

Something Rhymes with Purple
Sony Music Entertainment
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
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
Mentioned books

Nov 8, 2022 • 37min
Mortarboard
Recorded live at the Oxford Playhouse on Sunday 9th October 2021.
Gyles and Susie explore the wordy world of Universities as they return to their University home of Oxford.
Come discover what seminars have in common with semen, how gold tassels gave us the term ’Toff’, why the mortarboard and the pestle & mortar are linked and Susie shares the ultimate excuse for bunking off class early to go for a drink down The White Rabbit (an Oxford pub named after Oxford resident, Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).
Gyles teaches Susie what it means to 'sport one's oak' and Susie shares some further sporting references revealing why chess boards and dominoes are also linked to University life.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Peristeronic - of or relating to pigeons.
Hirquiticke - horny teenager
Backspang - a loophole that allows you to renege on a deal.
Gyles read ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two!
And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.
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Nov 1, 2022 • 30min
Poltergeist
It’s a spooky one for you Purple People as we transcend to the world of the supernatural for an etymological seance with ghosts and poltergeists.
Discover what blazing fires and the ethereal have in common, why we climb to 7th heaven and why the mystics are so close to their secrets.
Susie will tell us why our faulty applicants give up the ghost and Gyles shares a story that packs a punch..of should we say, a fright!
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Kalopsia - The delusion of things being more beautiful than they are
Mumpish - Feeling sullen, cranky, withdrawn and glum
Simchaa - A word from Hebrew meaning gladness and joy
Gyles read ‘Dark, dark wood’, a story developed by Cambridge English Online on behalf of the British Council.
In the dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark house.
And in that dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark room.
And in that dark, dark room, there was a dark, dark cupboard.
And in that dark, dark cupboard, there was a dark, dark shelf.
And on that dark, dark shelf, there was a dark, dark box.
And in that dark, dark box, there was a ghost.
A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
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Oct 25, 2022 • 38min
Jujube
This is one for your sweet tooth (or is it sweet teeth?!) because we are heading to the pick’n’mix store for some sweet talk from Susie and Gyles.
We’ll discover the link between bread and pastilles, what gyles’ favourite word lallygagging and lollipops have in common and what festivity the candy cane has to thank for its distinctive shape.
Susie will hit the sweet spot each time as she gives us the origins of some of our sweetest phrases and Gyles shares the story of perhaps the worlds most iconic sweet store and its pick’n’mix aisle, Woolworths.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Eftsoons: Very soon after
Palchrony: Tom Read Wilson’s portmanteau for being in wonderful synchrony with a friend
Eleutherophobia: A fear of freedom
Gyles' poem this week was "Purple poem" by 'David Walser
When making a jus in your newly bought blender
A sip is quite hopeless, you must have a snurple
Did you add beetroot? Then the snurple, is purple.
And a snurple that’s purple is fit for a turtle.
A Somethin’ Else & 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

Oct 18, 2022 • 42min
Mounties
Time to don your toque and get cozy in your bunnyhug Purple People because today we are beginning our North American tour and our first destination is Canada, Ey!
We’ll warm up with a steaming bowl of Poutine followed by a double-double and a few Timbits as we get on the (etymological) road stopping along the way at Newfoundland and the ‘Capcity’, Ottawa.
Talks of Newfoundland lead Gyles to share stories of his ‘most magical, musical’ evening at the theatre seeing a show about the island but that’s not before we have a triple Canadian name drop and discover that Gyles himself has Canadian blood! Susie’s dendrophile nature is perfectly placed to explore the wilderness of Canada but it’s the ice hockey that has her sharing a long lost dream of performing a deke on the ice.
We’ll take a small trip with the mounties before settling down for a Jiggs Dinner for a couple of Twoonies and a bit of cloffin by the fire.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Cloffin: to warm yourself by the fire and to warm the back of your legs specially, that is Brabbag
Exlex - An outlaw
Fysifunkus: One with no curiosity at all
Gyles' poem this week was 'Variations on the Word Love' by Margaret Atwood
This is a word we use to plug
holes with. It’s the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red heart-
shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing
like real hearts. Add lace
and you can sell
it. We insert it also in the one empty
space on the printed form
that comes with no instructions. There are whole
magazines with not much in them
but the word love, you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with it too. How do we know
it isn’t what goes on at the cool
debaucheries of slugs under damp
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed-
seedlings nosing their tough snouts up
among the lettuces, they shout it.
Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising
their glittering knives in salute.
Then there’s the two
of us. This word
is far too short for us, it has only
four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It’s not love we don’t wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It’s a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.
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Oct 11, 2022 • 36min
Emovere
Hello Purple People, have you ever found yourself experiencing a particular feeling or emotion and wondering, ‘there must be a word for that’?
Well luckily for us, so has our very own Susie Dent!
From the way to describe those blues you get on a Sunday evening at the prospect of work the next day - the Mubblefubbles - to that irresistible desire to do something unwise - cacoethes. Susie will take us through a selection of her favourite words from her new book, An Emotional Dictionary, so you are never lost for words again.
Next time you go to the hair dressers where you are horrified by the result, you’ll know exactly how to describe it!
Waterstones are offering an exclusive discount just for Purple People. Simply visit waterstones.com and enter the promo code EMOTION22 during checkout for a £3 discount on the hardback of An Emotional Dictionary. That’s E-M-O-T-I-O-N and the number 22. Offer ends 30th Nov 2022.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
Go to https://redbubbleus.sjv.io/c/3717640/993952/11754and use code RBC-PURPLE for 20% off at Redbubble.
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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
Gyles' poem this week was 'Buckingham Palace' by A. A. Milne
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terrible hard,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We saw a guard in a sentry-box.
"One of the sergeants looks after their socks,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We looked for the King, but he never came.
"Well, God take care of him, all the same,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
They've great big parties inside the grounds.
"I wouldn't be King for a hundred pounds,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
A face looked out, but it wasn't the King's.
"He's much too busy a-signing things,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
"Do you think the King knows all about me?"
"Sure to, dear, but it's time for tea,"
Says Alice.
A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
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5 snips
Oct 4, 2022 • 43min
Tintinnabulation
Welcome back to Something Rhymes with Purple for our first show in our Autumn tour! Recorded live at the Fortune Theatre in London, Susie and Gyles arrived with bells and whistles on for an etymological exploration into the world of bells, specifically the Capital’s Big Ben.
There was much tintinnabulation (as much as Gyles tried to derail this) and our lovely audience of Purple People got to discover the links between cups and chimes, why bells were responsible for re-naming the belfry tower, and why Swiss Cow Bells are nostalgic.
We were saved by the bell once discussions of ringing one’s bell went a little too far and Gyles got his (metaphorical) catsuit on to give us a stunning rendition of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Gus: The Theatre Cat’ from Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Matter-fangled: to have got into a muddle while talking
Rackups: your just desserts
Quanker: someone who settles a dispute
Gyles' poem this week was 'Gus: The Theatre Cat' by 'T.S. Eliot'
Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door.
His name, as I ought to have told you before,
Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss
To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus.
His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake,
And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake.
Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats--
But no longer a terror to mice and to rats.
For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime;
Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time.
And whenever he joins his friends at their club
(Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)
He loves to regale them, if someone else pays,
With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days.
For he once was a Star of the highest degree--
He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree.
And he likes to relate his success on the Halls,
Where the Gallery once gave him seven cat-calls.
But his grandest creation, as he loves to tell,
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
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Sep 27, 2022 • 36min
Dragoon
Don your armour and grab your steed, Purple people because today we are galloping onto the battle field to uncover the etymological treasures of Weaponry.
From biting bullets to smoking guns, Susie will guide us through the link between rainbows and archery, what the Armadillo has to do with armoury and why freelancers weren’t always that friendly. Gyles shares some further behind-the-scenes details of one of the most watched events on tele which leads into discussions of corona (but not that corona) and why it’s courteous to curtsy.
Susie and Gyles have their weekly dose of three scintillating words and a delicious poem for us and as always, they want to hear from you!
Find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Kalokagathia: Nobility and goodness of character
Nidification: to build a nest and retreat for a while
Polydipsia: A great thirst (usually in a figurative sense eg. for fame)
Gyles' poem this week was ‘To You’ by Langston Hughes
To sit down and dream,
To sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now-
Our problem world-
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered free-help me!
All you who are dreamers,too,
Help me to make our world anew.
I reach out my dreams to you.
A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
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Sep 22, 2022 • 1min
An update from the Purple Plus Club…
You heard it here first - we’re expanding our horizons here on Something Rhymes with Purple and welcome you to join us for not just 1, but 2 episodes every week. If you’re an Apple Purple Person, tap the banner in the app to enjoy a 7-day free trial or head to purpleplusclub.com to join us on all other platforms. As if that wasn’t enough, you will also get all episodes completely ad-free.
Speak soon, Gyles & Susie.
A Somethin’ Else & 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

Sep 20, 2022 • 35min
Cobbler
It’s time to take a trip to the bakery Purple People where we will run into Lords and Ladies, horses and testicles as we explore the shelves of bread.
Come discover why the upper crust really is better, what bread rolls and parchment have in common, how lumps and humps gave name to Nubbys and Cobs and why having butter with your chip butty is essential.
Gyles shares his latest ‘Oh Crumbs!’ moment and Susie tells us about her Sourdough Bread making adventure.
It really is the best thing since sliced bread…
Purple People, Gyles and Susie want you to share your nicknames and slang terms for bread, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
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:
Overmorrow - The day after tomorrow
Roucoulement: The gentle cooing of doves
Yesterfang: That which was caught or taken yesterday
Gyles' poem this week was 'The Mower' by ‘Philip Larkin'
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
A Somethin’ Else & 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

Sep 13, 2022 • 37min
Water Vessels
We’ve spoken before about Susie’s, often fancy, water glasses that she sips on throughout the recordings… so this week we are pouring our thoughts into the vessels that we use to hold our drinks and have done for many centuries.
Eavesdrop on us, with your favourite drink as we spill what we know about water vessels.
We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: purple@somethinelse.com
We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple
Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club via Apple Subscription, simply follow this link and enjoy a free 7 day trial: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823
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:
Zarf: a cup-shaped holder for a hot coffee-cup, used in the Levant, usually of metal and of ornamental design
Aprosexia: an inability to concentrate due to a distracted mind (prosexis: heedfulness)
Froonce: to frolic exuberantly
Gyles' poem this week was from Martyn Hesford ’s book ‘Lilac White’.
A Somethin’ Else & 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices