Something Rhymes with Purple - Umpteen

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

This week, Susie and Gyles dive into the linguistic time capsule of the early 20th century. Join in as they explore the birth of new words and phrases that shaped communication from 1900 to 1910, providing a unique perspective on the evolution of our linguistic landscape." We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: [e-mail] Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Nugatory - trivial or not worth bothering about Viscerotonic -  a type of personality which is comfort-loving, social, easy going Pugil - a pinch of something Gyles' poem this week was 'Idyll' by Siegfred Sassoon In the grey summer garden I shall find you    With day-break and the morning hills behind you.    There will be rain-wet roses; stir of wings;    And down the wood a thrush that wakes and sings.    Not from the past you'll come, but from that deep Where beauty murmurs to the soul asleep:    And I shall know the sense of life re-born    From dreams into the mystery of morn    Where gloom and brightness meet. And standing there    Till that calm song is done, at last we'll share The league-spread, quiring symphonies that are    Joy in the world, and peace, and dawn’s one star. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience, and the purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. Welcome to this week's episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. And just to share with you, lovely purple people, we've had a bit of a palaver today, haven't we, Giles? Because it's taken me about 40 minutes to get online.

Well, tell me first of all about the word palaver. It's one of my favourite words. I use it a lot. Palaver. I mean, it means a fuss and bother, I suppose, doesn't it? It means a fuss and a bother. And it's actually from Portuguese, I think. And it's a little bit like rigmarole. But one day we'll talk about the origin of rigmarole because that began as the ragman's roll, a very ornate and complicated list of signatures. But palava came to us from the Portuguese palavra, but it's linked to a Latin word parabola, which made me think of parable because that's where that comes from too. And that meant a comparison, believe it or not. But the idea of a prolonged and tedious discussion

came about because it was used to mean a conversation, a talk between local people and traders, if you like, perhaps in a kind of pigeon English. But because that was quite involved and quite fussy, it came to mean a bit of a sort of long-winded process, which is exactly what I've had. And I'm so sorry that you've been patiently waiting in the wings for me while I try and update my Mac. If you are not too long, I will wait for you forever. As the character says, I think in Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being Earnest, I've had fun waiting for you because I'm not at home today. This is why it's been an added palaver

because I am in central London and I thought I would come in to the offices of Sony, where we are producers, and record from the basement in here. Even your basement? I'm happy in the basement. I feel secure in the basement. And so this is where I am. I'm in a basement near Old Street tube station in London. And you are back home in Oxford. But we were together last week, and we haven't been actually physically together in quite a while, not since

our last live show. No. And I thought of you just this morning, actually, because in Oxford today, there has been a pricity in abundance. And every time I think of that word now, I think of you. But no, you put on something really special for me last week. Well, it was a very exciting occasion. I am the Chancellor of the University of Chester. And I think the idea of a Chancellor to a university exists all over the world. I know it exists all over the Commonwealth, and it may exist in other countries as well. The chancellor of a university is merely the ceremonial head. The actual work is done by people usually called the vice chancellor, sometimes the pro-chancellor, the provost.

They're the people who actually, on a day-to-day basis, run the university. But there usually is a figurehead called the chancellor. And I don't know how far this dates back. I'm, as the chancellor of the university, I'm occasionally allowed to nominate people to get honorary degrees. And, of course, they have to be worthy of it. There's a whole counseling committee that sit in judgment. And I did nominate you, Susie Dent, because in my view, your contribution to language and letters in the 20th and 21st century has been, well, to me, unparalleled. You are our country's leading lexicographer. I know you deny it. But what you've done is be both scholarly

and reached out through broadcasting media, podcasts like this, your television work, your shows, et cetera, your books. You spread the word about words. And there's nothing more important than words and language. So you came to Chester Cathedral, which is a really beautiful building, isn't it? What did you make of the building? Oh, it was just stunning. I have to say I am a sucker for cloisters.

And that was my, you know, just kind of being walked through the cloisters in itself, quite apart from everything else that followed afterwards was something really special. Well, it is special because there's a thousand years of history there in that building. And we are very blessed that we can conduct our degree ceremonies there. And every year there's some 500 undergraduates who are going through, and I shake the hand of as many of them as possible. And occasionally we confer an honorary doctorate on somebody special. And last week you were that somebody special. And you had the cap and the gown and the trumpets played.

And a public orator, I think that's what they call the person, who spoke about you. Were you pleased with what he had to say? Oh, it was lovely. Although it has to be said, no, he was absolutely lovely. But to get in a bit about our podcast, he mentioned the benefits of lalokesia and also said that he had overheard you and I

speaking in such a fashion, which I think on that day wasn't strictly speaking. It wasn't true. It's never true. We only ever use lalokesia, which is basically the sort of use of bad language, obscene language, in an uncontrolled way. Is that what technically means? No, actually, I sort of slightly led you astray with my sentence. No, lalokesia is actually the beneficial side of swearing. So it's the relief of stress, anxiety, frustration, pain, if you stub your toe, et cetera.

It is easing that through having a good swear. Literally speaking, it's a bit like, it's about sort of, I don't know how to put it. It's, you can tell I'm getting a bit tongue-tied. Release your bad language. It's all about almost foul-mouthed excrement. It's sort of like dumping your verbal shit, I suppose, if we wanted to use foul language.

And I know that's your least favourite word. But anyway, quite apart from that, it was, the encomium was, as they're called, was absolutely gorgeous. Well, I'm, the encomium was, as they're called, was absolutely gorgeous. Well, I'm tearing up again. I was overwhelmed. I mean, I've handed out literally thousands of degrees, and I've handed them out to some very distinguished honorary doctorates, including our current Queen Camilla. Really remarkable people, you know, scientists, politicians, entertainers, all sorts.

But I don't think I've ever been moved before as I was. I just saw you there looking so sweet. And I thought, we've known each other for a long time. And I was just overwhelmed. So there you go. It was so lovely. I think really, it was the picture of me in that funny hat. Anyway, it was lovely. And I'm genuinely really, really appreciative. And now for the first time, I can occasionally on special occasions call myself Dr. Dent. You can. I think you can. That sounds quite funny too. Dr. Dent, we'll see you now. Well, Dr. Dent, we want to hear you now. And this is a podcast all about language. What are we going to talk about today?

Well, the springboard for this actually was a lovely book written when I was staff at Oxford University Press, home of the dictionaries. And it was a book commissioned by a great language writer called John Ato. And essentially, he looked at the Oxford English Dictionary and explored it as an archive essentially of words relating to their time. So he took the 20th century, it's called 20th Century Words, it was published in either 1999 or 2000. And it looks at each decade and the words that came into existence or at least are first recorded in that particular decade.

So it gives you this wonderful snapshot of events, preoccupations, fashions, you know, everything. And as we always say, a word can tell a thousand stories, even more than a picture, I think. Well, this is exciting. So let's begin at the beginning of the 20th century, see how far we get. Go decade by decade. This may take one episode, two episodes, three or four. Let's see how we get on. So do we begin the first 10 years of the 20th century, would that be it? Yes.

1900? 1900 to 1910. Oh, good. Well, it's one of my favorite eras. It's the Edwardian era in this country, because Queen Victoria in 1900 is still on the throne, but she dies in 1901. And her eldest son, that people thought, many people thought was a ne'er-do-well, nicknamed Tum Tum because of his wonderful appetite and his wide girth, not very tall, but certainly very stout. He became King Edward VII and only had nine years as monarch, but they were surprisingly successful. So that's the Edwardian era. And I feel that I belong in that era. It's one of the eras I would love to have lived, but I couldn't live now. My father,

who was born in 1910, wished he had been an Edwardian. He was, in fact, born shortly after the death of Edward VII. So my father, in fact, was a Georgian. He was born at the very beginning of the reign of George V. What would be your favourite decade of the last 200 years, if you could live at any time? Gosh, that's really hard, actually. Well, I think, you know, in terms of the sort of lexicography, I think the 1990s were really interesting, and we will come to those. But a lot of sort of revival, really, almost in the sort of flying in the face of previous decades of politics. And what's lovely is you can see the aftereffects, the after effects of war, the after effects of

depression. But you can obviously see those imprinted on the language when they were happening. But afterwards, there's this kind of linguistic exuberance. It's like this sort of huge sigh of relief that is expressed through language. And they're incredibly, these decades are incredibly colourful, springy, inventive, silly. And I think those ones particularly I enjoy. Do we have a word from the year 1900? I don't think we do, actually. I mean, we really struggled with coming up with a word for the noughties, didn't we?

And noughties was where it settled, the 2000s or whatever. So I don't think we have got a word for 1900 to 1910. For that decade, apart from it being the Edwardian era. Yeah. Seen as. Yeah. But is there a word, though, that originated in that year, 1900? Some people might say, of course, that's the last year of the 19th century rather than the first of the 20th century.

Absolutely. Yes. Well, one of them would be relating to the motor car, because this is when it began to make its first very noisy appearance on the roads. Well, actually, maybe not too noisy compared with current days. But accelerator came into being in 1900 and inevitably wasn't just applied to motor cars, a wide range of devices, but it soon became the term for the pedal that we still use today to increase our speed. So this is a good example of a word that was given a new application because it wasn't new in itself. It had been used with lots of meanings in the past, but in terms of controlling the speed of a motor vehicle, first recorded in 1900. And that would be true of the word tube as well,

because a tube must have existed before, but T-U-B-E, meaning the underground, that comes from 1900 as well, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely right. I mean, I marvel, given my enthusiasm for Oscar Wilde, that Oscar Wilde travelled by tube. I mean, he travelled on the London Underground. Yeah. He would go from near his home in Sloane Square to Charing Cross to go down the Strand to one of his favourite hotels in Savoy. But he would go by Underground, which became known as the Tube, I think, in 1900. That's incredible, isn't it?

And Queen Victoria referred in her journal to a Tube for trains to run through. She says, we passed the famous Swilly Rocks and saw the works they are making for the tube for the railroad. But yes, absolutely. The first underground railways, which came about in, I think, the 1860s. I'm not sure they were called the tube, but in 1900, it was applied to the London Underground Railway System. And apparently, the term tube here seems to have originated with the so-called Tappany tube, the Central London Railway. I don't know anything about that, the Tappany tube. This is why I think Oscar Wilde may have used this phrase, because he is, somewhere, I think we know that he traveled on what was called the Tappany tube. Ah, okay, that's fascinating.

So I think maybe it's earlier than 1900, because 1900 is the year that Oscar Wilde died, 30th of November, and not in London, but in Paris, where they didn't have the tube, they had the métro. Of course, yes. Look, there's a French word I know, chauffeur, meaning not somebody who heats things up, but somebody who drives your car. That's from 1902, isn't it? But chauffeur does mean heating up, doesn't it? So why is it a person who drives the car? Yes. isn't it? But chauffeur does mean heating up, doesn't it? So why is it a person who drives the car? Yes. So the word chauffeur actually came in the late 19th century, but that was in the

general sense of a motorist and not someone who drives your car in the current sense. Well, in French chauffeur, you're right. It means heater or a stoker because it was association with steam engines and early cars could be steam driven rather than have petrol engines. But it was then, you know, then became very specific in the person who is paid to drive your car rather than any driver at all. Electronic, I think, is another one listed in 1902. Again, this relates to the, you know, the advances in motoring, all of that going on. Yeah, all of that. And obviously that's to do with electrons. And do you remember where electricity comes from?

Because I always find that's absolutely, I love this. But that's from the 17th century. So electricity, very old as a word. But have we covered this? Well, if we have, I haven't, I can't remember it. Tell me. Okay, it actually comes from a Latin word meaning amber. Because rubbing amber causes electrostatic phenomena.

So, yeah, really quite sort of humble beginnings for something that sort of underpins modern technology. I mean, new things are coming along in this era. The moving pictures are arriving. Yes. When do they get called the cinema? As early as this or is that later yes so cinema is this early 20th century as an abbreviation of cinematograph and it comes from a greek verb meaning to move which also gave us kinetic and it was used cinematograph came from the french brothers auguste and luigian lumiere very good well in my list it's this is coming in 1909, a cinema, the word. All right, yeah, quite possible. But you can correct me.

My list also includes jazz as 1909, which is interesting. It is interesting. I mean, I think we associate the big jazz age with the 1940s, don't we? Charlie Parker, et cetera. Yes, or even beginning of the 1920s. I don't make it as early as 1909, but could that be right? No, that absolutely is right. No one's completely sure where jazz comes from.

Lots of suggestions have been made. I think some of them include an African origin, but the original meaning was something like liveliness or spirit, which is absolutely right, isn't it? But the first, and actually a baseball player used to call it the jazz ball, which sounds a bit like a basketball in cricket.

But the first known musical use was actually from 1915. And it was quite also a little bit improper for a while because jazz was also used with sexual connotations. And it might be linked, scream if people avert their ears now, if you can avert your ears. It might be linked to jism and jizz. We don't need to go there. We don't need to go there. But you can see it's the idea of energy and pep. Energy and pep. I can see that idea. Speaking of energy and pep, my list includes the word brassiere as being the first decade of the 20th century. Ah, yeah, 1909, this one.

But you will find it in French, and you will find it actually strangely included as part of a body armour that was used in battle. And the bras bit will give you an idea as to where it sat. It was on people's arms. So, yeah, a little bit odd. But 1909, it took on its meaning as a woman's undergarment. And...

Did people not wear? I mean, I don't know much about women's fashion, though, interestingly, Oscar Wilde's wife was a champion of creating more normal wear for women, the reform of women's clothing. Because in Victorian times, there were ludicrous dresses with bustles that ended up getting caught in fires, and there were a lot of deaths. I mean, really, a lot of people died by women standing too near the fire

and their dresses getting inflamed. In fact, this happened to some relatives. Maybe they were half-sisters of Oscar Wilde. Anyway, Constance Lloyd, later Constance Wilde, was one of the pioneers of women's dress reform. And I think the brasier, abbreviated to the bra, is a 20th century phenomenon that was trying to make life more comfortable for women. But I don't

know much about it. Do you know anything about it? Well, there was the general idea of having a sort of bodice or what they call in French soutien-gorge is from the late 19th century. So in 1885, there was a wire dress that kind of included this sort of support but the kind of bra that we know it as today that will be recognizable to modern eyes was actually made with a pair of hankies believe it or not and that was patented in 1914 so i think a brassiere was more of a sort of bodice than it was the bra that we would know it as today. But yeah, I mean, there are so many different words for, just so many different forms of underwear that maybe we, if we haven't already, I think we may have actually talked about undercrackers.

We must have done one. I think we have. We must have done. Underpinnings, undercrackers, all of that. Of course, soutien-gorge in itself is a bit of a euphemism. It's a real euphemism. Soutien means to hold up. Support, yes.

To sustain. And gorge means throat. It does. It's rather missing the... The relevant body part, absolutely. Exactly. And I remember when I was a schoolboy, it used to be said that somebody with the name of Helmut Titzlinger had invented the original bra. But there is some basis and truth in that.

Is there? Yeah. Have you not heard that before? I don't know. I know it sounds a bit unlikely going to look it up now. I know it sounds a bit unlikely, but there may be relatives. There may be titslingers listening across either in Germany itself or

who have gone to Australia. I'm actually going to look this up in the OED. Do look it up. Okay, so there's no titslinger in the OED. Come on. Come on, look it up. Look it more deeply. I'm sure I've not invented this. Okay, let me look at advanced search. This is from my school days. Admittedly, it was 60 years ago, but it stayed in my head because it's such a great name. Helmut, ah, yes, this is Helmut, Dr. Helmut Stitzlinger, inventor of Zabrazio.

No, I think this is, I'm afraid that I think someone's been having you on, but I will just check for you. Well, if somebody listening is an expert on female underpinnings and would like to put us right. Otto Titzling is a fictional character, apocryphally described as the inventor of the brassiere, in a 1971 satire called Bust Up, the uplifting tale of Otto Titzling. So I'm afraid it is a pun. Oh, dear. Well, there you are. Shows what lingers in my stupid mind. But if you want to improve on that, and you've got some interesting things, stories to tell from your country or culture, purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com

is where you should write to us. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash ymx benefits vary by card terms apply

x3 x3 your favorite anime is getting a new season hi i'm nick friedman and i'm leah alec murray and i'm leah president every week you can listen in while we break down the latest pop culture news and dish on what new releases we can't get enough of. We're covering the latest in film, video games, music, manga, and obviously, anime. Get the latest on The Anime Effect. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. We're exploring the language of the 20th century, and we've not quite exhausted the first decade because there are some interesting words still

that I want to mention that come from it. I'm told that geriatrics, I think, I suppose, the study of old people, is a word that dates from 1909. Does that strike you as true? Yeah, I find it quite sad that geriatric has taken the turn that it has. And it's now become a descriptor for anyone considered past it or even a bit infirm. Because actually it goes straight back to a Greek word meaning old age. And you have gerontology, which is a study of old age or the process of aging. And then you have a gerontocracy, such as we have in the US, which is governed by older people. But geriatric has not had a good outcome, in my view. Maybe

that's for another discussion. But yeah, that's the early 20th century, for sure. And what's the origin? Where do we get the geront? The geras in Greek means old, old age. Simple as that. Yeah, simple as that. And you mentioned somebody being with it there. I know that, I remember from the 1920s, somebody called Clara Bow, I think it was known as the It Girl. The It Girl, yes.

But does the idea of something being It, meaning it's the latest thing, it's the thing, that comes from the early years of the 20th century? It does, yeah. And it's the It by by itself just meant sex appeal. And I think there was, It Girl got another outing, didn't it, with Tara Palmer Tomkinson, if I've got that right, who very sadly died.

But when she was, you know, in all the celebrity pages, she became the new It Girl. But as you say, Clara Bow was the first to be given that title. So the idea of It is sexy. Yeah, sex appeal. new It Girl. But as you say, Clara Bow was the first to be given that title. So the idea of It is sexy. Yeah, sex appeal.

Oh, yeah. She's got It. It's like the X factor, isn't it? It's the kind of that unknown. So the phrase with It isn't connected. I don't think so. If you're with It, I think you are just sort of aware of your surroundings. You are gormful rather than gormless. But no, I don't think it's connected, but it is all about that sort of indefinable something, isn't it? Camp, the notion of being camp, that's an early 20th century word, isn't it? Yes. First recorded by a writer who, well, J. Redding Ware, he was called, and he wrote Passing English of the Victorian Era. But no one completely knows where it comes from. But I was just talking about being

gorm full. You know, you can also be kempt, one of those lost positives, which is from the German gekempt, meaning well combed. There is a dialect word, which is quite similar, meaning kemp. But instead of meaning well-turned-out, it means uncouth, actually. It means just a bit all over the place, bad-mannered and sort of scruffily turned out. So if that's the case, and if that is the origin of Kemp, it didn't start out as being a particularly nice descriptor. But we don't know where it came from. It certainly flourished in theatrical slang, and we associate it with the language of Polari, I'm sure. What is your definition?

For somebody listening to this who doesn't know what the word camp means, what does the dictionary definition give you? As opposed to camp as a campsite, where you might go out camping. Yeah. Which is very different. No connection to those at all. So a camp is in setting up camp or you know lodging in some place that is actually from the campus marcius in rome which if you remember was used for athletic practice it was used for military drills the field of mars the field of

mars exactly um and campus in latin meant level ground particularly a sort of wide expanse of it, which is why a university campus has that sense as well. Camp in this sense, as I say, pretty unknown, but it may, I mean, perhaps it comes from the idea of striking a pose and setting up camp in that way, but we're not completely sure. up camp in that way, but we're not completely sure. But the dictionary definition is deliberately exaggerated and theatrical, and then extravagantly flamboyant or affected. Now, what's interesting about this is people think of it as having a gay connotation. Definitely, yeah. Which it does nowadays. But I wonder if it did at the beginning, because the notion of camp with people like Oscar Wilde, and there was a musical called Patience

in which esthetes like Oscar Wilde were satirized by Gilbert and Sullivan. The idea of being very theatrical in your dress and in your manner was not necessarily associated originally with homosexuality. People like Lord Byron, the poet, from an earlier part of the 19th century, he was very theatrical in his dress and manner. And you have restoration drama plays in which people are being theatrical.

And I think it's largely because of the trial of Oscar Wilde that this kind of mannerism then becomes associated with also being gay. Oh, that's fascinating. So I think he may be responsible for the transition. Gosh, okay. That's lovely. And that may well be illustrated in the, you know, if you look at all the quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary, we'll have a look. But it was certainly, you know, an important decade. And it was fitting that in this opening decade of the 1900s, so many words marking these new things, new technologies, new ways of living were marked. We've got to 1910. Let's do another decade. This is the decade in which my father was born

in Hoylake in Cheshire in July 1910. And he would be, he was a middle class person and he was a lawyer. His father was also a lawyer. Now we'd call the way he spoke posh, but actually it was just straightforward middle class. I say that because I think the word posh is a word from this decade. Am I right? Posh, yes. And associated with one of the most notorious folk etymologies in English. Oh, yes, port out, starboard home. Yes. Not true at all, is it? Well, there has been absolutely no evidence supporting that at all.

And the more likely etymology is that it comes from a much older slang term for a dandy, which also gave us slang amongst thieves for money, because if you were dressed in a flamboyant way, you probably had a bit of dosh. So we think that's where it comes from. Nothing to do with the ships between England and India. So that POSH is not an acronym. SOS is an initialism that I think dates from 1910. Does it stand for Save Our Souls?

What does SOS stand for? Does it stand for Save Our Souls? What does SOS stand for? Well, SOS, if I am right, was chosen because it's easily transmitted and recognised in Morse code. And then once again, folk etymology stepped in and made it an abbreviation for Save Our Souls. So, yeah, so it didn't actually begin that way. That was just a backronym, if you like. Very good.

Oh, there are umpteen words we could cover here, including the word umpteen, which I think is from that first, second decade. Oh, I love the word umpteen. And actually, that's so relevant because that is also rooted in Morse code because signals regiments in the army would use umpty to be the dash in

Morse code, and the dot was called an iddy. So you had iddy umpty as a slang name in Morse code and the dot was called an idi. So you had idi umpti as a slang name for Morse code itself. And apparently one slang dictionary at least states that the idea of idi umpti began in India when the Morse system was being taught to troops over there. But whatever happened, it gave us umpteen for an indefinitely large number, because if the umpteen indicates the dash, that again could mean anything. And then it developed into umpteen on the model of 1314, etc. And that was in the early 1900s, as you say. You know so much. It's amazing.

I know that cinema came from the first decade. And I looked this up. Movie, going to a movie, and movie meaning a film, something you'd show in a cinema. I've got 1912 as the year that word was first used. Yes. So, moving picture, earlier than that, 1896. But yes, as an abbreviation, movie. It's still in the US, you know, mainly in the US, but actually we have really, I think anyone who watches Netflix these days will probably talk about watching a movie, not watching a film. Yeah, that's my guess. I was reflecting when we were standing together last week in Chester Cathedral, how sadly the world has not changed much in a thousand years.

There is still war. There are still refugees. Yeah. there is still war, there are still refugees. And I'm amazed to find that the word refugee only dates from 1914. Can this be true? Because of course, there have been people fleeing, seeking refuge for literally for the whole of history. So how does this word come about in 1914, refugee? Well, yes, let's start with refugee, as you say. So the OED's first reference of this particular word is actually much, much earlier, 1628, when it was used for a Protestant who fled France to escape the religious persecution in the 17th and 18th centuries.

So it was very, very specific. Then in 1692, a person who's been forced to leave their home and seek refuge elsewhere, as we would use it today, religious persecution, political troubles, natural disasters, etc. You also have a specific use during the American Revolutionary War. But I think it really, really came into its own during the First World War, which is probably why it's listed in that opening decade, because obviously this was a decade of enormous horror and slaughter. And, you know, it's that obviously that shadow that just, you know, sits over the whole of this decade of the 1910s. We don't actually have a word for the 1910s either, but, you know, massive, massive scale. But reflecting on life, you know, Susie, I think I'm trying to remember who it was who couldn't work out whether peace was the interval between

wars or wars were the interval between peace. Some famous statesman observed that. I mean, there's been horror for years. But as you've told me often, war periods, though, do bring new words into the language. Sabotage is also on this list. Yeah. What does sabotage, I know it's French for a clog or a shoe, but that probably has got something to do with sabotage. Where does sabotage come from? Well, it does actually, again, one of the most famous etymologies. And

actually, there is some truth in this one. So not so much of a folk etymology. So sabote in French means to kick with sabots, to kick with your clogs. And so by extension, meaning to willfully destroy something. And when in the 19th century, French workers took action against the introduction of new technology, this happened during the Industrial Revolution as well, didn't it? They would destroy machines and tools. And they wore traditionally these wooden clogs in the factories. It's not quite true that they would throw the clogs into the machinery to stop them working. But the whole metaphor of the idea of just destroying things in these clogs gave us the idea of sabotage. And it first appeared in English, as you say, first decade of the 20th century, and it actually was referring to a court case in Paris, so it was still French by then. And then by 1916, the Sydney Morning Herald was reporting on a labourer on an Australian sheep farm who was threatening sabotage against their employers. I think this is a wonderful way of exploring language, decade by decade.

Look, let's leave the 1920s, the roaring 20s, until next week. Okay. And then maybe people can write to us and suggest what decade they'd like us to explore. I'd love, I was thinking about the end of the Wars of the Roses the other day, because I was reflecting on how in this country, we've had civil war. There's civil wars going on in other parts of the world as we speak. But we can't sit in judgment on others. We've had our own civil wars, and we had the Wars of the Roses that really came to a head in 1485 with the Battle of Bosworth Field, where we had the Yorkists and the Lancastrians fighting one another over goodness knows what, the horror there. So maybe people can write in and say, would you explore the language of the 1480s or the 1620s? Anyway, we're going to do the 1920s

next time. But if people want to write to us, it's purplepeople at somethingrhymes.com. Have people written to us this week? I know they have. They always, always do. Yes. So we have a lovely email from Andy from Chicago. And actually, he has something for you in here as well, Giles. So he's a new listener.

He heard it referenced. I think Jimmy Carr mentioned it on 8 Out of 10 Cat Stars Countdown, and he hasn't stopped listening to it since, which is great news. So he has a question for me. He was wondering if I could explain how portmanteau came to mean a combination of two words. He says as a kid, he didn't know what that meant. And so they called these word blends or word mashups conlinks, which is quite nice. So I will come to that. And then for you, he has a poem that he just happened across, and it's well known to linguists, Giles, and you probably will be familiar with it. It's called The Chaos. Do you know this by Gerard?

I do know. I do know. It's an extraordinary poem. It is. You know this by Gerard Neustrenité. I do know. It's an extraordinary poem. It is. Oh, dearest creature in creation, studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse, sounds like corpse, core, horse and worse.

Oh, it's brilliant. I will keep you, Susie, busy, make your head with heat grow dizzy, tear in eye your dress you'll tear, queer seer hear my prayer pray console your loving poet make my coat look new dear sew it just compare heart hear and heard dyes and diet lord and word and it is all about idiosyncrasy and eccentricity of the english language which i'm not really mastering today um and it's yeah it's an absolutely brilliant one it today. And it's, yeah, it's an absolutely brilliant one. It's a gem. It's a very long,

it's a very long poem. So don't offer to learn it by heart until you can. But it ends rather amusingly. Don't you think so, dear reader, rather saying lather, bathe a father. Finally, which rhymes with enough,

though, through, bow, cough, huff, sow, tough. Hiccup has the sound of sup. My advice is give it up. Yes. So it's brilliant. So in case anybody wants to go and read the whole thing, it's called The Chaos and it's by Gérard Nolst-Trenité.

But back to Andy's question about portmanteau. Well, you will probably know this, Charles. We talked about this a little bit. Lewis Carroll, one of your heroes he actually gave us the word portmanteau for these kind of word blends and it's based on the use of the word for a folding suitcase or it's a large trunk essentially usually made of very stiff leather and it opens into two equal parts so the idea is of two parts being folded together just as his word chortle, a blend of chuckle and snort, are blended together to create this new portmanteau.

Yeah. Another one here. This one comes from Gavin. I don't know where he lives. What's Gavin got to say? Dear Susie and Giles, can you explain the origin of the phrase whale of a time, W-H-A-L-E, or is it whale of a time, W-A-I-L, which makes more sense as you're more likely to whale or scream if you're having a good time than act like a whale, a mammal not noted for its incitability. And there's something for you in a minute, Giles, too, which I'll read out because you'll be too modest to do so. But Gavin, just to let you know, it is a whale of a time as in the mammal, and it's all about size and dimensions.

It's all about having a hugely good time and a colossally good time. So it's simply large or significant. Did you know, Susie, that whales are amongst the most intelligent creatures? I can well imagine that. I can well imagine that. But the vet on This Morning, which is a television program I do, Dr. Scott, he was telling me that the most intelligent creatures include whales and dolphins and pigs. I think he put them even ahead of dogs. But isn't that interesting?

That is interesting. Wow. That's lovely. But no, they are absolutely fantastic creatures. Okay, Giles, this is the bit from Gavin for you. Giles, I seem to recall from an early episode that you doubted your ability and confidence as an after-dinner speaker. I must say that you are the best speaker or turn I've had the pleasure of listening to. I go to many events with after-dinner speakers and you were the only one who was mingled with the crowd before the event to gather gossip and give industry lowdowns to

make your speech both entertaining and relevant. I say this despite being the butt of one of your gags. As an aside, is the butt in this phrase a barrel or a posterior and why? But that is high praise indeed. That's wonderful praise. Thank you very much indeed, Gavin. Now answer the question, Susie. Okay, well, butt, so let's take the different meanings of but. The one meaning an end, as in a cigarette butt, or even the rifle butt that you hold, that's related to a Dutch word, bot, meaning stumpy. It's the same word as the butt for your bottom. Really, that goes back to medieval England.

But, as in the butt of a joke, as Gavin says he was here, thanks to you, is from an old French word, but, B-U-T, which means a target, or it did, in archery. And of course, today it's also used for a goal in football. So if you are the butt of a joke, you are the target of it. Very good. Our listeners are so brilliant. And you know, we are approaching our 250th episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. And it is all thanks to the listeners for, you know, the wonderful Purple people. So for our anniversary, we want to make it all about you. So if you've got an etymology query, a question of any kind, big or small, just write or send a voice note.

And our email address is purplepeople at somethingrhymes.com. And we'll try to answer as many as we can in that special 250th episode is there a word for 250th like there must be there must be there must be uh by yeah i'll leave it with me i'll i'll leave it with you well i'm going to you haven't got time to think about it now because it's time for your trio. My trio. Okay, well, my first trio is not, I hope, an adjective that anyone would direct at our podcast, nugatory. Nugatory means trivial or not worth bothering about.

So it's N-U-G-A-T-O-R-Y, nothing to do with nougat, which goes back to the Latin nux, meaning a nut. But yeah, if something is nugatory don't bother the next thing is this is this was a new one to me actually viscerotonic okay so viscero as in visceral v-i-s-c-e-r-o tonic and this describes curiously a type of personality which is comfort loving sociable effervescent and easygoing so i just was so lovely that there is a word for it so it's all about kind of you know your your sort of gut instinct almost and a sort of personality that just lets it all hang out i really like that and the final one is

interesting so we talk about pugilistic and pugilism, which has all to do with fighting with your hands. Well, the idea of your hand is also behind the word pugil, P-U-G-I-L, and it simply means a pinch of something or a handful of something. So I didn't even know that one existed either. So I love my tree. It sends me off in all sorts of directions. And how do you manage to remember these words? That for me is the challenge. I think a pugil, I suppose by using it. It's like knowing how the computer works. There are things on it that my grandchildren could do instantly. They show me and then I've forgotten immediately. It's repetition. It's keeping using. am never going to remember that, the more it actually becomes a thing that I can't remember it. So the 75 times table on countdown has been my bête noire for ages because I told myself I couldn't work out 775s in the space of three seconds. And so lo and behold, whenever it comes up, I get this absolute block until I just tell myself I'm being stupid. But yeah, don't ever say to yourself, I'll never remember it because unfortunately and it's published by Penguin. And essentially, I put into this all my favorite poems, particularly poems that I felt would be enjoyable, not just to read, but also to learn or to speak out loud. And I wanted a poem this week that came from the

first 20 years of the 20th century. So I turned to the first World War poets, the great war poets, as they're known. And I came across this poem by Siegfried Sassoon that's in my collection. It's called Idyll. It isn't strictly a war poem, but it is a poem of farewell. And it goes like this. In the grey summer garden I shall find you, with daybreak and the morning hills behind you. There will be rain-wet roses, stir of wings, and down the wood a thrush that wakes and sings. Not from the past you'll come, but from that deep where beauty murmurs to the soul asleep. And I shall know the sense of life reborn, from dreams into the mystery of morn, where gloom and brightness meet. And standing there

till that calm song is done, at last we'll share the league spread, quaring symphonies that are joy in the world and peace and dawn's one star. I think that's one of the most beautiful ones you've ever read on here, actually. What's its name? It's called Idyll. I-D-Y-L-L. Remind me what the word Idyll means. It means an idyll, a perfect moment, a special place. What is an idyll? Yes, so an idyll in literary terms is a picturesque scene or incident, especially a pastoral one.

But in Greek, it meant a sort of a form or a picture. So it was like a sort of snapshot, but it's acquired all sorts of positive images. So it's a really happy, peaceful, picturesque period or situation, usually idealized, often unsustainable, but still something that is pitch perfect in your head. Good. Well, we think that's a pitch perfect poem. Only 12 lines by Sigrid Sassoon, born 1886, didn't die till 1967, but we associate him so much with the early years of the 20th century. He also wrote some wonderful autobiographies, which I recommend. Anyway, that's my poem for this week. That's our lot for this week, isn't it? It is our lot, sadly, but I think we've kicked off, haven't we? Something that could run and run. I really enjoyed it anyway.

So we will be continuing with our 20th century words. And as Giles says, if there are other decades or periods in time before then, do let us know if you'd like us to explore them. And if you did love the show, please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe to us and recommend us to friends and family if you think they would enjoy it too. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Sony Music Entertainment production produced by Naya Deo with additional production from

Naomi Oiku, Sophie King, Hannah Newton, Chris Skinner, Poppy Thompson, very much in command today, and Matthias. Thanks to Matthias for getting me online in the first place. I've got some Matthias Rosé to give him later.