Something Rhymes with Purple - Words Of The Year 2020

Episode Date: December 29, 2020

Merry Christmas, a Festive Merrineum and a Happy New Year! It is the end of 2020; a year full of covidiots, royal viruses and quaranteenies. This week’s episode has everything you need to get you through to the New Year. We kick off with the bare facts and the naked truth about Christmas cracker jokes, Gyles then puts Susie through her paces with some tricksy word games you too can enjoy at home, before we round up our SRWP Words of the Year for 2020. So get your pen and paper at the ready as Susie demonstrates why donkeys are a lexicographer’s worst nightmare and we revel in the words that have made us tingle with linguosity this year. A Somethin’ Else production. If you want to get in touch with Susie and Gyles to ask any questions, you can get in touch at [e-mail]. In “unprecedented times” we at Something Rhymes With Purple are immensely grateful to you, our listeners, for the year we’ve had. As Gyles has already said an exuberant “cheers!” to you a thousand different ways, we’ll just leave you with... Susie’s Trio: Belgard- a loving look, an amorous glance. Linguosity- a pleasure in using words, perhaps a little bit too much! Beblubbed- having swollen eyes from too much crying “Don’t be so beblubbed, respair is round the corner.” Happy holidays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main We'll see you next time. Annex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Season's greetings and a very warm welcome to what we hope will be a very special edition of Something Rhymes with Purple. This is a podcast where Susie Dent and I meet up each week to talk about words and language.

And we're so grateful to you for joining us. We're very lucky. We've had a very happy year with Something Rhymes with a Purple. We've had four million downloads so far, which is fantastic. And we won a prize this year. Best Entertainment Podcast, the Gold Award, which was pretty exciting. And it's all, frankly, down to the people who tune in and listen. So thank you very much for being there. This is a week between Christmas and New Year, and you gave a lovely word for it,

didn't you, the other day? I can't remember what that word was. There's lots of them. Some people call it Twixtmas, which is quite nice. But the one I like the best, just because it makes me laugh, is the Merineum. Because like the perineum, it kind of bridges two things. I like that. Well, I like, at Christmas time, I like to play games. So I thought we'd begin today by playing a few games. And I'm going to introduce you to a couple of games. And I hope they're games that people can play as well. So I'm going to introduce you to games that we can play with the family, or games that you can play on your own So I'm going to introduce you to games that we can play with the family or games that you can play on your own.

And also there's some riddles. I came across, we were talking about Victorian literature last week, and I came across a book of Victorian riddles with a linguistic feel to them. And I wonder if you can answer any of these riddles, Susie Dent. What grammatical term is unpopular with young lovers? What grammatical term is unpopular with young lovers? Split infinitive. Don't know. The third person. Very good.

Boom, boom. That's quite neat, isn't it? In what sort of syllables ought a parrot to speak? Don't know. I hope the people listening are shouting out their earphones. In what sort of syllables should a parrot speak? Not money. Polly syllables. Polly syllables. Polly syllables. Polly syllables.

I can't believe I didn't get that one. I know. Polly means, why do people call a parrot Polly? It's interesting, isn't it? It's just because we love giving first names to birds. So we have the robin. We have the parrot itself, which goes back to Pierre, Pierrot, which means little Peter. We have the magpie, in which the mag is short for Margaret.

And similarly, Polly. So Polly actually was the term for a parrot for quite a long time. Oh, good. You called it a Polly, not a parrot? Yeah. Goodness. And Polly also means multiple. It does, with one L. poly, not a parrot? Yeah. Goodness. And poly also means multiple. It does, with one L.

As in polysyllable. Yes. When can you recognise the naked truth? I'm looking for a pun here. When can you recognise the naked truth? When you're given the bare facts. Honestly, I need more time for these. They're brilliant.

No, you don't. I mean, they're Christmas cracker stuff. Christmas cracker invented in Victorian times, Tom Smith, 1843. You won't be surprised to know when I was young, I actually wrote the riddles for Christmas crackers. I'm not at all surprised. In your Christmas jumpers.

The one that was banned, they wouldn't run it, was the one that said, what does the queen do when she burps? She issues a royal pardon. Oh. In what colour should a secret be kept? This is quite clever. In what colour?

Oh, I can't think. Panicking. In violet. Oh, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You know, as with all quiz questions, they're easy when you know the answer, impossible when you don't. I'm very close to the poly one. I should easily have got that one.

When is longhand quicker than shorthand um when is longhand quicker than shorthand there are people out there walking the dogs and listening to us shouting at me for heaven's sake exactly it's been a long time we long hand i'll give you a clue i'll rephrase it when is a longhand quicker than a sh hand? When it's on a clock. Oh. But of course, maybe nowadays people don't see a clock with their hands going around. No, do you know, there's an amazing fact that actually so many kids these days have no idea how to tell the time from a traditional clock because it's all digital.

Why is a joke like a coconut? Because it's a bit shy. That's quite nice. That's not very good. As in a coconut shy. Well, that's good because there's no use till it's been cracked. Oh, very good. Very good. Let's play a game.

Do you know the game Donkey? This is an actual game that people can play over Christmas. You can play it, any number of people. The idea of this game, again, it's a Victorian game, and you have to spell a word. It can't be a three-letter word, don't count. You don't want to be the person finishing the word. You mustn't finish the word, you lose a life. There are six lives to lose. And when you become a D after you lose your first life, then a D-O, then a D-O-N,

then a K-E-Y, you eventually end up as a donkey, donkey. Okay. So we're going to spell a word, taking it in turns. So I would like to say, I'll say G. Yeah. And you'll say what? A. A, good. If I said P, that wouldn't count. The gap is a word. I see. It's got to be a longer than three letter word.

I see. So go on spelling. So I've said G-A-P. Yes. What's your next letter? I. N. Ah.

Okay. So if I add G, I've lost, right? Yeah. You've said gaping and you've lost. You've added G, you've lost. So you're a donkey. Okay. If you're very strategic, you just count up the number of letters that you're going for, don't you?

Because you narrow it down to one word that can't be escaped from. Well, yes, but the language is so rich. I mean, you know, that Oxford English Dictionary you've got, it's got half a million words in it, hasn't it? Yeah, or more. And so the possibility is endless. They're more limited when there are just two people playing, of course, because you can work out alternate letters. When it gets to three people playing, it becomes more complicated. And it's a great game to play in the car or around the table with all the family. Let's bring in part of our family. It's Lawrence, our producer. Lawrence,

you've got the idea, you've worked out the rules of Donkey. Do you understand how we play the game? I have worked out the rules. Can I ask, are you allowed to put L-Y on the end of words? I know. I'd like to do adverbs, but... Yes, you can, of course. As long as you haven't finished the word before you get there. That's the thing, Lawrence, because you will have already got the adjective. Absolutely. Yes.

You've already got absolute. Yes. Exactly. I think I've got it, Giles. I think... I'm going to compete with you. I think you're going to be quite good on this. Yes. Exactly. I think I've got it, Giles. I think I'm going to compete with you. I think I'm going to be quite good on this. Good. Okay. I'm starting this word, then it's Susie, then it's Lawrence. F for Freddie.

A. B. Fab. But three other words don't count, so well done, you. U. L. O. U.

This is very unfair of you there, Lawrence. You set me up for that one because I've got nowhere to go. U. This is very unfair of you there, Lawrence. You set me up for that one because I've got nowhere to go. Okay. I think there is. Is there? Oh, but maybe, no, I think maybe there isn't. I was thinking that possibly fabuloso. I was thinking fabuloso.

I was going to have fabuloso, but I still have to put the S in, don't I? So I'm the donkey again. That was unfair, guys. Okay. Another round. You begin this round. Me um h okay h i will follow with a simple a r b o u honestly this is just you have set me up listeners isn't this marvelous the world's leading lexicographer is playing a children's, a Victorian children's game, and she's losing hands down.

This is all to do with the length of words. This is what most people want, Susie, is to beat Dictionary Corner. That's what we're all in for. I know, but I don't have a choice. I have nowhere to go. I've been set up. You have nowhere to go but to give us the letter R. Harbour.

We've not planned this beforehand. No. May I just say this is not to do so much with skill, but to do with luck? You may say that, but nobody believes you. It's entirely to do with skill. Okay, you start the next word. One more round. Okay.

L. I. N. S. Lawrence. L-I-N-S. Come on, Lawrence. We're doing well with this one.

I think I know what letter you want to give us. Is it the first? A, B, C. Or is it the fifth letter of the alphabet? No, stop it. That's not first. I've set myself up again, haven't I? You have.

We say E. Oh, that's interesting. E. Excellent. M. L-I-N-S-E-E. What? M.

M? Yeah, linseam. Linseam? What's linseam? It's not, linseam is not a word in itself. It's linseemingly. What does it mean? It means when you look a bit like Lynn. Like Lynn? This is prize treating. Honestly.

I have the OED in front of me, it confirms it. That's how they do it all the time. Honestly. I have the energy in front of me, it confirms me. That's how they do it all the time. Lynn seemingly, not only have we discovered that the world's leading lexicographer can't win a simple Victorian children's word game, we find that to do so, she tries to cheat.

Yeah. I mean, this is appalling. But, you know, I have the power to enter words into the dictionary, which I just have. So Lynn seemingly is in. Okay, so quickly, Giles, I'm going to say, we are all now D-O-N-K-E. It's sudden death. Susie, you can start. This is for the win, the Christmas

New Year win. It's dealer's choice. What do you want to go for? I just think you guys have already plotted how you're going to set me up. So I'm going to go with A. I'm going to go with C. C. E. N. Lawrence. You've got to be clearer than that, Susie. N's quite a good one, though.

Giles, what are you going to go with? It's a very good one. I'm going to concede. Accent. I'm giving T. So sudden death. So what happens, our listeners missed all the bit that we cut out where i did amazingly well and well done before we lose you lawrence let's say thank you to you and your team

and all the people at something else for all the good work you've done this year bringing our podcast to the world thank you so much it's a privilege to work on and thank you to you guys. Happy Christmas to everybody. And I'm just thankful I'm not the donkey this time. No, you're the donkey. No, I'm proud to be the donkey. It's not a bad thing to be.

Lovely. Well done. Susie, before we take a break, I'm going to give you just one more game that people can, that you can actually ponder over the break. Okay. And then we can give the answers at the back of the break.

Again, it's an old game that people have been playing for years, but it's quite fun to do. It's how you turn one word into another word. It was very popular with Lewis Carroll, the creator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He would turn wet into dry, one step at a time, one letter at a time. So he'd take the word wet,

he'd then give you bet, he'd give you the word bay, B-E-Y. What is bay? Is that a comma? B-E-Y. Yes, it is a word, isn't it? Yes, it's a Turkish governor

of a province or district. I mean, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that one. Then he went to die, D-E-Y. What's a D-E-Y? D-E-Y? Lewis, honestly D-E-Y? D-E-Y? Lewis, honestly.

Where were you going with all of these? A woman having charge of a dairy. There you are. And then he got to dry. So you can get to wet to dry in three steps. Wet, pet, babe, day, dry. And I go to sleep at night. Wow. Turning hair into soup, pity into good, poor into rich, tree into

wood. Let's take a break and then I'll tell you how to turn Cain into Abel. Brilliant. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no.

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There are certain songs that I'm like, whoa, the melodies in this are really amazing. No idea what bro's saying at all, but I'm jacking these melodies. And you know, I hear Megan Thee Stallion is also a big anime fan. So Megan, do you want to trade AOT hot takes? We're here. Listen every Friday

wherever you get your podcast and watch full episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Also from something else. Katie Piper's extraordinary people with me katie piper every episode i'm joined by a guest who tells their incredible and inspirational story revealing how they face adversity and come through the other side including great british

bake-off judge rue leaf i, when my first husband died, I think that next two years were the worst two years of my life because I really loved him deeply. And he died about 18 years ago now. But what kept me going was that I had all this work that was nothing to do with him. Do you think independence is key to resilience? Yes, a degree of independence. I think to put all your eggs in one basket is dangerous

because it's just, you know, it's just so awful when you're left on your own. You can find a link to this particular interview in the episode notes of the show you're listening to. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. In a moment, we're going to explore the words of the year. But first, we're just playing a little word game. It's a Victorian word game that I love, that I discovered because it was much loved by

Lewis Carroll. I don't know that he was the inventor of it, but he used to enjoy, for example, turning pig into stye. But even not, you can get from cane to able. Cane, chin, shin, spin, spun, Spun, spud, sped, aped. A-P-E-D. Do you know what aped means? Oh, aped. What am I saying? It means aped.

Aped. Donkey. Oh, dear, I've been in the Christmas sherry. And from aped to abed to able. So go from game to able. It's quite fun. You can go from flower to bread, flower, floor, flood, blood, brood, broad, bread. It's a fun game to play. So the idea is you simply take two words of the same length and you turn one into the other. So that's what I'm saying. If

you happen to be alone or just taking a walk on your own for the rest of the walk, when our podcast is over, feel free to just take two words and see if you can connect them. Make eel turn into pie, oat into rye, or even better, ape into man. Can it be done? So those are some of my games. But one of the games that people have been playing in the newspapers and all the dictionary makers have been playing is Word of the Year. This is something that every dictionary company in the world, Merriam-Webster, Oxfam English Dictionary, Collins, they all decide what they think is the word of the year, often based on the number of times it's been searched in a search engine. And this last

year has given us so many words, hasn't it? I've been making lists of them. Have you? Yes. It's quite fascinating, actually. And just to correct you, it's not so much words that have been looked up in a search engine, although obviously, no, that is relevant.

But what lexicographers use are these vast databases of language. So the Oxford English Corpus, as they're called, which just means a database of language, is 11 billion words at the moment. And, you know, and it's still going up and so we study these to see which words are bubbling under which words have exploded through the surface of the water

and which ones are slowly sinking and it's fascinating to watch but for me what was more fascinating was that this year for the first time i think that certainly in my living memory that oxford published its word of the year in fact it found it impossible to choose because 2020 has been such a tumultuous or you know the word that seemed to in April I thought it's got to be the word of the year unprecedented it's been such an unprecedented year that actually they couldn't choose just one and so they chose a whole raft and issued a really fascinating language report on the words that have really come to the fore this year and words that we couldn't possibly have anticipated. So, yeah, it's been quite something linguistically. I think I mentioned people looking up words because one of the dictionaries, not the Oxford Dictionary, told us that the word lockdown, which, of course, has been in existence for a long time.

Collins had been searched for 4,000 times last year, but more than a quarter of a million times this year. And other words that people already knew like furlough, key worker, self-isolation, they already existed, but they came into more familiar currency than ever before. How old is social distancing as a phrase? Social distancing, I think, was kind of used by virologists in the 60s. But it's certainly been used before now of, first of all, people that just wanted to keep apart from others. But in terms of outbreaks and illness, probably since the big sort of flu epidemic, so maybe kind of the 80s, 1980s onwards. I mean, not massively long, certainly not as long as number one. So we've drawn up our own list, haven't we, Giles? We have drawn up the purple words of the year that for us have some kind of resonance for the

year that's just gone and that we felt was sort of deserving of mention. And number one is the word quarantine. And that is a word with real history. And we've talked before about how there is some comfort in the fact that these words have been around and people have needed to use them because of the challenges that they faced and they've gained new currency, but you know, they're not new and we have dealt with these things before, however painful it is. So quarantine looks back to the days of the Black Death, when in Venice, boats and ships arriving were required to anchor for 40 days before their crews could come on shore. And the Venetian dialect word for 40 was quarantina, 40 days,

and that gave us our modern quarantine. Quarantine had been in use long before then as well in religious contexts, etc. But our modern sense of isolating through, you know, because of exposure to illness is from the Black Death. That's our number one, not that we're including these in the list, but I've liked the variance that people have given us on quarantine, the fun they've had with it. I like people talking about drinks that they were having during the early days of lockdown when people were Zooming one another for quarantinis. Yes, experimental cocktails.

Experimental cocktails. They call them quarantinis. And I like, too, the description of teenagers in the time of the COVID-19 lockdown being known as quarantines. Nice. And babies born during this time were the coronials. I think that's clever. Coronials, quarantinis. Yeah. And also, speaking of people having drinks, it was called the locktail, the locktail hour.

Nice. Well, number two on our list is sort of quite similar in that we decided that, you know, things were pretty grim and actually it was time for a little bit of wordplay, quarantini being a great example, but time to sort of slightly lighten time for a little bit of wordplay, quarantini being a great example, but time to sort of slightly lighten things up a little bit, but also try to, you know, to deal with the realities that we were facing, not just one, but several.

So the Corona Coaster is what we have all been riding this year. That's number two on our list, the Corona Coaster. So there've been variations too, using the word Corona. Corona means crown. Yes. And the virus is called the coronavirus yes because it the actual thing looks like a crown well yes it's got like um it's got because the corona can also be relating to the solar eclipse so when it's looked at through um

a microscope it looks like it has a sort of corona around it. So yes, and you know, corona, the coronavirus actually has relatives in coronation and other things to do with the crown. Just remind everybody of the origins of the very word COVID-19. Yes. It's funny, isn't it? Because you wanted in some ways to put this on the list because nobody really knows what the D means. And that's absolutely right. I never thought about that before. So you tell us. Well, essentially, it's an abbreviation of coronavirus, disease, and 2019. So it's three elements, coronavirus, disease, and the year. So that gives us COVID and 2019. So there you are. Do you know, there's just one other word that I probably would have put on my list. And in fact, if I had to choose an official dictionary word of the year,

I might well have gone for this one, 2020 itself, because the date has become shorthand for anything that's kind of crazy, mad, ludicrous, unexpected, tragic. People say that's so 2020. Oh, that's very good. Yeah. Well, that could be. Should we make that number 11? I think we have to add that to our list. I think we definitely do.

We'll come back. Because in a moment when we move on from COVID-19, we shall be discovering other things that are so 2020. Maybe people will look back on this with some nostalgia, a feeling of nostalgia for the lockdown. The early lockdown, I rather liked in the early days when we were just walking about and there were no aeroplanes. We were listening to the birds. And I also, quarantine being our number one word, I love the phrase quarantine or the word quarantine for people who've pulled together through the crisis.

They've been a quarantine. And actually, you mentioned nowhere, no planes, less pollution, etc. There was one of the very few new words to emerge this year, actually, that made Oxford's list was anthropause. And anthropause is a mix of anthropo, meaning man or human, and pause, as in, you know, things just stopped and man and nature had time to breathe and throw pause what about covidiots yes that's gone into the dictionary in fact that's what that

word went in extremely quickly and why is that i mean it's obviously used everywhere i suppose people need to know what it means that's why it's in the dictionary yes and covidiots are they can be anything really can't they the people who disagree with you basically are called the people that basically just ignored all the official guidance and just went about. I mean, that links into another one which didn't make our list and actually was again, tongue in cheek because we needed a bit of lightness. And that was a clap hazard. Somebody who stood far too close to you when clapping the NHS.

Yes, I thought when I first saw that it was somebody who got a venereal disease by mistake. A clap hazard, but it is something different. I'm interested that we decided in the end to avoid Zoom. The truth is, Zoom has now become like Google or Hoover, one of those words that used to be attached to a product, but actually now means something beyond that. What's that? What is the phrase for taking a word and making it into another word like Hoover? Yeah, there is a word called genericide, which is actually almost sort of death to the product by the fact that it becomes generic. But that's slightly technical. I'm not sure that's the kind of main word. But yes, it does become generic. And a trademark sort of loses its grip and then becomes, you know, very much a kind of

mainstream word. And of course, it then loses its capital letter. So at the moment with Google, we're in the strange position where Google, the search engine is a capital G, but to Google something has got a lowercase g because it's lost its trademark. And if you Zoom somebody, are you using a capital Z? We are at the moment. Yes, we are.

Now, I'm loving the lockdown lingo. What about the coffin dodger in the early days? People were avoiding people with coughs. They were coughing dodgers. Oh, coughing dodgers. And phrases like, when we were supposed to be flattening the curve, people say, well, actually, what I'm doing is fattening the curve because we were drinking the cocktails and eating at home. Yes. Yes. I know people talked about COVID-24 or something with the number of pounds that they put on.

That's for sure. You know, one of the things that I also found really interesting is that we suddenly had to become really conversant in epidemiology. So we were talking about R numbers and herd immunity and community transmission and all of that. Furlough as well, you know, we suddenly had to deal with these new realities. Furlough being an old term, but, you know, it came and meant something very different for us.

And then we began drinking Furlough Merlot. Furlough Merlot. I mean, I think that what is wonderful about this, given that we talk about language, is how in a year, not only have these real words come to the fore, but also people with their love of language have used it to create all sorts of fun words. You know, with the masks that we wear,

people have talked about mascara, making up your eyes, especially so that you look good with the mask, which I think is rather marvellous. Yeah. No, we definitely tried to introduce bits of light into the gloom, didn't we? And we always do that.

And have you heard about people doom-scrolling? Yes, yes. Looking for the bad news. I doom-scroll all the time. Well, we didn't have much choice. Oh, doom-surfing. I found it quite easy to avoid, actually. Did you?

Yes, I found it really, really easy to avoid. I think people had to be very disciplined about only looking at the news once a day. Otherwise, you were just inundated. But yes, most of us, I think, were doom-scrolling. We've chosen quarantine and Corona Coaster. I put in a light bid for bubble, only because bubble, I just like as a word, it sounds good. And it's been a positive part of it because we've been having fun with people in our bubble. Clearly, you've had enough of talking about furlough, teamwork, social distancing, self-isolation and all the

rest. You've had enough of lockdown lingo. I can't get enough of it. You want to talk politics. But I think because I've been a politician, I try to avoid talking about politics. So you can take us through the words that have a political vibe that you feel have had resonance this year. Some of them are words, ancient words, aren't they? Yeah, I think it's important that it's not that our words of the year or any words of the year list is not just about the pandemic. You know, overwhelming it is as it has been. And, you know, the reason 2020 itself has become the shorthand is because we've had so many other things. itself has become this shorthand is because we've had so many other things. We've had wildfires, which have totally desecrated and destroyed so much of our land. We've had acute

racial injustice. We've had racial protests. We've had a savage economic recession. We've had a pivotal US election. There's just been so much of it. So yes, turning to politics. Talk about doom scrolling. Here she is. Little New Year chair from Susie Dent. It's hard to find some light, isn't it? It is hard. And that's what Oxford was saying, I think, is that normally they would have a few sort of techie things on their list or whatever. And this year was very, very hard to find the light. And I think that light, as you say, came from us playing around with existing words and coming up with some funny ones. Okay, so number three on our list is empleomania.

Oh, it's a lovely word. Very old word, this. How do you spell it? E-M-P-L-E-O-M-A-N-I-A. If you're an empleomaniac, you have a desire or a thirst for public office, no matter what the cost. for public office, no matter what the cost. So this, of course, for me, now our purple listeners will probably know that Giles and I don't exactly, totally share the same political views, but this for me, I think you can probably agree on this one, Giles. Donald Trump, who wanted to cling on to office no matter what, because his thirst for public office was so huge. So for me, Donald

Trump is the ultimate empleo maniac. It's a great word. You say it's a very old word. How old is it? Empleo maniac, I think will take us back to about the 18th century. So although it's Latin, in those days, we have a great desire to kind of sound more classical and more impressive by looking to the languages of the ancients.'m just looking at it now yeah 1845 so the 1800s we're looking at there very good um okay so this this again i mean no matter what your political persuasion i think you can find individuals that fit this description number four on our list um whether you're no matter what country you're in, or it doesn't have to be a political

word, actually. It can be for somebody in your office or somebody in your family. A catch fart. Catch fart once applied to a lackey, a servant who was never too far behind their master or mistress. And so who always followed the political wind, a catch fart. In other words, they were so close that they got everything and they blew with the political wind a catch fart in other words they were so close that they got they got everything and they blew with the political wind and i think you read the newspapers too much or watch too much i've been fascinated by the u.s election that i was just overjoyed at the result i've been very blatant here explicit about my views stiff rump again everything i just said about catch fart still applies to this you can can apply it to anyone you like, really.

A stiff rump, all of these are really old epithets, by the way. Stiff rump is a stubborn individual who resolutely refuses to budge. Very good. These words are so rich and so applicable to the human condition that I think we will all know an emplee maniac, a catch fart or a stiff rump, no matter what your political persuasion. Have you got some more, going back, as it were, to the lockdown isolation world in which we've been? Have you got some more words from that area?

Well, yes. I'll tell you what's obsessed me this year has been homeschooling. Not that I've done any. I tried to do some with my grandchildren. Hopeless, absolutely hopeless. I'm no good at it. Makes me realise how amazing the teachers are. Homeschooling, horror word of the year.

It's strange that actually not that I know of anyway, no words really came out of that horrible dilemma that most parents, you know, face with having to work at the same time as homeschooling their kids. I mean, you know, what a tricky, tough time that was. And yet we didn't seem to have any words that came out of that. Perhaps we did. If any of our purple listeners have heard some, I'd love to hear them. But yes, I've got some words that weren't created in 2020 to describe the new reality, but actually that I think we can take from the corners of the dictionary, from the historical dictionary, because they do articulate some of the experiences we've been having. So for me, number six on our list

kind of summed up what I felt like doing after too much doom scrolling, and that is to latibulate. And to latibulate is to hide in a corner in an attempt to escape reality. Oh, I love that. It's a useful word anyway, isn't it? Latibulate. I think I've spent the whole of my life latibulating. Oh, well, you're in a corner now, actually, looking at you on Zoom. You're in a corner. Yes, I like being in a...

I want to be in a cosy corner with a lot of books, actually. And number seven, again, not dissimilar, really. While you were latibulating, you might have felt this. I hope you don't mind me putting a German word on the list. And it's fernweh, fernweh, so poetic in German. It's spelled F-E-R-N-W-E-H, and it means the longing to be far away. You say it's a German word, and of course it is. But the joy of the English language is it is the most international language in the history of language, isn't it? It is.

We have taken words from every country under the sun. And it's wonderful that we should do so. Fernweh. I mean, it's a German word. Is it used in English? I mean, has it got any history of being used in English? No, not yet. It's funny, isn't it? We're quite restrictive when it comes to German words. We always say, oh, there must be a German word for that. But there are only a few that we take in. Schadenfreude being the obvious one. Wanderlust, Wunderkind is another one. So we take selective leave from German, perhaps because of our kind of troubled history with it. But I think we do really admire the language for being so like Lego. If you could be, and if you could be far away from wherever you are now, which is Oxford,

if travel was not a problem at the moment, if COVID-19 didn't exist, where would you be far away today? I'd either be on the West coast of Ireland or I would be down near my father, which is near, actually I miss my mum and my dad so much. So it'd be across between Wiltshire where my mum is and Devon where my dad is, just by the sea. In my mind's eye, I might like to go to the Maldives or something, but you know, those would do me fine.

How about you? In the past, I have several times been lucky enough to spend Christmas, New Year in Jamaica. Lovely. to spend Christmas, New Year in Jamaica. I love the Caribbean and I love Jamaica. I love the people. I love the look of the country. I love its heritage, its cultural heritage with people like Bob Marley and also its imported cultural heritage with people like Ian Fleming and Noel Coward who chose to live in Jamaica.

Goldeneye is there. That was the name of his house, wasn't it? It was. Indeed, I've stayed there. Have you? It's absolutely fabulous. It's now been built up into a resort hotel, but his essential house is still there. And I had a wonderful experience when I was last in Jamaica, standing on the beach, looking

out over the sea, lovely golden sand. And this little old lady came along the beach, this little wizened old lady, nut brown, bent double, this little figure came teetering along the beach towards us. My wife and I were standing there. And it wasn't until this little old lady got right up in front of us, we realised it was actually Mick Jagger. Oh, wow. Isn't that amazing? So you do meet extraordinary people. Delightfully, Giles.

I know. It's all right for some. It is all right for some. Well, look, there's hope for next year, I hope. Word number eight, fathom. Yes. Why have you got that on the list? Okay, that seems an odd one, doesn't it? I chose fathom because it has two meanings, really. One is a fathom is used to refer to the depth of water. So it's about six feet, 1.8 meters. So that's nautical sense. But also when we try to fathom something, we are trying to measure the depth of it in a metaphorical sense to understand it and to sort of think it through. But I love the fact that we had that. We in our heads is fathom, meaning the

outstretched arms. So it was something which embraces. So it's a unit of measurement that was based on the span of your outstretched arms. So we longed to embrace people this year. We longed to touch them. We longed to hug them and we couldn't. So for me, that word is just packed such a punch that we were trying to fathom in every single sense. Lovely. Hope, actually, is my favourite four-letter word. Have you got some words that you think should be words of the year that give us hope? Yes. Well, number nine on our list. It's just been a favourite word of mine for such a long time, and I can never understand why there's any one record of it in the Oxford English Dictionary. And the editors aren't even completely sure because they've only found this one instance exactly what it means. But it's just got such a lovely feel to it.

So it's the opposite of despair. I think it's been one of my trio at times. And it's respare. And respare is defined simply as fresh hope, a from despair which i just think is beautiful let's hope for despair this year and number 10 well we mentioned german my other language favorite language is slightly subjective and i know there'll be so many words that the purple people would want to add to our list and we would welcome hearing them but But number 10 for me is a French word, retrouvaille, and it's R-E-T-R-O-U-V-A-I-L-L-E-S, retrouvaille. And it simply means the joy of reunion,

the joy of reuniting with someone, which is something, as I say, we just all long for. That's wonderful. Well done. Thank you very much. So those are our 11 words of the year. I'm putting 2020 at the top of the list because I think it sums it all up. And I think people are going to talk about this year for years to come, aren't they? I think they will. It's going to be like 1776 or 1066. Yes. I'm hoping when we come out of this, there were the roaring 20s and the 1920s when people decided after the horrors of the Great War that they were going to celebrate, come what may. And we had the flappers. We had the Charleston.

We had bebop. We're going to be having fun times. Exuberance. That's what we want. That's what we want. Yes. We want respect, retrouver, exuberance, happiness. Yay!

That's what we want. We want respect, retrouver, exuberance, happiness. Yay. That's what we want. Goodbye, 2020. Hello, 2021. To take us into the new year, have you got your three words of the week? I do. And they're just plucked out of thin air, really. They don't have any particular meaning. I just like the sound of them. One is appropriate, again, for sort of looking at someone from afar, longing to give them a hug and actually being unable to. It's bell guard, bell guard from French, but it came into English a long time ago. B-E-L-G-A-R-D. And it simply means a loving look, a bell guard. I love that. Which is gorgeous. Now, if you're loquacious and like, I like using words a lot and you could be slightly verbose with it, you you're loquacious and like, I like using words a lot and you could be slightly verbose with it, you know, loquaciousness doesn't necessarily have a very positive ring to it,

but I like... Is the correct word loquacity? Both actually, both of them are in the dictionary. Yeah. But I'm going to give you an alternative and one that I think sounds much more, much smoother. And I'd like to think that this applies to purple, even if it might have a slight verbosity about it. It's linguosity. Linguosity means sort of liking to use words, a pleasure in using words, but perhaps a little bit too much. Linguosity, which I just think is quite nice. I may be guilty of that at times, you know. Oh, well, we all are. And I'm going to finish with one that I think

just sums up the year for many of us. And, you know, this will be gone, I promise, once respect arrives. But if you are be-blubbered, be-blubbered means having swollen eyes from too much crying. You're be-blubbered. I just like the sound of that. Yes. Don't be so be-blubbered. We don't want people being be-blubbered. We want people the sound of that. Yes. Don't be sober blubbered. We don't want people being blubbered. We want people full of hope, full of respect. Yes. Okay. That's going to be like the French twist you gave that one. But you're right. It comes from espere to hope. Yeah. It's all linked, all linked together. Susie, we've reached the end of the year and it's been a fabulous year for us and for Something Rhymes with Purple. We do so want to say thank you to everybody for listening. Thank you for spreading

the word. Thank you for helping us become the best entertainment podcast of 2020. That's been fantastic. It has been. I want to say to everybody all over the world, cheers. So cheers. Santé, à la vôtre, salut, proste, yamas. Do you know where they say yamas? No. It's in Greece that they say yamas. Nice. Gesundheit. Do they say that in Germany? Gesundheit. Yeah. Yamas. Do you know where they say yamas? No. It's in Greece that they say yamas. Nice. Gesundheit. Do they say that in Germany? Yes. Gesundheit. Yeah. Very good.

Where do they say Biba? Do you know? Spain? Biba. No. Guam. Oh my goodness. I don't know any of these. What about in China? What do they say in China? No idea. We have listeners in China. We know you're there. We know you're listening. Hi, guys. They say they're Ganbei.

What about this one? Nazdravi. Nazdravi, that's cheers in Croatian and I think in Czech. Skol, everyone knows that. What about Terviseks? That I think is cheers in Estonian. I mentioned the other day Kippis, which I think is cheers in Finnish. I love that. Chin Chin. Where does that come from? Chin Chin. Well, we use it in Italy, yeah, but we use it. Chin Chin is Italy. We've adapted it from Italy. Cheerio Chin Chin. Yeah, that's what they say in Italy now.

Chokti comes from Thailand. Yeah. And my favourite, I think it comes from the part of the world, Vietnam, Cambodia, around there. Yeah. Yonzo Mot Haiba Yo. One, Vietnam, Cambodia, around there. Yonzo mot hai ba yo. One, two, three, yo! So that's us greeting our listeners around the world.

And I'm full of hope. And so the poem I'm going to share with you this week comes from Pippa Passes by Robert Browning, a great Victorian writer, hugely famous poet in his day. And it really, well, it gives us hope. It reminds us that spring is around the corner. The years of the spring and days of the morn. Mornings at seven. The hillsides dew-pearled. The larks on the wing. The snails on the thorn. God in his heaven all's right with the world that's so beautiful and just the loveliest way

to end what's been a really tricky 2020 our word of the year thank you Giles thank you to all the Purple listeners genuinely from me too it means the world to us that you have been with us this year

of all years something rhymes with Purple though it's a Something Else production us that you have been with us this year of all years something rhymes with purple though is a something else production we have so many people helping us make it it was produced by lawrence bassett with additional production from harriet wells steve ackman ella mcleod jay beal and the infamous if sometimes invisible gully get pissed to you gully