398 episodes

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.

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Something Rhymes with Purple Something Rhymes

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 5 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

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

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Hupnos

    Hupnos

    This week, Susie and Gyles drift off far far away to the land of sleep... 



    So tune in and embark on a journey through the nocturnal landscape of words.



    We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com



    Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'



    Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 



    Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



    Nescience: An absence of knowledge; ignorance.

    Phobophobia: The fear of being afraid.

    Rasorial: Characteristically scratching the ground for food.



    Gyles' poem this week was 'Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed (Sonnet 27)' by William Shakespeare



    Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

    The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;

    But then begins a journey in my head,

    To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired:

    For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,

    Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

    And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

    Looking on darkness which the blind do see:

    Save that my soul’s imaginary sight

    Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

    Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

    Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

        Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

        For thee and for myself no quiet find.

    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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 37 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Malcolm X

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Malcolm X

    'You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.'

    Malcolm X: A leader in the civil rights movement, a Minister, and a supporter of Black nationalism.

    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

    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

    Mundungus

    Mundungus

    This week, Susie and Gyles explore fragrances and scents. Join us as we inhale the sweet aromas of people and places...



    We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com



    Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'



    Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 



    Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



    Acang: To act foolishly, lose self-control.

    Anythingarian: One who professes no creed in particular; an indifferentist.

    Coleworts: Old news. Literally, a cabbage-like plant. From the proverb for “old news,” “coleworts twice sodden’.



    Gyles' poem this week was 'Home Thoughts, From Abroad' by Richard Browning



    Oh, to be in England

    Now that April's there,

    And whoever wakes in England

    Sees, some morning, unaware,

    That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

    Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

    While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

    In England—now!



    And after April, when May follows,

    And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

    Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

    Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

    Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

    That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

    Lest you should think he never could recapture

    The first fine careless rapture!

    And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

    All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

    The buttercups, the little children's dower

    —Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! 



    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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 40 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Mae West

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Mae West

    'I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.'

    Mae West: American actress, and a unforgettable sex symbol.

    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

    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

    Botulus

    Botulus

    *Cough cough*... This week Susie and Gyles explore the language of diseases. From Cholera to Mumps, and Malaria to Influenza, they have you covered.



    Also, we reveal the WINNERS of our 'To Dent' and 'To Brandreth' competition!



    We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com



    Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'



    Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 



    Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



    Shackbaggerly: Disordered and unkempt.

    Komorebi (Japanese): The patterns cast by sunlight filtering through trees.

    Gruttling (old East Anglian dialect): A strange, inexplicable noise.



    Gyles' poem this week was 'Sick Room' by Billy Collins



    Every time Canaletto painted Venice

    he painted her from a different angle,



    sometimes from point of view

    he must have imagined,



    for there is no place in the city

    he could have stood and observed such scenes.



    How ingenious of him to visualise

    a dome or canal from any point in space.



    How passionate he was

    to delineate Venice from perspectives



    that required him to mount the air

    and levitate there with his floating brush.



    But I have been sick in this bed

    for over sixty hours,



    and I am not Canaletto,

    and this airless little room,



    with its broken ceiling fan

    and it monstrous wallpaper, is not Venice.

    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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 47 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Kurt Vonnegut

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Kurt Vonnegut

    We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

    Kurt Vonnegut: Satirical writer, American soldier, and prisoner of war.


    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

    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

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
5 Ratings

5 Ratings

tjwdickinson ,

Best podcast for a word nerd!

This is, undoubtedly, one of my absolute top favourite podcasts. I’d love for the eps to be a bit longer to incorporate more correspondence, but otherwise it’s perfect. I appreciate that the hosts avoid unnecessary rude language and always warn about it at the beginning so parents know to listen before sharing with their children. Gyles is always blown away by Susie’s incredible linguistic knowledge, but I think it’s just as remarkable how he’s able to ask just the right questions and make fantastic connections between words for Susie to investigate. A real top-notch podcast for everyone to enjoy.

Dodecahedrus ,

Word-nerd

Always a delight to listen to these two knowledgeable people shine a light on the lesser-know parts of the English language.

If I may make a request: the etymology of the term “to toss your cookies”.

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