The words introduced to our language by poets. Featuring nerds, meeting T.S. Eliot, measuring your life in coffee spoons, runcible spoons, the bobowler, Chaucer on Twitter, pandemonium, tripping the light fantastic, limericks, fools rushing in, feeling like a gooseberry and some poetry from our listeners.
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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.
 
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Arts

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K-12

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Comedy

This week, Susie and Gyles unravel the intricate history of dictionaries, those indispensable guides that serve as gateways to language. From ancient lexicons to modern compendiums, we explore how dictionaries have shaped our understanding of words and the world around us. And Gyles lets us know how his weight lifting is going...



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Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



Idioticon : A dialect dictionary.

Limbeck: To rack the brain and exhaust yourself in an effort to come up with a new idea.

Proggle: To poke, prod, or grubble about.



Gyles' poem this week was 'Shakespeare at School' by Wendy Cope



Forty boys on benches with their quills

Six days a week through almost all the year,

Long hours of Latin with relentless drills

And repetition, all enforced by fear.

I picture Shakespeare sitting near the back,

Indulging in a risky bit of fun

By exercising his prodigious knack

Of thinking up an idiotic pun,

And whispering his gem to other boys,

Some of whom could not suppress their mirth –

Behaviour that unfailingly annoys

Any teacher anywhere on earth.

The fun was over when the master spoke:

Will Shakespeare, come up here and share the joke.



A Sony Music Entertainment production.  



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Fascicles

This week Susie and Gyles get lost in the world of nonsensical language, and embrace the weird, wacky and wonderful ways the English language can be.



Your favourite duo also pay homage to the masters of nonsensical language – Dr. Seuss, whose fantastical worlds and playful rhymes have enchanted generations of readers; Spike Milligan, the irreverent genius known for his zany humor and inventive wordplay; and Edward Lear, the Victorian poet and artist renowned for his witty limericks and nonsensical verse.



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Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



Spissitude: Thickness or compactness. 

Latescent: Slowly becoming hidden. 

Gronk: Fluff between your toes.



Gyles' poem this week was 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' by Edward Lear



I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

   In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

   And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are,

         You are,

         You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"



II

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

   How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

   But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

   With a ring at the end of his nose,

             His nose,

             His nose,

   With a ring at the end of his nose.



III

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

   They danced by the light of the moon,

             The moon,

             The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.



A Sony Music Entertainment production.  



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Bafflegab

This week Susie and Gyles delve back into a favourite topic, shoes.



Inspired by purple person Kevin, the origins of all manner of footwear are discussed such as Oxford's, Brogue's and Gibson's. 



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Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



Obloquy: public condemnation.

Myrmidon: Someone who unscrupulously follows someone more powerful. 

Naiad: a nymph of lakes, springs and rivers.



Gyles' poem this week is called 'Life Is Like A Pair Of New Shoes' by Cameron Delaney



Life's like a pair of new shoes

Their sparkling brand-new white hues

The stiff soles and laces

Tied up tightly like braces

That eventually wear down as you use





Life's like a pair of new shoes

They go in directions you choose

Down city street blocks

Wherever you walk

They stride along as you cruise





Lifes like a pair of new sneaks

When you first try to wear 'em they squeak

You run down the court

Of an athletic sport

And you show off your skilled techniques





Life's like a pair of new boots

Some fashionable leather beauts

You strut through the city

And you look real pretty

In your white collar buisness suits





Life's like a pair of new shoes

That wear out from years of good use

But soon they get old

And the insides have mold

And by the trashcan we say our "adieus"



A Sony Music Entertainment production.

  



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Oxford, Gibson and Brogue

Sathnam has written Empireland and more recently Empireworld, two bestselling books which have garnered him critical acclaim, a Channel 4 documentary and which - even more crucially - have changed the national discourse around our colonial past. Without necessarily meaning to, Sathnam has become a historian. But his success has not been uncomplicated: he’s suffered horrendous racist abuse which has changed the way he goes out into the world (sometimes).

On How to Fail Sathnam discusses how he avoids joining in, the importance of saying thank you and why the best teachers can make a lifelong impact. Plus: why nuance in discussion is often ignored but absolutely vital.



How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

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Sathnam Sanghera on why books can save us and how to understand Empire - How to Fail with Elizabeth Day

This week it's about the birthday boy, as we celebrate all things Gyles Brandreth. 



Not only does Gyles spoil us with a plethora of his famous anecdotes, but he becomes the linguistics quizmaster and places Susie in the hot seat to answer questions from his book 'Have You Eaten Grandma'.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY GYLES! You are truly one of a kind.



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Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 



Galere: A coterie of undesirable people.

Chawbacon: One uninterested in culture.

Boulevardier: A lover of boulevards.



Gyles' poem this week was the incredibly emotive 'Counting Backwards' by Linda Pastan.



How did I get so old,

I wonder,

contemplating

my 67th birthday.

Dyslexia smiles:

I’m 76 in fact.



There are places

where at 60 they start

counting backwards;

in Japan

they start again

from one.



But the numbers

hardly matter.

It’s the physics

of acceleration I mind,

the way time speeds up

as if it hasn’t guessed



the destination—

where look!

I see my mother

and father bearing a cake,

waiting for me

at the starting line.



A Sony Music Entertainment production.  



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