Something Rhymes with Purple - When in Rome...

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

Sadly we’re not in Rome… Gyles is in London and Susie is in Oxford but we're still going on an etymological journey through the origins and quirks of some of our best-known proverbs. Will an apple a day really keep the doctor away? How can it be possible to have your cake and eat it too? Why was Lord Nelson the first person to turn a blind eye? And, just to butter you up, all the regular features are there too: we’ll be responding to your emails, Susie’s got a trio for you, and Gyles has a poetic pearl of wisdom to provide a boost to morale. If you want to get in touch it’s [e-mail]. A Somethin’ Else production. Susie’s Trio: Waff - (multiple meanings) a slight blow; a tiny touch of illness; a glimpse; a waft of perfume; a regal wave Widdendream - a state of confusion or disturbance Twitterlight - an old word for twilight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

losses and real talk with special guests from the Athletes Village and around the world you'll never have a fear of missing any Olympic action from Paris. Listen to Olympic FOMO wherever you get your podcasts. Make your nights unforgettable

with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express.

Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Annex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Hello, and thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Something Rhymes with Purple. With me, Susie Dent, and my co-host... Giles Brandreth. And I'm speaking to you from southwest London. Where are you, Susie Dent? I'm in the same place as I was last week. I am in my sitting room come study, looking at all my language books and I'm in Oxford. So yes, so we're still using our fantastic home recording kit. So thank you to the Something Else team for setting us up with this. I have to say, my wife said to me, darling, you've been saying, I've been saying to you for years, Giles, you're not going anywhere. And now it's true, literally. So I'm still where I was last week. You're where you

were. How's the week been for you? Have you had lots of, have you been able to get out? Are you going out every day for your hourly constitutional? Yes. So I've been riding my bike actually recently. And Oxford just, I reminded myself the other day, just what an amazing city I live in because having been a student here and then gone away for quite a long time, lived in London for a while, came back. I tend to avoid the places I used to go when I was a student. I'm not quite sure why, but I don't that often go into the beautiful city centre or wander around the colleges. And obviously I can't go into the colleges now, but just cycling past the really quiet cobbled streets, past the Radcliffe Camera, if anyone knows Oxford, they'll know about that. And some of the colleges going down the high street,

going past Christchurch Meadows, it's just beautiful. And it has reminded me that actually, I really take this for granted and I need to, you know, just explore it a bit more. I go for my walk every morning quite early, about 7.30 in the morning. And what I'm loving is the bird song. Normally, I'm on the flight path to Heathrow, but now there don't seem to be any flights to Heathrow or very few. And the birds have returned. And it's fantastic. And I've been... You did a beautiful recording. I've done some little recordings and I put them out on Twitter, literally tweets on Twitter. And clever people are getting in touch and saying, oh, I heard this bird.

And they're recognising what the birds are, which is amazing. That could be something to do during lockdown, is to learn to differentiate birdsong. Wouldn't that be amazing? You will not have heard of a man called Percy Edwards, have you? I have heard of Percy Edwards. Now, wasn't he great at whistling? Percy Edwards was great at whistling. You have got him right. He was essentially, he was a zoologist by profession, but he was also an animal impersonator. And he did the animals for

many famous movies, the sounds of the animals. But he famously could do up to 600 different birds. Well, I loved the bird song that you tweeted. You asked me about my week. I've had a few moments of anxiety. I don't know if you have. And it seems to manifest itself in the compulsion to clean. So not just cleaning my house generally, but going out shopping and then coming back. I don't know if anybody else has the same sensation, but coming back with, you know, maybe two full shopping bags, I just don't know what to disinfect first. I wash my

hands, but then of course I bring out all the food and then I have to wash my hands again, but then I try and disinfect the food and I just can't remember which came first. And I know in the grand scheme of things, this is nothing compared with what our doctors and nurses, et cetera, are doing. So don't get me wrong. It's a tiny, tiny worry. But it's moments like that, that I tend to feel anxious because I feel like I actually can't control this thing because it's invisible. Do you have moments like that? I certainly have moments like that. And I've been thinking all week about the man who, to use the phrase you used last week, gobbled in front of you last week. I've spent the week on my early morning walk,

sort of dodging, ducking and diving between the runners. They're the ones I'm frightened of. They come panting behind you, panting, panting, panting. And then one of them was not just panting, but coughing as well. I didn't know where to go. I saw, anyway, I hid behind some dustbins and then the people came out of their house.

I thought, oh God, I'm going to be caught between the dustbins and the panting man. You're stacking away your shopping and I'm rearranging my bookshelves. I have a question to ask you. I've been doing quite a few bits and pieces for TV and trying to work out which room to be filmed in. I've done some things downstairs in rooms where there are books. Big mistake because people then are judging you by your books. as in rooms where there are books. Big mistake, because people then are judging you by your books. Either, you know, you're reading the wrong things, or if you've got rather grand books behind you, you're being pretentious. What I wanted to ask you was this. Do you arrange your books alphabetically?

No, is the answer. I did make a sort of half-hearted effort, but to be honest, it just felt too anal for the set. I just thought, no. Well, I think you are the luckier and the happier person because I am anal so that all my novels are alphabetical by author. They're alphabetical when you get to an author by the order in which the author wrote the books. So all the Jane Austen's on the order the novels were published, all the Brontes, all of that. And biographies are not by the author of biography, but by the subject of the biography. But a psychiatrist friend of mine said to me some months ago, seeing me doing this, oh, Giles, you think you can keep death at bay by sorting out your books. This is typical displacement. This is what people do when

they're frightened of death. They think that by being able to arrange their books, they can order their life. Do you keep your books at the front of the shelf or do you give an inch back? I did keep them at the front because it looked nicer, but time has unfortunately changed that. I will get to my books at some point. I try to keep them at the front, but my wife is doing daily Zumba or Pilates or exercise classes of one kind or another. She is constantly... And you can see where she puts her hands, right? Yes, and she puts her hands on my beloved bookshelves, pushes these books back. Oh, the tension between us-

There should be a proverb about this. There should be a proverb about careful where you put your hands. Well, I love to talk about proverbs. And in fact, thinking that we might, I managed to get from my bookshelves some lovely old books of proverbs. This is, I'm showing you one, because we are on Zoom as well. We can see each other as well as chatting to each other. I'm showing Susie proverbs of all nations that belong to my great, great

grandfather. It's dated 1861 and it's full of amazing proverbs, most of which I don't understand. I've opened it randomly at page 115. Steal the goose and give the giblets in arms. There's a Spanish version, steal the pig and give away the patitos for God's sake. That's brilliant. We should talk about other nations' proverbs because they're often so different to ours. So I've only just discovered no there's no point crying over spilt milk in other words it's already happened so there's no point being upset in welsh it's don't raise your petticoat after peeing in other words if you've peed with your petticoat down you've already wet yourself that's my reading of it that's not and in russian easier said than done

in russian is your elbow is, but you can't bite it. Isn't that brilliant? Obviously, that's not the Russian. I love that. You know, my favourite one in a Russian version is the phrase out of sight, out of mind. And it was translated into Russian by computer. And then it was translated back into English and it went out as out of sight, out of mind, and it came back as invisible lunatic. So the most famous proverb, I looked up a list of the most famous proverbs, the most popular proverbs, was an apple a day keeps the doctor at bay. Do you know anything about the origin of that? Yeah, I think, well, I was just mentioning Welsh and I think we have to go to Pembrokeshire for the source of this one.

1866, we get somebody saying it's a Pembrokeshire proverb, eat an apple on going to bed and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread. And there are lots of different variations on it. Some of them involve carrots. So a carrot a day will keep a doctor away. I have to say, I do eat carrots every day, raw carrots. I just love them. But I don't know if they a day will keep a doctor away. I have to say, I do eat carrots every day, raw carrots. I just love them. But I don't know if they're going to keep the doctor away. I hope they will. Anyway, so it was once a carrot a day keeps the doctor away, but apples too. Very good. I mean, lots of them are to do with food, aren't they?

Yes. What about the proof of the pudding is in the eating? Ah, yes. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It seems really odd, doesn't it? But the idea is, frankly, the proof of the pudding is simply whether or not it's good is in the eating of it. So it's not as kind of dastardly as it sounds. But there are phrases, there are proverbs that seem to have completely no logic at all. So to have your cake and eat it is a really odd one. But the original wording did make sense because it was, you can't eat your cake and then have it too, which makes perfect sense. And it was from over 500 years ago.

And for some reason, we flipped it to today's more puzzling version. I've got some wonderful ones about cheese that my father loved. He used to say, after cheese comes nothing. And the other one he did, the other cheese one he had. Now this is, well, I don't know whether this is permissible now. An apple pie without some cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. I like that one. I like that one. One of my mum's favourites was talk of the devil. Do you remember? I guess we still say, oh, talk of the devil when you are

talking about somebody and then they just walk through the door. That's really old. It's mid 17th century and it reflects the superstition, not more superstition, that it was dangerous to mention the devil by name. So there were so many synonyms for the devil, you know, old Nick, prince of darkness, the horned one, all came about because we thought we needed euphemisms for the devil. And people, they probably didn't believe that the mention of the devil would cause him to actually appear, but it did become quite a useful sort of figurative phrase. And Shakespeare used it quite often. So he says, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. And then in his time, the clergy also said, you know, talk of the devil and he is bound to

appear because it was a warning against being too curious about evil and stepping in the wrong direction. So I like that one. I like the devilish ones. What about teaching your grandmother to suck eggs? Yeah, that's really odd. Again, what you'll find if you're digging into proverbs is that there are so many versions of it. As sure as eggs is a good example of that. As sure as eggs is eggs. There are so many different things substituted for eggs. Some people think it's all to do with algebra and as sure as X is X. But no, there were just all sorts of food things substituted for that. And it's the same with grandmother sucking eggs. You could teach

your grandmother to do all sorts of things. Sucking eggs seems a really weird thing to do, but that's what thieves used to do if they were hungry, apparently, is they would just, I don't know if this is an old wives' tale, and so many proverbs are based on that, but they would sneak into the coop and they would steal the eggs. And if they were particularly hungry, they'd make a hole and then wolf it down straight. Then if that's true. Maybe that's something that old grandmothers would do. Maybe toothless old crones, because that's how they were in ancient days when people lost their teeth. They sucked up the eggs like that.

I mean, you mentioned old wives' tales. How old an expression is that? Yeah, well, that one's around the 18th century. And in fact, most of them do date back to the 18th century. And other versions of sucking eggs was don't teach your grandmother to steal sheep. And even more weirdly, which makes you think they were deliberately choosing something that was a bit preposterous, don't teach your grandmother to milk ducks, which I like. That's good. The idea is obviously longer experience brings the wisdom that you need to manage such tricks.

He that eats least eats most. What do you think about that one? He that eats least eats most. So he who do you think about that one? He that eats least eats most. So he who actually is less greedy in life. Exactly. The moderate eater will live the longest. And to keep yourself fit and your digestion good, after dinner, sit a while. After supper, walk a mile. It's rather nice, isn't it? That's a good one too.

It's a good remedy. Should we take a break and come back to some of these? Okay. I'll tell you what I want to do after the break. One of my favourite proverbs is, well, it's not really a proverb actually, it's an expression, to turn a blind eye to something. Oh, is that to do with Nelson?

It must be. Yes, it is. Also from Something Else. Mel Gedroych is quilting. Listen to Mel and good friend Andy Bush as they learn a great new skill and tell some brilliant stories. All whilst having some good wholesome fun. In a nutshell, I took a pair of scissors and I went into my husband's wardrobe. Now this comes from a shirt that I bought him

that I know he doesn't like. So I'm testing him by... This is brilliant. Yeah, by finding out when he discovers that the shirt has got a big patch out of the back of it.

Wow, and which area of the shirt is this taken from? Bottom right. OK. Listen now in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all good podcast apps. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat.

Download Bumble and try it for yourself. You know that feeling when you're like, why isn't there more of this? The show is so good. That was how I felt when I started to get really hooked on Black Butler that I think is just incredible. Oh, we yeah, it's coming back. It's coming back. And this is The Anime Effect, the show that allows celebrities to nerd out over their favorite anime, manga, or pop culture.

The Akatsuki theme song. You know what it is. I listen to that one all day. That thing go crazy. That thing can be in the gym going, and they're like, what is he listening to? Oh, it's not even in the gym. I be on the field.

I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. Find out which live action anime adaptations David Dostmalchian is praying he'll get to star in. Or how Jamal Williams

uses the mindset of Naruto for his NFL career. Listen to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. Here we are again. I'm Giles Brandre. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. My friend,

Susie Dent, knows everything about language, the origin of words and phrases. To turn a blind eye, I've always believed this is something to do with Admiral Lord Nelson, the man who stands atop that mighty column in Trafalgar Square now deserted. Am I right? Yes, you are right. I think it's quite well known, this one. But I love it because it's just so literal. I think I've talked before on our podcast about how I love those idioms,

which you think must be a metaphor, but actually they come with really literal origins. This is one of them. So, of course, turning a eye, we use it as a figurative turn of phrase these days, but it does go back to Horatio Nelson, who of course had one blind eye. And just to condense it really quickly, once during battle, the British forces signalled for him to stop attacking a fleet of Danish ships because surrender looked inevitable. He thought they still had a chance. So he held up a telescope to his blind eye and said, I do not see the signal. So he persevered, he attacked and was victorious. So his blind eye turned out to be extremely important. Wonderful.

And I just love that. And is he the Nelson of the Nelson touch? You've heard that expression? I don't know. What's the Nelson touch? Oh, having the Nelson touch. My best touch, but not Nelson touch. Oh, well, the Nelson touch means something rather special. Oh, you've got the Nelson touch. You've heard that expression. I don't know. What's the Nelson touch? Oh, having the Nelson touch. My best touch, but not Nelson touch. Oh, well, the Nelson touch means something rather special. Oh, you've got the Nelson touch. Now this, did you, when you were at school, play cricket or have you played cricket since? I used to play French cricket with a tennis racket. I've never actually played cricket. I played cricket. They used to say

Giles scores really well, meaning that I would lie in the long grass keeping the score, which is how I know that a Nelson in cricket is a score of 111, 1-1-1. Because at the end of his life, Admiral Lord Nelson allegedly had only one eye, one arm and one leg, 1-1-1. Wow. That's a Nelson for you. Wow. That's a good one, isn't it? No one would have given Nelson one, one. Wow. That's a Nelson for you. Wow. That's a good one, isn't it? No one would have given Nelson a cold shoulder. No.

And I wanted to mention this one because this is one where it's got a lovely story attached to it, which, once again, I have to kind of politely say is a load of tosh. So giving someone a cold shoulder, it's's said to go back to medieval England, when it was customary to give a guest a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of mutton or pork, whatever it was that they were eating. Some stories say that this was a polite way of telling people that they may leave. Other stories suggest that this was the kind of meat equivalent of, or not the meat equivalent, but another equivalent of humble pie which we've mentioned before was originally umbles pie umbles being the entrails of animals that were served up

at banquets and the entrails were served to the peasants so it said that the cold shoulder was the one that was given to the lowlier members of a table it's a lovely story but it's completely rubbish and the truth is just much more prosaic. It literally means you just turn your shoulder as a way of completely ignoring someone in disdain. Oh, that's a bit disappointing. Sorry about that. But it's good to know. I know, sorry, I built it up.

No, but this is good. This is why people tune in, because they want to know from you the authority. So don't rest on your laurels. Oh, rest on your laurels. What's the origin of that? Yeah, rest on your laurels. Romans, Greeks. your laurels. What's the origin of that? Yeah, rest on your laurels. Romans, Greeks? Well, that goes back to ancient Greece. Yes, absolutely right. Laurel leaves were the symbols

of success, sporting success, particularly status and achievements. And resting on your laurels was a way of basking in your past achievements and the glory of those rather than your present accomplishments. But it didn't start off as being negative. Only later did it take on a negative connotation. So actually, resting on your laurels was quite a good place to be. But it kind of flipped. And those laurels, of course, give us laureate, as in the poet laureate, as in a Nobel laureate. It means somebody who is worthy of wearing those laurels. Yes, but it didn't actually start off like that.

So a baccalaureate, for example, it started off with a different etymology. So it started off being a Latin word for someone who was a kind of knight of lowly status. But its spelling was changed because people assumed it was to do with a laurel wreath and that actually you were given and crowned with a garland of laurel if you were successful. So it kind of changed because of folk etymology, which happens quite a lot in the course of English. But there are other ones that seem so ridiculous, you think, oh, this can't be true. And they are. And buttering someone up is one of those. If you butter someone up, you behave quite obsequiously, you're a bit of a toady. But to butter someone up is thought to go back to a religious tradition in ancient India where worshippers would throw butter balls at the statues of their gods as a way of seeking favour and forgiveness.

It sounds rubbish, but actually there is evidence that this happened. How interesting, because I'd have thought buttering somebody up was to do with greasing around someone, exactly, being oily. But you're telling us it goes back to India and people throwing butter balls at the statues of gods. Gosh, seeking favour and forgiveness. Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Yes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Now, this one is really, really old, as you would probably expect. Well, I guess Proverbs are snippets of wisdom, aren't they? Transferred from one generation to the next. And this is one of them. So it started off as a warning to travellers to observe local custom, which is pretty much what we're talking about, what we're it for today. And it's thought to have originated in a letter from, I think it was fourth century, a Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose. And obviously he wrote in Latin, but his advice read pretty much when you're at Rome,

live in the Roman style. And when you're elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. And he wrote this to St. Augustine. And I think he was confused about the proper day for fasting. And St. Augustine knew that the Roman church had said that Saturday was the day set aside for fasting. But in Milan, where he lived, there wasn't such requirements. He didn't know what to do. And so he consulted St. Ambrose, who said he replied with that advice, when in Rome, do as they do.

It's very good advice. So very, very old. Yeah. I haven't done any proper name dropping recently. So I might as well tell you now that when I first went to interview Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, now a figure that we see in a broader light following the divorce proceedings, which were much reported over here. Yes.

We had coffee. We were chatting and I asked, I was interviewing him. I was there to interview him. It was the first and only personal interview he'd ever given. And I asked my first question, he didn't reply. So I thought, this isn't going very well. So I sipped my coffee and then asked him my second question. Still, he didn't reply.

I sipped my coffee again. A third question, still no response from Sheikh Mohammed. So eventually I drained my coffee cup, at which point he answered my first question. And I looked at him puzzled and he said, ah, in our country, we have the hospitality first, we have the entertainment first, and then we do the business. So I was not able to reply to your questions until you had finished your coffee. So when in Dubai, do what Sheikh Mohammed does, unless you're married to him. There's also the, I don't know if this is apocryphal or not. I don't know if we have any listeners in Japan, it would be wonderful, but isn't it customary as well that the people working in an office cannot leave until the boss leaves. I think there may even

be a Japanese phrase for that, but that's always fascinated me. Totally. I guess it's true. Well, I was going to say, neither of us can leave until we've answered some questions, and we've had a lot of questions from people. Good point. So can I fire a few at you? Please do. I can't promise that I'll know the answers, but I'll try. Well, first up, a comment on something from last week. Bruce Fielding emailed to claim that when we were discussing the black sheep advertisement for Volkswagen, she was actually thinking of an advertisement for Levi jeans. Or maybe there were two ads. I don't know.

Levi, by the way, what's the origin of that? Levi's are not called Levi. Was there a person called Levi? Levi Strauss, wasn't it? Levi Strauss was his name, wasn't it? And he made the jeans and now they're called Levi's. Yes. And jeans, where does the word jeans come from?

Genoa, as I recall. Genoa. Genoa. And denim comes from Nîmes, de Nîmes, from Nîmes in France. Yes. And Nîmes in France is one of those funny French places that has a hat over the eye. Isn't that right? It has a circumflex.

A circumflex, right? We used to call it, when I was at school, it was called a chapeau on the eye. that right? It has a circumflex. A circumflex, right. We used to call it, when I was at school, it was called a chapeau on the eye. We didn't use the word circumflex. We said, ah, a chapeau on the eye. I don't suppose the French use circumflex. Well, I think they've modified the rules and I don't think the circumflex is compulsory anymore.

If there are French teachers listening to this, because maddeningly for them, schools are closed at the moment, or anyway, it's the Easter holidays, you could let us know whether the French have abandoned their accents. If people actually do want to... Yeah, because the Germans got rid of their S set, the double S, so it's quite possible. If anybody does want to get in touch with us, it's simply quite easy to do purple at somethingelse.com. Purple at somethingelse.com. No G in the something olivia phillips this is something that's been

creeping into the lexicon uh of late according to olivia phillips hello both you are most definitely my favorite podcast that's very sweet oh yeah thank you i always listen to them the day they come out yay after lockdown i shall be starting my history a-level. And I'm more looking to affirm my theory that the word history originates from his story. And if so, should I begin to call history either their story or her story in the interests of feminism? Thank you, Olivia. Good question. What is the origin of the word history? Well, I can dismiss the fact that it has anything to do with the male possessive pronoun, nothing to do with his at all, because it goes all the way back to the Romans, as things so often do, and historia, which for them was exactly as we would use it today.

It was an account or narrative of past events. And historia eventually, of course, came into English via French, in fact, as history. But story also is involved there because the word story originally meant the same thing, a written narrative of past events that were accepted as true. And Historia kind of broke off. It was reburied into English after the Normans came along and their French word, histoire. And then story could describe dramatic representations of real events and then eventually the kind of fictional ones too. as in a multi-story car park, is a sibling of the stories that we read in our books or from history, because it originally referred to tiers of painted windows or sculptures that would decorate the facades of buildings, the fronts of buildings, which would each depict a historical subject. So each story with an E told a different story.

Oh, I love this. I love that. It's brilliant. I like that too. Anyway, it was a very long and involved way of saying, Olivia, you can still use history with pride because it should embrace both female and male history. And good luck with your history A-level. What A-levels did you do, Susie? I did French, German and English.

Well done. Englischlang and Englischlit, yeah. Which ones did you do? Not very many. I just did two. I did English, which I could speak, and I did French, which at that time I could speak as well. I thought the fewer the better. That was my philosophy.

Now, Alexander Henderson has a question. Gravy. Hello, Giles. Hello, Susie. I'm a sixth form student from Newcastle. Oh, this is interesting. The younger generation are discovering us. Oh, isn't this marvellous?

This is good. I was slightly alarmed the other day because he had the most fantastic little boy and we need to find his name again because he tweeted, he just gave the most brilliant rendition of a poem. Do you remember? And it was just full of drama.

Oh, yes. And it was about wild animals. And he said he loved our podcast and I thought, okay, we need to maybe temper our language a little bit because he did look quite young. Oh, yes. And it's about wild animals. And he said he loved our podcast. And I thought, OK, we need to maybe temper our language a little bit. Oh, come on. Because he did look quite young. Oh, fuck me. We can do what we like.

They know it all. They're the ones teaching. My grandchildren have taught me language that I did not know existed. Hello, Giles and Susie. I'm a sixth form student from Newcastle who has been tuning in for a while. And your podcasts are a joy to listen to, especially when on lockdown. I was speaking to a friend of mine who described a film as different gravy. I really like the expression, but I'm not sure if it's real or he just made it up. If it is real, where does it come from? That's a question from Alexander Henderson.

I love the expression, different gravy. I've never heard it before. It's a great expression oh let's spread the word expression do you know you know what you are suzy i'm gonna do a different gravy i like it no lumps in here i mean gravy has been you know like gravy train and if something's gravy in slang it's cool but the gravy train isn't cool is it smooth gravy train is no riding the gravy train no but it started off being cool to ride the gravy train is just No, riding the gravy train, no. What does that mean? It started off being cool. To ride the gravy train is just to have a bit of a sort of easy life, isn't it? Yeah.

Isn't it? Well, I think you're taking advantage of other people too. You've climbed aboard something that is sloshing with gravy. Yes. Isn't that right? And I think it comes from that slang sense of gravy, meaning sort of easy, the easy life. But yeah, I've never heard that exact expression.

I love it. Well, Alexander, your friend may have originated this. So how does he get the word? How does the word eventually, how will this expression end up in your dictionary? Different gravy. How will it or how would it? How could it? Well, it, boringly, it all comes down to usage.

So no particular campaign is going to get your word in the dictionary. I'm sure I've mentioned before the fact that the, I think it was the British Potato Council, wanted us to stop using couch potato and use couch slouch instead. Big campaign, didn't happen because we're, you know, we are reflecting the way that things are used. So with this one, the more it's used in as many different places as possible for as long a time as possible, the more chance it has of getting it in. It's kind

of boring, but it is democracy. I'm going to keep going with it. We've got time for just one more query from Mostyn and Lila Jones. Hello, Susie and Giles. My seven-year-old daughter wondered, imagine she's Lila, and this is from Mostyn, whilst munching on her lunch, whether cheeky had anything to do with your cheeks. Many thanks. Keep up the excellent and fascinating and amusing work. Well, it's an amusing question. Cheeky. It's a brilliant question, Lila. It actually is a riff on having the face to do something. So if you have the cheek to do something, you have the face to do something, which is a much older expression. And that goes back to the 16th century i think and it simply meant you were in command

of yourself you had composure and coolness and boldness and then in later use it kind of came to mean an absence of shame so you had impudence you had the impudence to do something and that's when cheek crept in and what is the origin of the word cheek for the cheek in your cheeks uh the cheek in your cheek That's a really good question. I'm going to look it up. I haven't had to look anything up today, which is very unlike me. And it probably means I've made loads of mistakes on the way, but hopefully not. I'm logging into the OED now.

And cheek. Dancing cheek to cheek. Can you hear that? Old English. The etymology is, well, it's got lots of siblings and relations right across Scandinavian and Germanic countries. And it goes back to Old Icelandic cock, meaning a gullet or throat. But we don't know the exact etymology, unknown. We don't know the exact origin of it.

But yes, it's all to do with the Old Icelandic cock, apparently. You are in complete command of the language, Susie Dent. Tell us what your three words for this week are. Oh, my three words, my trio of words. OK, well, I'm going to, it's just a lovely Scottish word. I've been kind of browsing through a Scots dictionary recently. I know I've mentioned the word Hufflepuffs before, which is one of my all time favourites. recently. I know I've mentioned the word Hufflepuffs before, which is one of my all-time favourites. 19th century Scottish word for the clothes, the old clothes that you shuffle around

in at home and that we're all wearing these days for longer than the weekend. That's not one of my trio. My first one I think is going to be Wath, W-A-F-F, because it can mean so many different things in Scots. So it can mean a slight blow with your hand. It can mean a tiny touch of illness. It can mean a glimpse, a waft of perfume, or a kind of waving movement of the hand as the Queen might perform. That's a waft. A waft. I like that one.

Yes, I just like that one. Number two? So I picked up on that one. Number two is Widden Dream dream which again a wooden dream this reminds me of midsummer night's dream for some reason so it's w-i-d-d-e-n dream wooden nice word wooden dream to be in a wooden dream is something most of us might be feeling or have felt a bit in the past few weeks it's a state of confusion or disturbance when your equilibrium is not quite as balanced as it should be. In other words, it's a bit off kilter. So you're in a wooden dream. And it's

a sibling really of the nicer word swadder. And to be in a swadder is a state of drowsiness or stupor, e.g. after a long meal on a hot summer's afternoon. So, wooden dream. That's my second. I like it. And my third... Could be swatter. I like that word. Oh, it could be. But what is it? I'll add in another one for free. It's twitterlite.

Oh. Twitterlite is a very, very old, now obsolete word meaning twilight. Twitterlite. It has an uglier cousin, which is twatterlite, but we won't go there. Let's not get into the Twatterlight. Let's stick with the Twitterlight. Three beautiful words. Oh, that's marvellous.

Well, look, that almost wraps it up. Oh, yes, have you got a hand-washing poem for us? I've got a hand-washing poem, and it'll serve as my quotation as well. It's a quotation from the works of a great poet called Lee Hunt. Not as famous as many of you, he had some great contemporaries, people like Wordsworth, who he knew, but he lived in, I think he was born 1780s and lived to the 1850s, 60s. It's a poem called Jenny Kissed Me. Do you know it? It's short and it's sweet and I think it's very charming. And it's quite easy to learn. If you learn two lines at a time, you could learn this poem in four days.

And I'm trying to learn poems on my hourly walk every morning. And I'm trying to learn this one at the moment. Jenny kissed me when we met, jumping from the chair she sat in. Time, you thief, who loved to get sweets into your list, put that in. Say I'm weary, Say I'm sad. Say that health and wealth have missed me. Say I'm growing old. But add, Jenny kissed me.

Oh, I love that. It's a charming poem, isn't it? That's beautiful. Yes, lovely. It is, absolutely charming. If anybody wants to get in touch with us, they've got questions, they want to argue with some of the wisdom of Susie Dent,

you'd be a fool to do that, but occasionally she... No, please do. You can tweet us or email us at purple at somethingelse.com. We can't answer every question, but we do our best. And we read them all. We do. Actually, we read them all. And actually, we're genuinely very grateful to them all. And we're thrilled that we have this expanding audience, particularly the young people who are joining us now who aren't at school. It's fantastic. Thank you for being there. Don't forget, if you have enjoyed it, to write a nice review, recommend us to a friend. Oh, yes, please do. I'd love that.

Keep in touch. Do keep in touch. And we'll just add at the end that Something Rhymes with Purple is, of course, a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Steve Ackerman, Jemima Rathbone, who did some brilliant research for us, Grace Laker and Gully, without whom we would not be able to speak today. Thank you. Gully is definitely different gravy.