383 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

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Something Rhymes with Purple Something Rhymes

    • Arts
    • 4.8 • 2.2K 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

    Treasure House

    Treasure House

    From the latin word dicere meaning ‘to speak, to tell or to say’. This week Susie and Gyles are looking at the ultimate word bible, the dictionary! 



    Gyles ponders the difference between a glossary and a dictionary. 



    And Susie delves into prescriptivism vs descriptivism 



    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'



    And now for three bite sized words from Susie in her trio:

    Thruffable: Open and transparent (through).

    Wambliness: An upheaval of the stomach.

    Boodyankers: An exclamation of surprise or delight (Northumberland).



    Gyles’s poem comes from his friend and neighbour James K Harris and is called ‘I Don’t’ 



     I don't, of course, mean everything I say. 

    I mean, sometimes, I don't know what I mean. 

    Sometimes I have a thought which goes astray. 

    I start describing blue, it turns out green. 

    The alphabet is very volatile. Its union is hard to bring to heel. It's easy to fall victim to its guile. 

    You think you're describing what you feel, but then you find the words describing you.

    And so one sees oneself in their dark light. One thinks one is describing what is true, then suddenly one sees one isn't right.

     In which case, still, it's true that one was wrong. 

    Well, truth, in some guys, always comes along.



    A Sony Music Entertainment production.  



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    • 31 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Quentin Crisp

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Quentin Crisp

    Quentin Crisp: born Dennis Charles Pratt, an English raconteur and author.

    'Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are'.

    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

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

    Cool Britannia

    Cool Britannia

    The 90s was a crazy decade, brimming with pop culture moments that defined Britain. Susie and Gyles discuss words that gained popularity in the post Cold War era, from Cool Britannia, to the Spice Girls, Dianamania to the World Wide Web... 



    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: 



    Solacious: Soothing or comforting.

    Soodle : To linger or dawdle.

    Splatherdab: A gossip.



    Gyles' poem this week was 'This Boy' by Leigh Lawson, who wrote it upon the birth of his first grandson, Solomon.



     He gives me joy, this boy, 

    Unspeakable, inexpressible. 

    This boy gives me joy.





    Inexplicable, unexplainable.

    This boy brings me joy.



    Let bells ring, choirs sing, 

    Chimes chime, poets rhyme, 

    Trumpets trump, drums drum, 

    Feet stamp, guitars strum.



    Higher than the moon,

    Oh, hotter than the sun,

    Deeper than the sea, 

    Is the joy this boy brings to me.



    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 
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    • 41 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Len Pennie

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: Len Pennie

    Len Pennie: Scottish poet and Scots language advocate

    'Tae the wee girls, hear me say this
    In ma Mammy’s native speech:
    Know that ye can advocate,
    Inspire, craft an teach.'

    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

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

    Lovely Jubbly

    Lovely Jubbly

    'A moo point is like a cows opinion, it doesn't matter, it's moo'. This week Gyles and Susie have fun looking at the influence that television has had on language. 



    Gyles gets nostalgic with some of his and his children's favourite UK and American TV programmes. 



    And Susie explores the words that were popularised by these household TV shows. 



    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 



    Why not work one of Susie's trio's into a sentence this week?  



    Crumpsy: Cranky and irritable from old dialect. 

    Braggadocio: An idle or empty boaster, all mouth and no trousers. 

    Apostasise: To abandon a once firmly held promise or principal. 



    Gyles' poem comes from our listener Chris McAuley and is titled 'Father' 



    If you find yourself forgetting the small things like keys, 

    Moments which we spent together feeding the ducks or playing in the park, 

    I shall remember them for you, 

    And in those memories be still guided by your hand 

    As we walk through the town on that cold rainy day. 



    Someday, I will forget those times.

    They will be cast to the wind, 

    Scattered like leaves caught in the maelstrom of time. 

    But today, I sit with my cup of tea and think about the small moments 



    Of those precious days, and how much they mean to me.





    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

    • 27 min
    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: John Osborne

    Wit and Wisdom A-Z: John Osborne

    John Osborne: playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur.

    The first of the Angry Young Men.

    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

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

4.8 out of 5
2.2K Ratings

2.2K Ratings

De Vado ,

General comment

Totally addictive program for anyone who loves any kind of play on words.
Gyles the over confident but brilliant wordsmith and Suzie the bashful and modest scholar on the origins of words
Great chemistry going on too.

Just started listening to many episodes from the beginning, 5 years ago.

Robert Wade~Smith in Menorca

tryanameagain ,

Completely delightful

I love everything about it. Susie and Gyles are a perfect partnership. If only I remembered everything I learned!

uberdunk2 ,

words

Words make speaking a thing

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