Something Rhymes with Purple
Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth invite you to enhance your vocabulary, uncover the hidden origins of language and share their love of words in this award-winning podcast. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com Want more Purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or by heading to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms for ad-free listening, and not 1 but 2 episodes of the show every week. You can buy our branded mugs, tote bags and T-shirts here: https://bit.ly/37huhqs 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episodes
June 6, 2023 • 40 mins
Step into the time machine of linguistics and embark on a journey through the graveyard of forgotten words. In this week's episode of our Something Rhymes With Purple, Susie and Gyles unearth the most uproarious relics from the linguistic abyss. From "snollygoster" to “pang wangle,” prepare to find yourself in a linguistic oblivion.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith ...
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May 30, 2023 • 42 mins
This week Susie and Gyles delve into the spellbinding world of folklore and unravel the intricate tapestry of its etymology.
Together, they cover mystical creatures, elements and charms of this fictional realm.
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: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com
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May 23, 2023 • 34 mins
In this week’s episode, Susie and Gyles dish out a generous serving of all things to do with crockery!
So gather round the table and feast upon a large helping of etymology, poems, obscure words and origins.
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: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com
Want even more purple, p...
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May 16, 2023 • 40 mins
This week we are dipping our ink quills into the decadent world of calligraphy.
Gyles’ spills all on the Royal Coronation invitation he received from The Palace, and Susie shares her pen-sational etymological knowledge on all things handwriting.
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: purplepeople@something...
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May 9, 2023 • 40 mins
In this week’s dazzling episode, Susie and Gyles illuminate the fascinating etymological roots of everything to do with natural light phenomena. So, join us as we shine the spotlight on rainbows to supernovas!
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on: purple@somethinelse.com Want even more purple, people?
Join the Purple Plus Club by ...
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May 2, 2023 • 37 mins
This episode was recorded live at the Ambassadors Theatre in London.
Have you ever felt an emotion that you know is universal, but come to realise there’s no word for it?
Well Susie & Gyles have you covered in this week’s episode, as we dive into the world of untranslatable words and idioms.
You’re in for a treat Purple People! Where else would you find out what ‘grief bacon’ or ‘electric brain’ means and how these phenome...
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April 25, 2023 • 41 mins
Strap into your hiking boots purple people! In this episode, we’re going to climb to new linguistic heights and explore the world of climbing.
Gyles walks us through his Mount Snowdon expedition and Susie rocks our etymological world as usual, giving us a peak into the wonderful ways of word evolutions.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can ema...
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April 18, 2023 • 32 mins
In this weeks’ episode, we zero in on the exponential world of mathematics.
Come and join us as Susie discusses the solitary life of odd numbers and whether or not there’s an official order to words of magnitude, plus Gyles tells us about Lewis Carroll’s surprising connection to maths and logics.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us h...
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April 11, 2023 • 40 mins
Gyles is fresh back from Jamaica and after visiting the spiritual home of James Bond, he’s channeling his 007 spirit and taking Susie to the casino for a touch of Gambling.
In our trip to 'the little casa', we will find out why trumps are so triumphant, why a gimmick at the gaming table might be magic and how your poker face is connected to your bragging rights and - as so often happens in English - we encounter ‘Jack’ in the f...
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April 4, 2023 • 34 mins
Come join Susie and Gyles for Part 2 of ‘The Purple People’s Linguistic Gaps’. To celebrate our 200th episode, we asked the Purple People for moments or experiences when they wished there was a specific word to describe it. Go listen back to our first instalment, ‘200 Today!’, and enjoy today’s follow up episode which is packed full of even more brilliant suggestions…
We’ll explore that sensation of believing there’s an extra step...
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March 28, 2023 • 39 mins
It’s going to be an episode full of tittle-tattle today as Gyles and Susie sit down for a good gossip as we excavate the words and idioms associated with this favourite hobby.
We’ll have a good blather but stopping short of becoming a ‘blatherskite’ due to its distasteful meaning, we’ll bloviate at length with a certain ex-PM in mind as we uncover the links between this type of gossip and the stuffing in your clothes, before we dis...
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March 21, 2023 • 37 mins
In today’s ‘mane’ episode, there’s no horsing around as we take gallop through the etymological equine world.
Susie explains what the name Duncan and donkeys might have in common, why we might have ‘walloped’ instead of ‘galloped’, how ponies are linked to chickens and why we need to take a trip to Canterbury to uncover the origin of the canter.
Gyles serenade us with a stallion of a song before - of course – treating us to ...
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March 14, 2023 • 34 mins
Today we are celebrating Women’s History Month and looking at the pioneering writer, Toni Morrison.
From her poem, ‘Someone leans near’ to her debut novel, ‘The Bluest Eye’, Susie and Gyles delve into the books, poetry, and legacy of the Nobel Literary Prize winner. We encounter Levi Roots, a trip to Princeton and a recount of the time Gyles met her (of course!) as we look at her life, work, and the impact that she has had on the...
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March 7, 2023 • 32 mins
Today’s show was recorded live at the Fortune Theatre in London.
Gyles’ title of European Monopoly Champion comes into play (literally) today as he - alongside Susie Dent - take us on an etymological tour of the world of Property.
Come discover what the Bungalow has to do with Bengal, the connection between villas and villains, why Peppercorns were so important for renting before we ascend the hill of Palatine for a palatia...
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February 28, 2023 • 41 mins
The Purple postman has been and Gyles and Susie are eagerly digging into all the letters that we’ve had from the Purple People from all around the world!
Come discover why you are reduced to nothing in an annihilation, what prats and bottoms have in common, how avatars have been around long before computers and that Susie and Gyles are no where near their parcme.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter...
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February 21, 2023 • 31 mins
It’s the final stop on our North American road trip and we have reached the city of technology, coffee and Frasier; it’s Seattle!
Susie and Gyles will take us on our final etymological tour in this series where we will literally skid down ‘Skid Row’, discover how Moby Dick is connected to one of the biggest coffee chains in the world and what dead bodies had to do with a very well known tech company…
We love hearing from you...
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February 14, 2023 • 36 mins
Love is in the air(waves) as Susie and Gyles get to the heart of the many different types of love in their special Valentine’s day episode on Something Rhymes with Purple.
Susie and Gyles will explore what the cabbage has to do with reviving romance in Italy (hint: ‘cavoli riscaldiati’), how feeling a touch lusty in the spring has its own word, as well as a call out to the Purple People for a word that describes the love you h...
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February 7, 2023 • 43 mins
We are diving beneath the surface today as we undress all the words related to your Undergarments at our live show at the Fortune Theatre.
Come learn how your undergarments are linked to garnish, why the bra used to be exclusively worn by men, what your stockings have in common with a murderous medieval contraption and which style of underwear is connected to the violin.
Susie will keep us in suspense whilst she divulges th...
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January 31, 2023 • 32 mins
We have reached 200! That’s 200 episodes of Something Rhymes with Purple consisting of topics such as Drinking, Theatre, Death, Hair, Biscuits, School, Sex, Board Games, Fish, Cricket, Water Vessels.. The list is 200 items long!
To celebrate our 200th birthday, Susie and Gyles will dedicate it to the Purple People and spend the episode riffling through the dictionary as they seek to find the perfect word for those moments in li...
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January 24, 2023 • 38 mins
We are on the 4th leg of our North America road trip where we are visiting Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Susie and Gyles will take us to the meadows of Las Vegas and the snowy capped mountains of Nevada before we hit the casinos and Gyles reveals he has a booking at a church in Las Vegas ready and waiting for him. We’ll continue on to Queen Calafia’s California to visit San Francisco where we’ll etymologically encou...
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