bradford. Susie is based in Oxford. In years gone by, she used to work for the Oxford English Dictionary. She's now well known in the United Kingdom and beyond as the person in Dictionary Corner on the daily word and number

game Countdown. And in the comedy version, which is called, it's got a funny title, the comedy version of Countdown, hasn't it? What is it called? Well, it's called 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. It is slightly strange, but it's because it's a mash-up of an existing comedy show called 8 Out of 10 Cats, and that itself is based on an ad for a cat food brand, which was something like 8 Out of 10 Cats Prefer It. So it's got a sort of long,

slightly torturous history. But for those of us who are on it, we just call it Cats Down. Cats Down. Well, that's Susie Dent. I'm Giles Brandreth. And my claim to fame, if I have one, is that when I was a member of parliament many years ago now in the 1990s, as a private members bill, I introduced something called the 1994 Marriage Act. And this was the legislation that enabled people in England for the first time, if they wanted a civil wedding, to get married in a venue that wasn't a register office. It's thanks to me that if you're listening to this in England, you can now get married in a stately home, a historic house, a wonderful castle, a hotel, somewhere unusual. I made that possible. So today, we're. I made that possible. So today we're going to talk about weddings. But before we do, I've got news to bring you, Susie Dent,

because here we are talking every week about words and language. And a few weeks ago, I mentioned to you that my friend, the distinguished British actor Peter Bowles, My friend, the distinguished British actor Peter Bowles, was emphatic that he knew that the origin of the word digs, as in a digs list where actors go and stay, came from a person called digs. And you… With an E, right? you knew, it probably came from actually diggings where you got dug in and where you stayed, either a military term or... Anyway, not from a person's name. Is that right? Is that the background to it? Yes, there's no mention of a person's name in any of the eschatological dictionaries that I have looked at yet. Now, Peter Bowles, I'm pleased to say, and I, had lunch this past week and he arrived with a copy of Boswell's London Journal, 1762 to 1763.

Peter Bowles is a keen reader and admires the work of James Boswell, who was the famous diarist, author, who recorded the life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the pioneer of the English dictionary, not the creator of the first dictionary, but perhaps the first really famous dictionary, Dr. Johnson's dictionary. Anyway, James Boswell, who was Scottish, kept a journal. And in this journal, on the 19th of November, 1762, he records an encounter with a man called West Diggs. Great name. His full name was West, W-E-S-T. His surname was Diggs, D-I-G-G-E-S. And I've looked into this man, West Diggs. He did exist. He was a leading man in the theatrical company based in Edinburgh. Indeed, I think he'd long been Boswell's ideal of manly bearing and social elegance. He was especially captivating in a range of roles, but noted for

his appearance as McHeath in The Beggar's Opera. Anyway, let me read this from the diary. I got from Diggs a list of the best houses on the road and also a direction to a good inn at London. The point is that this man Diggs had a list and kept a list of places where actors could stay. He travelled around the country and his list, Diggs' list, became quite well known as evidenced from this diary entry of the 19th of November, 1762. So I'm saying and Peter Bowles is saying and indeed James Boswell is saying that the origin of the theatrical Diggs list is West Diggs,

Scottish actor of the 18th century. Can we pass this information on to the Oxford English Dictionary? Of course, I absolutely can. And I'm just looking back up in the OED and looking to see the very first date that Diggs as in lodgings is mentioned. And it is 131 years after that entry. Yes! No, it's 131 years after so i know it's actually not a kind of yes because you would have thought that if it did come from digs list it would be there in record quite a lot earlier than 1893 you just thought that if they knew what they were doing but clearly

these people don't know what they're doing yes yes no so it's quite possible first first reference here 1893 from stage magazine, being in the know regarding the best digs can only be attained by experience. But, you know, who knows? My mind is always open because we're always anti-dating words. We're always finding new evidence of, you know, earlier records of words. So I will definitely, thank you, Peter, I will definitely pass this on to the officers of the OED. It's intriguing stuff, isn't it? It's always, I love it. I just become quite a party pooper over the years the offices of the OED. It's intriguing stuff, isn't it? It's always. I love it. I just have become quite a party pooper over the years because some of the very, very best

stories attached to the etymology of words turn out to be wrong. But this is absolutely fascinating. And as you say, there is written evidence of this, so I will definitely pass it on. And before we get back to weddings, there is something that I would like like to say which is that we had the most wonderful gift arrive with us in the post which fits with the kind of celebratory theme of today but it was to honour our 100th episode which we marked earlier this year and it's from Susan Bramble in County Wicklow in Ireland and she runs a text art business called The Word Bird. Anyway she gave us the most amazing framed collage made up of titles of our show. So you will find Uggsum, Lalochesia, What the Dickens, Scurryfunge, Fobbly Mobbly, Cranbazzled, you know, all from my trio of words. And it is just beautifully done

with a star, a purple star in the middle. We're 100 today. Thank you so, so very much, Susan. It's really something to treasure and that's definitely going to go up in my study firky toodle is still my favorite wonderful firky toodle well that fits for today as well so to firky toodle if you remember victorian slang for a bit of kissing and cuddling and a bit of a preamble a bit of a preamble before the big day weddings now lots of people are going to be celebrating this summer, especially in the UK, where it's been announced that the restrictions on weddings have been lifted.

So that's why we're going to talk about weddings. I imagine around the world, still different rules in different parts of the world. I know we've touched, I think, on honeymoons in the past, stag do's. We covered those in our episode called, what was it called? Svalolalia. And Svalolalia is actually not particularly relevant to weddings because it's flirtation that goes absolutely nowhere. Flirtation that gets you nowhere. I like that. Oh, yes. You haven't been watching a programme called Too Hot to Handle, have you?

I haven't. That's all about... Should I? No, you don't need to watch it. I've only caught it because I've been doing a programme called Too Hot to Handle, have you? I haven't. That's all about... Should I? No, you don't need to watch it. I've only caught it because I've been doing a celebrity goggle box and they show us things that would make... If I had hair, it would be standing on end. And one of them is called It's Too Hot to Handle,

where basically it's a show all about... I say it again? Svalo Lalia. Svalo Lalia. How does it make up that word? I have to say that it is one of those words that's a kind of fanciful coinage based on Greek. So there's no way that you would have found this anywhere in Greek. So it's from svalo meaning to stumble and lalia meaning talking.

So it's actually linked to that lalokesia, which is the use of swearing to let off steam. So it's flirtatious talk that you might enjoy, but it doesn't go anywhere. Well, that's exactly what happens on It's Too Hot to Handle, because basically it's young, hot people lusting after one another and then discovering that they can't touch, that there's a £100,000 prize, but a bit of snogging costs you a few thousand. Oh, God, that sounds bizarre. It's completely ludicrous. But there we go. So let's get back to nuptials. Oh, nuptials.

What's the origin of the word nuptials? Yes. So nuptials goes back to the Latin nubare, meaning to wed or to get married. And that actually also gave us the word nubile. I hate the word nubile. Always used of girls, sort of young and sexy and things. But originally it just meant she was simply old enough to marry. So there was nothing about attractiveness in it. There's something slightly sinister about the word nubile today,

I find. But anyway, those are nuptials from the Latin for to wed. And nuptials means wedding. What's the origin of wedding? I mean, it's interesting, isn't it? I think we talked in our Spallolalia episode about how I mean, it's interesting, isn't it? I think we talked in our Svalo Lalia episode about how weddings often linked to the idea of being yoked to somebody. So you are wedlocked, holy wedlock. Wedding simply comes from the old English weddum, which meant the same thing.

And we think it goes back to a Scots word meaning to pledge. So it's the idea of pledging yourself to someone. The people at a traditional wedding are the bride and the groom. What's the origin of the bride and the groom? Old English again. So in Old English for the Anglo-Saxons, a bride was a b-r-y-d, a bride. And the bride groom, nothing to do with the word groom, actually, because the original form was brideguma.

And a guma was simply a man. And it was a slightly poetic word for a man so that by the dictionary will tell you that by the end of the middle ages people wouldn't have recognized the word guma but it simply meant a bride man so the person accompanying the bride i.e wedding marrying the bride and so instead of the the guma given that they didn't really know that word anymore they substituted as we so often do a word that they did know so they put groom in instead because it sounded a bit like groom and bridal i think we mentioned this before bridal shows that people have always had fun

and partied at weddings because it comes from a bride ale so the ale here was ale drinking it was a wedding feast where lots of strong stuff was drunk. Bride and groom. At gay weddings, now you have bride and bride and groom and groom. I think we need to extend and improve the vocabulary. Yeah, language seems to be moving a bit slowly in that context, doesn't it? I'm with you on that one. When you get married, you cease to be a fiancé, which is a French word, isn't it? Being affianced, being engaged. Yes, that's again, it's the idea of pledging or a fiancé is a promise. And that goes back to the Latin fidere, meaning to trust. And that gave us fidelity as well. And these are just actually two

French words that we've adopted. Fiancé with one E in an acute is the male version and a fiancé with one E in acute and then a second e is the female version simple as that yeah yeah absolutely right and french kind of percolates as we always say through our language in so many different ways you will find rsvp on your invite in your invitation people hate invite by the way and actually while we're on this you know when people say oh invite i bet this is an americanism and we have talked before about how unfairly Americanisms get treated in English, or British English mostly, because they're not actually Americanisms anyway. But I'm going to look up here in the OED when invite as a noun first came about 1659.

So it's been around for a very long time, even though people don't like it. And actually it was from French. It's been around for a very long time, even though people don't like it. And actually, it was from French. It's mentioned in a book by Monsieur L'Estrange, and it's a French text. So there you go. And RSVP is simply, Repondez si vous plaît, isn't it? Reply if you please.

Yeah, Repondez si vous plaît, please reply. There's a lovely quote in the OED from 1834, where people are puzzling over these initials, RSVP. And it says, Now, my lady, do tell me the meaning of this word in the corner. It has puzzled us all at our house exceedingly. RSVP. My mother says it's a French word, but I think it's no word at all. I think it is what they call initials for a regular small whist party. Oh, I love that. That's joyous. And this, of course, is because the language of diplomacy and the language of haute cuisine and entertainment was the French language. So every menu was printed in French, whatever country you were in, and invitations, would they be sent? French, but it definitely gave you a certain je ne sais quoi sort of flair. And, you know, it was the language of the elite, which is why it infiltrated the law so much. And, you know, various kind of aristocratic pursuits such as hawking and, you know, hunting and that sort of thing.

So it was definitely let to be as cool and as posh as the French. Brides and grooms have been around for hundreds of years, I know. When did the best man and the maid of honour, when did they come into the show? Yeah, I don't know much about the... You'd have to get the sort of marriage historian for that, really. But the idea of the best man was around for a long time. But best man is, I think, comes after best maid.

And these were originally Scottish. So best maid made the chief bridesmaid at a wedding. That's 1766. Best man, the actual sort of, you know, linguistic formula, if you like, of the best man came into English in 1782. But I think the words or the idea themselves were around, you know, far longer than that. Good. At a wedding too, you have people showing you to your seat. It used to be brides guests on one side, grooms guests on the other, seem to remember. I can't remember which side was which. And you were shown to your place by an usher.

Yes. And the primary function of an usher originally was to be a doorkeeper because it goes back to the Latin ostium, which was one word for a door. So they would let people through the door and then the duties of a nusher extended to showing people to their seats. Then it was an assistant school master. And then the idea of assisting someone at a wedding, that was originally American and that arose in around the sort of late 1800s. So at the nups, the traditional nups, the bride is dressed in white and she wears a veil. What's the origin of veil? A veil is from, you're putting me on the spot here.

So that is from the French voile, which was always used for a woman's garment, whether it was the headdress of a nun or sometimes it was a curtain. But the idea always is of kind of concealment. So you're veiled until the moment of revelation, when the veil is lifted and the groom faints because he's getting married to the wrong person, doesn't like what he sees, or faints because he's overwhelmed by the brilliance and beauty of the bride before him.

She's got a train to her frock. What's the origin of train? That's interesting. Yeah, train. So this is all about trajere in latin which was to kind of pull or kind of pull along really which is why you get on a passenger train and you have a retinue that is a train and you have the train on your wedding dress it's kind of dragged along behind you if you like trajere also weirdly gave his tractor. I remember one of my daughter's weddings.

They got all the sort of ushers and the best man to be wearing the same coloured ties and pocket handkerchiefs and cummerbunds. What's the origin of the word cummerbund? So a cummerbund is from Urdu and Persian. So it was something that was brought back in the early 17th century. So this isn't from the British Empire, this one. And a kama band is kama meaning a waist or your loins and bandi or bandi meaning a band. And it was a sash apparently formerly worn in India, in the Indian subcontinent by domestic workers and office workers. And it was very much a kind

of symbol of status, of quite low status in those days. And then, of course, it's, you know, in terms of its fashion in the Western world, it's actually become, you know, quite a sort of ceremonial, you know, sort of form of display. So it's kind of moved somewhat in its social aspect.

The bride traditionally carries a little bouquet or nosegay. Bouquet, is that the... Bouquet is the same word for fragrance, isn't it? You say a wine has a wonderful bouquet and it's, what's the origin of that? Actually, interestingly, it comes from the French meaning a little wood. It comes from, well, in fact, in Italian, a boschetto is from, it means, again, little wood. And it's linked to a basket basket which is a small bush or a shrub so the idea i guess is something sort of natural and a bouquet was a bunch of sort of wildflowers originally a nosegay and that's how it came into into the language and interestingly

it came into the language in the diaries of lady montague who we must talk about at some point because she wrote some quite sensational letters telling us about the pursuits of young aristocrats in the 18th century. Oh, I like that sound of Lady Montague. I've not heard of her. Lots of scandal. But yes, and we have the tuxedo. Do you wear a tux quite often? Do you like wearing tuxes? This is an American word. I would tuxedo. I mean, what's the notion of a tuxedo? A tuxedo is an evening outfit.

Why would people be wearing? So you'd just say dinner jacket. I would say dinner jacket. I wouldn't wear a dinner jacket at a wedding, in England anyway. I know it's different in America. If you do it right. I think in Britain, if you get married, it's a formal wedding. Men would wear, if it's going to be very formal, they would wear a mourning suit.

Not as in mourning the dead, but mourning as in daytime mourning. Am I right? Yes. The origin of that is simply it was a smart suit that you wore in the morning. Absolutely. Yes, it was. But in America, they seem to get married, I don't understand this often, in tuxedos, even if it's during the daytime. I suppose it's because it's smart attire. A tuxedo is what I would call a dinner jacket, dinner suit. Yes. And if you look back, actually, it's sort of quite a sort of royal aspect to this as well,

because if you go back to the latter years of the 19th century, the Prince of Wales at the time, Edward VII, was fitted with a rather special garment. And he had a tailor in Savile Row make this sort of bespoke ensemble that was more casual than the tailcoat but more classy than a lounge suit and thanks to him really the dinner jacket became one of the hottest ticket items in tailoring and it was brought back to the US by admirers of the prince who wanted to look suave and sophisticated. And in 1886, the first jacket like this was worn to an autumn ball under the name of Tuxedo because the ball was held at Tuxedo Park in New York. And Tuxedo itself is quite interesting. It's a Native American term from, it's an Algonquian

name, and it's thought to mean meeting place of the wolves. an Algonquian name, and it's thought to mean meeting place of the wolves. But that's gripping. Extraordinary that everyday word tuxedo is actually named after a place, and it was because they were wearing a fashion made popular by the Prince of Wales. Prince of Wales. Later became Edward VII. Yeah. Well, that's a real Anglo-American story, tuxedo. You never know, do you?

Explain to me the difference between a buttonhole and a corsage. Okay, so a buttonhole traditionally is a flower. I don't know which kind you choose, worn in the, literally the buttonhole on the lapel of a man traditionally at the wedding. A corsage originally was the body of a woman's dress. So it was a bodice and it actually goes back to the Latin core, meaning a body. So it began as a bodice and then became a bouquet that was worn on the bodice. And that wasn't around until sort of late 19th century. And it seems to have begun in America. But yeah, so that's the corsage. I think traditionally women would wear the corsage. I mentioned the 1994 Marriage Act, the legislation that I introduced,

though I have to say, when my wife heard me once being described on local radio as the expert on the Marriage Act, she almost fell off her bunk laughing. But marriage, we haven't actually, we've touched on nuptials and wedding, but the word marriage, what's the origin of that? Yes, well, once again, we have French to thank for this. So marriage is from the origin of that yes well once again we have uh french to thank for this so marriage is from the normans mariage and that goes back to maria meaning to marry and i think it's to originally it was to kind of bring a dowry to something so i think a dowry as in something financial that you would bring to a wedding, was involved there as well. But ultimately in Latin, maritus was the husband, marita meant married. So it's got classical

origins. And dowry, since you brought that in? Dowry is from the Latin, dowry meaning to give. So dowry meaning the money or property normally that a wife brings a husband. But yeah, it goes back to the Latin for giving, essentially. You know, giving to somebody else. There was no dowries when I got married, but that's neither here nor there. So is there anything else we ought to touch on on marriage? Oh, yes. One more thing and then we'll have a break.

We haven't discussed something that's now disappeared, but used to exist when I was a boy. People often talked about a shotgun wedding. You familiar with that expression yeah well I've always assumed I've never really investigated this but I've always assumed it was the idea that because the woman was pregnant that her father or or the father of the of the father was holding a shotgun to their head saying you've got to get married that's how I've always interpreted it but genuinely I'm not sure of the origins of you know the exact origins I'm going to look this up as I always do 1927 originally a US yeah wedding made in haste by reason of the bride's pregnancy um 1927 doesn't really tell us more than that well i mean i think it says it all it's fairly obvious isn't it um we're going to take a break now so that i can put the cat out of the room

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Susie, when we were talking about bouquets and corsages, I mentioned the word nosegay. I don't associate it particularly with weddings, more with those little bunches of flowers that judges traditionally used to hold, I think, because it was to keep the sort of stench of the plague away from them. That's what I'd heard about it. But what is the origin of a nosegay? Well, gay in this sense is, as a noun, is used for, it was used in many, many different ways, but also for anything that looks bright or showy. So it was an ornament, especially one that was used to amuse a child. So the idea is simply was that a nosegay was something that actually gave pleasure. And in this case, it gave pleasure to the nose. So it was a bunch of flowers or herbs that had a sweet smell.

flowers or herbs that had a sweet smell. And first mentioned in the 1500s, as you say, I think in days when maybe personal hygiene wasn't quite so feasible, quite necessary, I would say, to carry a nosegay. And of course, the Queen carries a nosegay everywhere as well. Not sure for the same reasons. Tell me about, we must have discussed this before, but remind me of when gay came to mean homosexual. Because gay as a word, meaning cheerful, merry, bright. Bright, lively looking. All of that goes back, as you say, hundreds and hundreds of years. I think gay for as a word for homosexual is actually older than we might think and has been in use since Victorian times. is actually older than we might think and has been in use since Victorian times.

Yeah, so as you say, it's had quite a sort of journey, this one, this adjective, because it meant carefree, the gay science was the art of poetry, and it had a sort of brief spell, like so many adjectives, I have to say, meaning wanton or lascivious. And then in around the 1600s, it began to mean dedicated to pleasure. So, dissolute, promiscuous, hedonistic of a woman. It was living by prostitution. So, you've got all of that kind of, you know, slightly sneering background to it. And then around the 1920s, you start finding it meaning, you know, gay and homosexual in the way that we would interpret it today. But, you know, who knows? It's quite difficult to sort of look back anachronistically, really. But,

you know, quite often you will find this sort of, you know, slightly nasty history behind these words. Good. Excellent. Very interesting. Actually, if we haven't done one, we must one day do a gay slanguage episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Yeah. If you have subjects you'd like us to talk about, do please drop us a line. You can communicate very easily. We are purple at somethingelse.com and something is spelt with outer G and purple people do communicate week in, week out.

And thanks to Susie Liu, spelt L-W, for clearing something up for us. She writes, Dear Susie and Giles, love the show. Thank you. Just thought I'd let you know where Gully was last week. Oh, and attached is a picture of a Croydon lamppost announcing no parking, Gully cleaning in progress. And that's very funny. Excellent. Very good. It says between nine and

three, which is pretty much his working day. Yeah, absolutely. Gully, that's G-U-L-L-Y. That means a kind of ditch, doesn't it? A gully. Yes, it does. Absolutely. Related to Gulch and that kind of thing. Not related to our lovely Gulliver. Very good. Gulch, as in the Wild West. So and so, a Gulch. Gulch. Okay. Yeah. What correspondence have we had this week? Well, we have more wonderful shop name puns. No episode of Something Wrong with Purple would be complete without our brilliant shop name puns. We are running a competition.

Do you remember? It's nearly time to pick our favourites. This week's contenders includes Ian Wart from Guelph in Ontario. I've probably completely mangled all of that in. I apologise. But his favourite tennis shop in nearby Oakville is called The Merchant of Tennis, which is brilliant. Genius. The Merchant of Tennis. I love it. Justin Mendel from North London has a local florist called Floral and Hardy.

Very good. And finally, this is brilliant. Now is the season of our discount tents. Oh. That's excellent, isn't it? I think I've seen a picture of that. That's brilliant. That is a pun based on the line from King Richard III, the play by Shakespeare, isn't it?

Now is the winter of our discontent. It's the season of our discontent. It's absolutely brilliant. Oh, it's marvellous. That is a pun based on the line from King Richard III, the play by Shakespeare, isn't it? Now is the winter of our discontent. The winter of our discontent. It's absolutely brilliant. And I think we'll reveal our favourite shop name in next week's episode. So stay tuned. So we're going to start debating this. We have a question now from Andrew Beck, who he says,

due to the pandemic, lots of plans for weddings and parties have been put paid to. Why do we put paid to plans but nothing else? What does put paid to mean? you andrew for that well the sort of best theory is that it comes from the practice of bookkeepers putting paid on bills when the paperwork for a sale was done not particularly old so early 20th century so that's our best guess is that it actually is a financial term and if you put paid at the bottom of a bill you are settling it. So I think the idea is that you then are putting paid to something, you are settling it, but, you know, obviously in a sort of slightly negative way, because it's always putting paid to usually

positive plans. So thank you, Andrew, for that one. Thanks. Matthew Bell has been in touch and writes, my better half is from the great county Tyrone, specifically the town of Omar. My question is, what is the origin of the word marleypot, M-A-R-L-E-Y-P-O-T, used in context, you've a head like a marleypot, meaning befuddled, confused or foggy. Conversation around the table seems to indicate this is uber-local, even specific to the town or village. It was used by the grandmothers, generally farmer's wives, if that's a help, and has been kept alive by the second generation town. We'd hate for it to go out of use. It rolls

off the tongue so well, especially in the accent. I won't attempt an Omar accent, but the word is Marleypot. Yes, well, I've done a bit of digging with this one, I had to, and I'm hoping I've got this right, but marley seems to be a variant or an alteration of marble, so a kind of slang shortening of the word marble. Marble, as in the small balls of the children's games, you know, the sort of glass, beautiful little balls quite often that you play marbles with. And in the game, players shoot their own marbles inside a ring, or they try to knock other people's marbles out of the ring, etc. And some people lose some of all their marbles. And the idea behind marbles, as a term for someone's mental faculties and losing your marbles,

comes from that idea. And if you look up Marley in a dictionary, you will find that Marley is actually used for both a marble, but also someone who's foolish or stupid, who has lost all their marbles. And pot is just kind of added on, as you might find, balm pot, which is another term for somebody who's just a bit soft-headed. Balm in this sense is the, you know, if you're balmy, the idea of a balm pot was somebody who was a bit frothy in the head because the balm in brewing is the froth that you might get at the head of a pint of beer. So the idea is you're a bit frothy. And it's the same with a marley pot is that you're just a bit stupid or foolish or soft in the head. But I think it all goes back

to the idea of losing your marbles. Great. Well, thank you, Matt Bell. That's brilliant. Do please keep writing to us and we will endeavour to answer your queries. Susie is so brilliant. And if she doesn't know it and she knows almost everything, she will dig up the answer. Absolutely. And you communicate with us by simply dropping us an email. It's purple at something else dot com. Something without a G. We're also, I think, on Instagram and we're on Twitter. Some people communicate with me directly at Giles B1 on Twitter. And I try to forward it to headquarters, purple at something else.

So we do get around to everything in due course. Now we're going to get around to everything in due course now we're going to get around to your trio of words three unusual interesting but real words sometimes people say demo she just makes them up doesn't she uh you don't make them well it's funny you should say that because actually i was going to start off with a word that's not not officially real i mean there's just you know any word is real We can just create any word and it exists. So when people say, oh, it's not a real word, they mean it's not in the dictionary, which is seen as the final arbiter of, you know, whether a word exists or not. But I'm going to show you,

Giles, I'm not sure if I've shown you this mug before. It's not from our merch. It was given to me by my sister. Can you see that? And it is just a word that I relate to quite often. It's a coffee cup, but this one says procaffeinating. And I think I've mentioned this before because to procaffeinate is to put everything off until you've had at least one cup of coffee. So it's a riff on procrastinate. It's not a real word, but I just look at this mug every day and it tends to be what I do until the coffee percolates into my brain. So that's the first, if people will forgive me that one. The next one is in the Oxford English Dictionary and it's lovely. Conjubilant. Conjubilant. Hopefully if anyone is getting married this summer, this is what they will be. It means rejoicing with others. Conjubilant.

If you remember, confelicity is sharing in the joy and happiness of another person. Conjubilant is rejoicing with them, which I think is lovely. And finally, I don't know if you are like me. I am always looking for a book that I know has the information I need, but my shelves are slightly packed and I can never find it. And it is simply intruvable. An intruvable, I-N-T-R-O-U-V-A-B-L-E, means not capable of being found. And the dictionary says specifically of books.

Intruvable. It's like uneatable and inedible. I mean, uneatable means inedible. Inedible means uneatable. So unfindable is intruable. Intruable. But using... Trouve in French is defined.

So it's from the French, intruvable. That is a brilliant trio. You are a brilliant person. I do think you are. Well, we've been talking about weddings and marriage and nuptials, in which case I thought that I'd end with an alternative poem to share. A friend gave it to me, and it's one of my favourite poems. And it's not about love. It's about friendship. It's called Friendship, and it's by Elizabeth Jennings. Such love I cannot analyse. It does not rest in lips or eyes,

neither in kisses nor caress. Partly I know its gentleness, an understanding in one word or in brief letters. It's preserved by trust and by respect and awe. These are the words I'm feeling for. Two people, yes, two lasting friends. The giving comes, the taking ends. There is no measure for such things. For this, all nature slows and sings. Oh, I love that. Who is that, Pi?

A poem about friendship by Elizabeth Jennings. Brilliant. Well, thank you, as always, for listening to us. We are very, very grateful that you have. And we love it when you get in touch by emailing purple at somethingelse.com. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Lawrence Passett and Harriet Wells with assistance from Steve Ackerman, Ella McLeod, Jay Beale and... That one on the sign, what's it called? Yes, indeed. Only works between nine and three. Cleaning in progress. called yes indeed only works cleaning in progress yes

absolutely cleaning in progress golly