Something Rhymes with Purple - Twazzy

Episode Date: July 16, 2019

The language of Love Island. We’re talking about interjections and filler words. Do they get on your nerves? Or do they serve a purpose? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Discover exciting games and events. Plus, find amazing hidden gems in cities full of adventures, delicious food, and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much, you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches. Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. Hello, I'm Giles Brandreth and I'm with my friend Susie Dent And this week we are sitting in Susie's kitchen And we've had a little snack

Well, I say quite a big snack of lovely food Where is it from? It's Lebanese. Lebanese. Oh, it's wonderful. And here we are now with Something Rhymes with Purple, which is our weekly podcast all about the wonders of words and language. I believe that language is power. It's the most important thing in the world. A hug is very nice, but a kiss is just a kiss. Words can do amazing things. And I know nobody who does more amazing things than my friend Susie Dent.

I sit by the telephone at the moment, Susie, waiting for the call from Love Island to come. It has not come. What would you love to do on Love Island? I don't know I got a call though this week from Channel 5 Inviting me to take part in a programme Next year they're planning Called The Real Marigold B&B in Prestatyn Okay

It's going to involve me and other old codgers Going on a hiking and biking holiday to North Wales Oh, do you know what? I'd be there in a flash Would you? Yeah I'm not going Do I want to be seen on a mountaintop with Lionel Blair and Anne Whittakin?

They're the two they're pairing me up with. All right. Yeah, exactly. Move on. So the point is, I want to be on Love Island, but they're not having me. And I've worked out why, because I've started watching Love Island. It's not that I'm not buff. We know I am. Yeah. The reason I think they're not loving me is because of my vocabulary.

I think I know too many words. It is what it is. It is what it is. And the girls and guys on Love Island, they look amazing, but their vocabulary is not as rich as yours is. The word they keep repeating is like. Every other word is like. They say like, I did this like, I like her like, he likes me like,

should we have a threesome like? Actually, they don't actually say that. There was this- You're hoping they do. No, no, I'm not hoping they do. Oh, no, no, no. We don't actually see, I don't know if you've seen the programme.

There is live intercourse, but we don't see it. It's under the duvet. It's a bizarre programme. I have become hooked on it because you know I'm doing this celebrity goggle box. Yes. So in the evening, I go around to my friend Sheila Hancock. I suggested you that I'd like to do it with you. And they said, no, go do it with someone more your own age. Oh, charming. I said, how old do you think Sheila Hancock is? And she said, well, she says she's 86 and she is 86. She is exactly what an 86 should look like.

She looks right fit. She's fantastic. Anyway, we sit there watching Love Island. We're hooked on it. Anyway, it's an extraordinary. Have you ever seen it? I have. Yes.

I've kind of, I have to say there's a good reason for watching it because of the language. You mentioned the language, but all sorts of new words coming in, like dusting, which is sex. Oh, a little light dusting. Dusty by the sea. Forgive me, a little light dusting means a little bit of sex. Yeah. Muggy, if you're muggy, you've been mugged off. Hold on, go on, don't rush through these things.

I'm writing them down. If you melt, you're a bit, you know, just a bit soppy and a bit nerdy enough. Oh, yes, one of them the other day when she this is a phrase that i had not heard before uh he was getting a bit excited i forget what his name was louis or something doing the big doe eyes and she was saying oh looking at you there's a fanny flutter i thought what and the trouble with doing celebrity goggle box is you can't stop the thing you can't put pause on because it just plays on. You know, you're watching the programme

and they're live recording you. So I wanted to pause it so I could hear it again. And it was Fanny Flutter. Were you familiar with this expression? No, I'm going to see if it's in. I doubt that it's got into the dictionary yet. Well, you never know. There's some great words that could rival Love Island

any time, like dusting. Names for dusting over the centuries would be the services of Venus. Okay, so that's a bit of a euphemism. But a bit of Fandango de Pocum. I love that. Fandango de Pocum? Yeah, I love that. As in having a poke?

If anybody wants any romantic thing to suggest to their partner. Oh, in fact, I'll be saying to you, fancy a little light dusting. No, but I'm in the mood for some Fandango de Focum. And I'm waiting for them to call their friends their bollocks because bollocks used to mean companion for a while. It was a term of endearment. Oh, a pair of bollocks together. We're so close.

Yes. I don't think Fanny Flutter has made it in yet. No, no Fanny Flutter. Well, Fanny Flutter may get into the dictionary. It may well. I knew senses of mal-time were there. I was trying to explain to Sheila Hancock what a Fanny... What's a Fanny Flutter may get into the dictionary. It may well. I knew senses of maltime. I was trying to explain to Sheila Hancock what a Fanny, what's a Fanny Flutter?

I said, I think it's the female equivalent of a little tremor in the chinos. She said, what's a little tremor in the chinos? I think she was leading you on there. Do you think she was? I think she would know what that is. I've been waiting to be led on. I don't think she was leading me on at all.

Not at all. Anyway, there was one word in particular that people really objected to, wasn't there? In Love Island. I'll tell you what it was. It was the word like. Yeah. And it just is irritating. Of course, we all do it. I occasionally, when trying to think of what to say, begin a sentence with the word so. And a few weeks ago, whenever it was, there was the Tory leadership thing. One of the debates, so-called, had Rory Stewart. Do you remember? It's not my stomach. I think that's the camel next door.

No, I think it's a drill. Oh, it's a drill. We are in Susie's kitchen. And understandably, the neighbours are moving out. And they're taking down their pictures at the moment. The point is, people do, and I try to tell you, Rory Stewart in this debate, he irritated some people because he began almost every answer with the word so. Yeah. And I think he was doing that to set up his argument and maybe to fill time.

So. It's a self-assertion, I think, is what it's been interpreted as. It's sort of, you know, you're setting out your stall and it's an affirmation of confidence and that kind of thing. And you know how much I love Americanisms and I'm always defending Americanisms, but this one is an annoying one. And we think it comes from Silicon Valley.

So it started off in the sort of, you know, amongst kind of computer geeks. I use geek in a positive way. And it was that sort of jargonistic. So I'm about to tell you whatever, but yeah, it is annoying. But the word like is a bit like the word well, that people just use it. Well, I said to him like, well, you know, Tony Blair's favourite, you know. What is that? What is it called? Well, they're simply called interjections or fillers, really. And like is a

really interesting one because I'll tell you a little bit about the word, a ported history of the word like. So it goes back to an Anglo-Saxon word, Gellic, really. My Anglo-Saxon pronunciation is not the best, but it's G-E-L-I-C. Excuse me, how does anybody know? We haven't had Anglo-Saxons for a thousand years. Well, no, it should be better. G-E-L-I-C. Nobody knows how they pronounce the words. Well, no, I have some very good friends who know absolutely. You might be listening.

I'm so sorry they don't. The only way they could work out is if there is rhyming stuff. If there are poems written in Anglo-Saxon, you might work out what the rhymes are supposed to be. Oh, no, there's an entire Anglo-Saxon dictionary which will give pronunciation. Yeah, yeah. Bosworth and Toller. Excuse me. All right.

Nobody, I'm going to argue with this because people say this to me often. You're Anglo-Saxon. I say this because I have children who have Anglo-Saxon names. Yes. Or one of them does anyway. Scythrid. Yes. People say it should be Sethrid.

Well, maybe it should be. But unless you are around in Anglo-Saxon times, how do you know what the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation was? You can infer quite a lot of things from poems, et cetera. So, you know, if you're talking about rhymes, okay, granted, you can have different rhyming sounds, but I think we can make a pretty good stab at it. Okay just didn't anyway g-e-l-i-c it meant with the body of um so something that had the body of something or the sort of shape or material of

something else was similar to it and so that word came to mean that you mean the modern sense of like. So all the adverbs that we have today, like manly, the L-Y started off as like. It's a shortening of like. So man-like. For example, dear-like meant dear-like. And sorry, dear-like was dear-like, as in cherished. And that became lovely. So like became like and accounts for all our adjectives so that's that's the importance of like that's amazing so lovely originated in love like basically yes

and then as a filler which is so annoying to so many people and we haven't mentioned the primary school that banned it as a result of love island they banned it as a filler because they really objected to its kind of restrictive effect on their students vocabulary and so they banned it as a filler because they really objected to its kind of restrictive effect on their students vocabulary and so they sent it to something which sounded very draconian to me they have a word jail and they stuck like on their list of banned words in the word jail where it's suffered still I imagine anyway so you'd think it was really really uh modern wouldn't you look in the Oxford English Dictionary. This is a major surprise to me.

And you will find the first evidence in something like 1774. And the fact is we have been using fillers like these for a very, very long time. And why do we use them as fillers? Why can't we speak without fillers? Well, it's a sort of conversational habit that actually has some purpose. And I may have mentioned this before, but I found this completely fascinating. So it was a study that took two recordings of human voices in conversation and then relayed them to the same audience to see which one was understood most readily. All the white noise completely stripped out. There were no ums, there were no ahs, there were no you knows, there were no likes. None of that was understood less easily than the one with all those natural pauses. And so we think that part of the function is that they allow the speaker to kind of absorb what's being said. So they allow that second's appropriation.

It's like taking a moment's breath. Yeah. Yes. I get told off. appropriation. It's like taking a moment's breath. Yeah. Yes. I get told off. There's one person in particular who tweets me and writes irate letters to the countdown office saying that she counts the numbers of ums and ahs in my origins of words pieces sometimes. It's terrible because the more you focus on it, the harder it gets. But if I really, really concentrate, I can just about miss them out. But Lucy, my eldest, when listening to one of these episodes,

episodes of Something Writes in Purple, said to me, Mum, you just say um and ah all the time. So I'm being really careful today. Don't be too careful. My son, who is a barrister, but is also an authority on rhetoric, which is the art of persuasion, using words to persuade, and used to be taught in our schools. In Shakespeare's day, they had lessons in rhetoric.

Indeed, if you want to discover more about the art of rhetoric, go to his website, www.artofrhetoric.com. He has an authority on this and he teaches it for the RSC, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and drama schools like RADA. He, when we did a course together on which we taught about public speaking, he explained to me, which I hadn't really thought about before, that people when making a speech often get nervous when silence falls and begin umming and erring. And he explained to me that the reason we get nervous when silence falls, if you're making a

speech, is you forget when you're having a conversation. If I pause, you usually pick it up. But if you're making a speech, there's no one to pick it up. They're listening. But you suddenly can hear the silence and you want to fill it. And then you try to fill it with something. If you can't think of what to say, you then say, so, or well, or maybe even um or uh. And he says, dad you don't need to fill the air with sound all the time people may understand better dad if you just pause empty spaces and i think it's important we we have so fillers are there because there is a natural need for better communication for the occasional empty space yeah i think that is right. I mean, again, what was it, the Love Island quota was something like 76 times in five minutes.

Yes, a survey was done. This is, it's become sort of in the news this year. Well, last time there was an episode in the series Love Island, where the word like was being used 76 times in under five minutes. I mean, it is their go-to word of choice. And we've had them throughout history. We've had in it, we've had ain't it so, we've had lots and lots. I think it might be time for a break, but I've got another Love Island word for you

when we come back. What I've got for you when you come back is my own word jail. Inspired by the school, which I thought was a good idea. I love this school. I think what they're trying to do is increase the vocabulary of their children. I have formed my own word jail. I've been asking people to send me prisoners, and I have got for you words and phrases that in Britain so far, people want to see in that word jail, the key turned and then thrown away.

I think I know one of them. I bet literally he's in there. Time for a break. We'll be back. At this exact moment, you're just five minutes away from mouth-watering golden French fries. Five minutes away from crispy onion rings and potato tots, too. Because five minutes in the air fryer is all it takes to serve up a delicious batch of Cavendish Farms' new Quick Crisp onion rings, potato tots, and french fries faster than ever before. Just 300 seconds between you and your all-time favorites.

Quick Crisp from Cavendish Farms. Made our way. Enjoyed your way. Available right away. When summer brings the heat, McDonald's brings the chill. During summer drink days, enjoy a small iced coffee or a refreshing Coca-Cola for $1 plus tax and step up your summer today. At participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada, prices exclude delivery. We've been talking about bevies, haven't we? We have. And I always used to think that a bevy

was a drink. Exactly. A shortened version of the word beverage. Absolutely. Not in Love Island. But watching Love Island, tell more. Well, all we know is that it means hot. He's a bev, she's a bev. Hot. He's bevy. Hot, which also means cool. She's hot.

Oh, she's cool. That's how slang works, isn't it? Isn't it funny? You know, I overheard somebody the other day saying to some girl, meaningless compliment, oh, my God, you're one cool, sick, mean bitch. No. I mean, frankly, that's supposed to be a compliment. Well, you're one cool, sick, mean bitch.

I love being called sick. Do you? Yeah, I do. Really? Anyway, Bev, yes. We were just discussing this actually during the break and we think this might be a deliberate self-promotion act on behalf of, who says it?

Let's not point fingers because litigation may follow. We may just be a podcast and they're all tuned in. I'm not sure that's going to... No, I quite like it. Oh, he's Bev. I'd feel a bit hot. I'd feel cool. Hot and cool.

All at once. Okay, give us your list. This is my idea. This is my purple word jail. And the idea is that I have asked people for the tons of phrase and the words that they find irritating because they're so overused. Yeah. Or they're used in a way that makes them meaningless. Like, but I'm good. Really? Well, it's not meaningless because what they're saying is I'm good instead of I'm well, but that's the kind of adverb loss rather than a filler, I would argue. Oh yes. These aren't all fillers. This is where

I'm leading, I'm jumping off you mentioned. Onto annoying phrases. These are phrases, tons of phrases that people find so annoying. Like that's so random. Yeah. Is it really? Whatever. Whatever became a bit of a filler, didn't it a year or two ago? Yeah. Whatever. I find have a nice day rather irritating. Do you? Yeah. Oh, and people now begin every email with, you know, I hope you had a great weekend. Just get to the matter in hand.

We don't need all this because you don't actually hope I had a good weekend. These are not mine. These are other people's. Back in the day. End of the day. What's wrong with once or in the past? Back in the day. Going forward.

What's wrong with. Oh, I hate wrong with from now on or in the future? You do hate that. Tick all the boxes. Must you? I personally? It's redundant, isn't it? It is. It isn't necessary.

Totally. Speaking personally, how else are you going to speak unless you're ventriloquist? Yes. And even then, it's only you speaking, isn't it? I have to say, do you? No, you don't. Gutted. Oh, I'm gutted. It's a horrid expression. I quite like it. It's quite vis speaking, isn't it? I have to say. No, you don't. Gutted. Oh, I'm gutted.

It's a horrid expression. I quite like it. It's quite visceral, that. I quite like it. It is literally visceral, isn't it? Yes, I bet it's got, I bet it goes, and I'm going to check that one, see how far it goes back.

Now, this is me, I suppose. I was sat. Oh, well, do you know what? It's a dialect use. It's been around for ages. My youngest says I was sat. We say I was sitting. She says the letter H as well.

Oh, no. I know. And she's your daughter. Is she really your daughter? But I have to try really, really hard not to pick her up on these. But do you know what? Picking up is wrong anyway, because in Victorian days, kids were taught to say H rather than H, because dropping your H's was the kind of vulgar, uncouth thing. So we've come full circle on that. So who's to say we're right and they were wrong?

Oh, you think anything goes, do you? Well, I'm a bit of a linguistic liberal. I think there's no problem with being a parent who occasionally picks up her daughter on some of her use of English, particularly if you are Susie Dent. If she's got the wrong word, I will definitely correct her on that. But for saying H and I was sat. And you accept her saying I was stood? That's what she's grown, that's totally what she's kind of grown up with amongst her friends.

And it's more common in Northern English than sitting. And does she say absolutely instead of yes? No. And people are now talking about cooking down things or boiling off things. Oh, really? Yeah, what's wrong with cooking and boiling? Oh, also, but there are older people who do these things as well. I'm putting in the word jail, oftentimes.

Oh, I've oftentimes felt. People blame that on the Americans. Oh. And guess what? It won't be. If it is, I will eat my dictionary. Now chiefly North American, but it started off in the 14th century in English, oftentimes.

Well, that's poetic. Keep, oh, this keep calm and. Yeah, I didn't like that either. I think that's gone now. It has gone, but it's still. It's still on tea towels everywhere. It's still, kickstart? What's wrong with start?

Why do things have to have a kickstart? Because it means more oomph. Cray cray? We're talking about linguistic inflation, aren't we? Cray cray. It's part of great reduplication that's been going on for centuries. So willy nilly, shilly shally, go back to the 11th century. Willy nilly, will I, nill I, will I. So, you know, willy nilly is I will do it whatever happens. I'll just, you don't need to comment on these. know willy-nilly is i will do it whatever happens um i'll just you don't need to comment on these i'm just sharing with you words that some of our listeners would like to see in our word jail phrases blue sky thinking don't go there let's be absolutely clear to be absolutely honest with you i don't believe you want to say that forward planning step up to the plate park up pre-planned push back from the get-go outside

oh outside of that's incorrect isn't it strictly speaking it's unnecessary oh but you also i prefer right from the gecko which is slipping into english right from the gecko as opposed to right from the get-go yes egg corn that corn, that one. Mishearing. What about, are you all right there? When they mean, may I help you? Yeah, that's true. Are you telling me, Susie, that as far as you are concerned, anything goes? No, not at all.

Because if you make enough slip-ups or do anything to the extreme, then your message is going to be completely lost. The impact of your message will be really tarnished. So no, I'm not saying anything goes. But more often than not, the things that we complain about, and I have my own bugbears as well, will have been alive and well in centuries past. And language just goes round and round and round. Where are you on specialty as opposed to speciality? That was British English in about the 15th century, not American. Okay, so you accept that?

I do. Where are you on irregardless? Again, I think actually that, no, I think that might be American, actually. And I think it's a confusion. I think people mean regardless, but perhaps confusing it with irrespective. It always started as American, always started as non-standard or humorous, and it slipped in as something else. People say pacifically when they mean specifically. I don't like that either. I do that. Yes, I talk about that one a lot. People say partially. Acts of Parliament of Scotland,

they talk about specialties in the 14th century. Are you approving or disapproving of partially instead of partly? I think you see partially means taking sides as opposed to impartially. Oh, I see what you mean. And partially that people say when they mean partly. I think, you see, partially means taking sides as opposed to impartially. Oh, I see what you mean. And partially, though, people say when they mean partly. First sense in the 14th century. We're really nerdy for this episode, aren't we? Relating to a part as opposed to the whole. Yeah. No, but you were saying that partial is not the same as partly.

Well, I'm just reporting what the listeners are saying. Okay. My bad. My bad. That's one of the phrases. That's my bad. My mistake. Yeah. What have people been writing to us about? Let's leave my word, Jail. Throw away the key and tell us what our listeners have.

Where do they get hold of us, by the way? They can get hold of us at purple at something else dot com. So that's something without the G. Purple at something else dot com. We can't answer every question that has to be said, but we will do our absolute best. Yeah. And what are you going to do your best with today?

Well, I have a query from Pauline Creer, I think it is. C-R-E-E-R. Thanks, Pauline, for your question. She was actually a contestant on Countdown quite recently. And she wonders how the green room got its name. Ooh, this is a theatrical expression. This is a theatrical expression. It's a theatrical expression. You've been in lots of green rooms recently, trolling theatres around the country.

I have, as have you. Mostly pretty tatty places, aren't they? They are. But that's right. I mean, most of the money is spent on front of house and that's how it should be. But I've been in green rooms or dressing rooms where there has been a little chair in the corner and a lift. That's it. I usually tweet a photograph of my dressing room or green room to show the sadness of the reality of touring life, particularly when I open the jar that's supposed to contain the tea bags and there isn't one. Do you know, I went to one the other day and the green room itself was fairly tatty,

but there were three little bottles of champagne, some green and black chocolate. I know where you were. Where? You were at the stables in, am I right? Yes. The theatre that was owned by Cleo Lane. Yes.

Exactly. They really look after you there. They really do. It's one of our favourite theatres near Maidenhead. Chocolates and lovely stuff. That's why I go there for two nights. I love that space. I love the stage.

And Cleo Lane in her 90s now, still on song. Cleo Lane's in her 90s? In her 90s. No, wow. In her 90s. She's still got the amazing hair. Amazing hair, amazing voice, amazing presence. That's amazing.

It was just amazing. My dad, I love Cleo Lane. She runs this theatre where they look after you well. The green room was a proper green room there. Anyway, back to the green room. Tell us what is the origin of it. Well, it's thought that these kind of restrooms for the performers at theatres were meant as a relief for those who had kind of been exposed to the limelight of the theatre.

And, of course, the limelight was real lime that was burnt in order to provide the illumination required to light up performers. As a rest from the limelight, I thought that green was the most restful colour on the eyes. And we think that's why it was coloured green. There is another theory, though, which is that it comes from the rhyming slang green gauge for stage. So it would be, I'll see you on the green. And you'll still hear actors say that to each other. People do say that, see you on the green. I'll see you on the stage. And so the green one was simply an extension of that possibly. Somebody called Bernard Pearson

has reached out to me. It's another phrase that I find rather annoying. Reached out, yeah. And come up with some extra suggestions for the word jail. And I think he smashed it. It's another one. Anyway, these are his. I'm loving it. McDonald's. They gave us that. Oh, did they? Well, they pretty much popularized that tense, yes.

Challenging environment. You know. I'm in one now. Win-win. Win-win. It's a win-win situation. Isn't that what horses do? Anyway.

Passionate about my job. Passionate about my job in stationery. I mean, come on. Why not? Yeah, I suppose so. But everyone's gotate about my job in stationery. I mean, come on. Why not? Yeah, I suppose so. But everyone's got to say it. Not stationery. Every interview you go to, you've got to say, I'm passionate about it.

I mean, it just doesn't ring true, does it? You're all right. You're all right. What does that mean? You hear it all the time. You're all right. You're all right. He's a bit of all right.

Oh, this is an interesting one. This is Bernard Pearson speaking, not me. Death of democracy. He does not like that phrase. He says to me, it's an ideal, not your pet cat, death of democracy. Top priority. What's your bottom priority? Yeah, good one. And his worst one is, I'm cool about it. He's hot under the collar. He's not cool about it at all I don't mind I'm cool. Okay, Susie, have you got a trio for us today? These are three words that we hope will extend your vocabulary. If you are at this primary school and next time we meet,

I hope I will have found out the name of the head teacher so I can salute him or her, despite what Susie may feel about the word jail. We like to extend people's vocabularies. We do. So what are the three words you've got for us? These are words, most of them are from centuries past that I think we should resurrect.

How about a sockdollager? Who? Sockdollager? Sockdollager. That is the decisive winning point in an argument or debate. Boom! It's the sockdollager. Is that an American one? It is. It's a sock dology is that an american one it is it's a sock dologer

um and that might deliver a recumbentibus recumbentibus that's r-e-c-u-m-b e-n-t-i-b-u-s a knockout punch oh a sock dology sock do. A sock-dologer is a re-com-bed-to. Re-com-bed-to. These are not tripping off the tongue, are they? Okay. No, they're not. Shall I give you something a little bit easier? Yeah, but those are two.

Well, we're going to be talking about things that get on people's nerves, whether it's so at the beginning of a sentence or like. So that might deliver a certain amount of twazziness. Twazziness, the state of being bad-tempered, peevish and snappy. What's the word? Twazzy. Twazzy. You mean a bit twazzy? That's because you are tired because you're only about three hours sleep. Yes. Okay. You're only but only a touch. It's a bit of a recurrent thing. But can I say, when you're a bit twazzy, you're extremely attractive. Or if I may be honest with you Bev

you're Bev I'm a Bev you're a Bev and you're sick too you're sick tell me you like being called sick I do I really like being called sick you like being called sick

sick Bev if you if you like our show and if you think Susie's Bev as I do give us a review or rate us and help us spread the word

if you've got a question you'd like us to answer or you just want to get in touch, you can also email us at purple at something without a G else or one word dot com. And who helps us make this? This is a Something Else production

produced by Paul Smith, wonderful Paul Smith, with additional help and production from Russell Finch, Lawrence Bassett, Steve Ackerman, and Gully! He's Bev. additional help and production from russell finch lawrence bassett steve ackerman and golly he's bev