2:00

confidence. Then you can

2:02

misuse words, use them in the wrong

2:04

context, play with

2:06

language in a deliberate way, purposefully.

2:09

And the people who

2:11

are listening to you won't assume

2:13

you are making a mistake. They'll

2:15

realize something is different and

2:18

that the usage maybe isn't quite right, but

2:21

they won't try and change you. They will

2:24

change themselves. They will try

2:26

and adapt their mind and their way of

2:28

thinking to your usage

2:30

or your language. So

2:33

they won't try and correct you and they

2:35

won't dismiss the words you're using. They

2:39

will essentially change themselves to

2:41

come into your frame of reference or

2:44

your influence,

2:45

which

2:47

is almost a

2:49

kind of magic. And

2:52

I say that in the most deliberate way. It's

2:54

like you're casting a spell on people if

2:57

you can use language this way, in this creative

2:59

way. And this is why

3:01

some of the greatest writers who ever lived invented

3:05

their own words and playful way

3:07

of using them, because that was

3:09

something they had to do to weave the kind of magic

3:12

they wanted to weave, because there

3:14

was no other way. The plays or

3:16

poems or stories they were writing wouldn't

3:19

have had the same kind of effect if they just

3:21

used the words that other people were using.

3:23

And just to give you

3:25

a small example from my own life, and

3:28

by the way, I'm not setting myself up to be some sort

3:30

of modern day Shakespeare, I obviously am

3:32

not, but I personally

3:34

have always loved playing with language. And

3:37

for me, certain words have always had

3:39

kind of a nice ring to them.

3:42

So two I have in mind that I

3:45

really like our mega, as

3:47

in, wow, that was a mega breakfast

3:49

we just had. Or instead

3:51

of saying, wow, maybe saying mega,

3:54

something like that, right? And also

3:57

badger, as in I worked

3:59

like a badger. that day or wow

4:02

that person fought like a badger. I've

4:04

often used these words and many others

4:07

in situations where you might not really use

4:09

that word. And so I remember

4:12

using mega a lot quite

4:14

a long time ago now at one

4:16

of my first jobs. And

4:18

over time I realized that more and more of my

4:21

co-workers were also saying

4:23

mega more often.

4:26

And then I even remember hearing some of the senior

4:29

executives and in fact the CEO

4:31

of the company using the word mega

4:34

in serious conference calls. And

4:38

I remember hearing that and just smiling and

4:40

grinning to myself actually because

4:43

it really illustrated

4:45

this point, this amazing thing about

4:47

language that once you get skilled

4:49

and confident you can start to make it

4:52

yours and develop your own style.

4:55

And even if it's not technically correct it

4:57

will work and people will understand

5:00

you and it will also spread.

5:03

And this is in fact how language changes

5:05

and evolves over time and of

5:07

course why we're speaking modern English

5:09

now and not old English. So

5:13

I guess my point is start

5:15

by learning the rules well and

5:18

you will learn how and where

5:20

and when it's appropriate to break

5:22

those rules because that really

5:25

is the acme or the pinnacle

5:27

of mastering a language and it's also

5:29

a lot of fun really. So

5:33

anyway all that said here is a

5:35

poem with many made up words

5:37

and interesting usages which

5:40

is Jabberwocky by Lewis

5:42

Carroll. Twas

5:45

Brilig and the Slithetoves

5:47

did Gyran gimbal in the wabe,

5:50

O mimsy with the Borigoves and

5:53

the Moom-Roth's outgrave,

5:56

Beware the Jabberwock my son,

5:58

the jaws that bite. the claws

6:01

that catch, beware the jub-jub

6:03

bird, and shun the frumious

6:06

bandersnatch.

6:08

He took his vorpal sword in hand,

6:11

long time the manxome foe he

6:13

sought, so rested he

6:16

by the tum-tum tree, and stood

6:18

awhile in thought. And

6:21

as in Uphish thought he stood, the

6:24

jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

6:27

came wiffling through the tulji wood, and

6:29

burbled as it came. One

6:32

two, one two, and

6:35

through and through the vorpal

6:38

blade went snicker-snack. He

6:41

left it dead, and with its head

6:43

he went gallumphing back. And

6:47

hast thou slain the jabberwock?

6:50

Come to my arms, my beamish boy,

6:52

O frabjest day, callo

6:54

callay, he chortled in his

6:56

joy. Twas

6:59

brillig and the slithy toves,

7:01

did guyr and gimbal in the wabe, O

7:04

mimsy with the borogoves, and

7:07

the moom-raths outgrave. So

7:12

that was Jabberwocky

7:16

by Lewis Carroll. I hope you liked it.

7:19

And now onto our

7:23

main subject of the day, which is of course our

7:25

words. So let's quickly go

7:27

over what we did yesterday.

7:30

No,

7:31

not yesterday, Monday. So

7:33

we had dupe, decorous,

7:36

lapidary, and coterie.

7:39

So dupe is to deceive

7:42

or to trick, or can also

7:44

mean the actual victim of a

7:46

deception, can also mean

7:48

to copy something, or it

7:50

can mean the copy itself. So

7:52

a few meanings there for dupe. Decorous,

7:57

decorous, that means in keeping

7:59

with good. good taste, to be

8:01

polite, restrained, proper

8:04

or seemly. Lapidary,

8:08

that means

8:10

relating to the engraving,

8:13

cutting and polishing of gemstones,

8:16

but could also be applied to language, meaning

8:19

elegant and concise language.

8:22

Finally we had coterie,

8:25

coterie,

8:26

a small group of people with shared

8:29

interests or tastes, often

8:31

an exclusive

8:33

group or club.

8:35

Okay, now the new

8:38

words. So, our first word

8:40

of today, episode 131, is probity,

8:45

probity, spelled P-R-O-B-I-T-Y,

8:50

and it's a noun. And

8:52

probity is the quality of

8:55

having strong moral principles,

8:58

that is, having integrity, honesty,

9:02

to be decent. It

9:04

essentially means a good moral

9:07

person, someone you could trust,

9:09

someone you know who would keep

9:12

their word. If you, if this

9:14

person said, oh yeah, I'll help you move, if

9:16

you have a move, I'll be there. And

9:18

you know 100%, oh, that

9:20

person is going to stand by their word, they're

9:23

showing probity. So yes,

9:25

there's a definite sense of trustworthiness,

9:28

of doing the right thing, and other

9:31

words for probity are integrity,

9:35

honesty, uprightness,

9:37

decency and morality.

9:42

And our second word today is gradation,

9:45

gradation, spelled G-R-A-D-A-T-I-O-N,

9:51

and it's a noun, and gradation

9:55

means a scale or

9:57

a series of successive changes. or

10:01

degrees of something. So

10:04

if you think of something like to

10:07

be unique, you are

10:09

either unique or you are not, or

10:11

something is unique or not. It's

10:14

an either-or kind of thing. There

10:16

are no gradations of uniqueness. But

10:20

there are gradations of anger. You

10:22

can be a tiny bit angry, you

10:25

can be a medium amount angry, you

10:27

can be a lot angry, and there's

10:29

also a thousand variations of levels

10:32

of angriness. So you could say there

10:35

are gradations of anger. But

10:38

of course, there are gradations

10:41

of many things, including colours. A

10:44

rainbow is obviously a gradation

10:46

of colour. And some synonyms

10:49

of gradation are range, scale,

10:52

and spectrum. And

10:55

our third word today is dirge. Dirge.

10:59

Spelled D-I-R-G-E.

11:02

And it's a noun. And dirge

11:06

is simply a song for the

11:08

dead. Usually this

11:10

is a piece of music or a song that

11:13

is performed as part of a funeral.

11:16

So yes, that's basically

11:18

it. It is a sad or somber

11:21

song or hymn associated

11:23

with mourning. And usually the

11:25

song is intended to convey sadness,

11:28

sorrow,

11:29

or grief.

11:31

I would say here that context matters.

11:33

I've often heard people refer to

11:35

a song that was not a

11:37

funeral song as a dirge,

11:41

outside of any context of

11:43

mourning. And usually if someone

11:45

says that song is a dirge, they're criticising

11:48

the song, so they're using dirge

11:50

as a pejorative term. And

11:53

they're saying the song is just depressing or

11:55

perhaps monotonous. And

11:58

some synonyms of dirge are...

14:00

from very easy to almost

14:02

impossible. As

14:05

we walked through the haunted house, a

14:07

slow and somber music played in

14:09

the background, making the atmosphere

14:12

even more eerie. Teachers,

14:16

the best ones at least, try

14:18

their hardest to make learning easier

14:20

for their students. Captain

14:24

Beaky was the de facto leader of his

14:26

band of animal friends, partly

14:28

because of his honesty and integrity, everyone

14:32

trusted him. Okay,

14:35

so we had a gradation

14:37

of sudoku puzzles, so this scale

14:39

from easy sudoku puzzles to almost

14:42

impossible. We had a dirge

14:45

as we walked through the haunted house, this slow

14:48

and somber and sad music.

14:51

We have amazing teachers who facilitate

14:54

learning to make learning easier for their students.

14:58

And we have the probity of

15:00

Captain Beaky, the leader

15:03

of his band of animal friends, because

15:05

of his honesty and integrity.

15:10

Okay, so that's all of

15:12

our words for today. And

15:14

bit of news here, I'm

15:17

going to a music festival for

15:19

the rest of the week, and

15:21

I get back here on

15:23

Monday. So I'm

15:26

not going to be able to produce a podcast for tomorrow

15:28

and Friday. So I

15:30

may try and pre-record one.

15:32

But

15:33

don't be surprised if there's

15:35

not one for the next couple of days, until

15:38

Monday, probably. So

15:40

yes, that's that. But

15:42

yes, thanks for listening. I'm

15:45

Sam Fold. Please email

15:47

me if you want to get in touch at sam.fold

15:50

at gmail.com. And

15:52

yeah, have a lovely rest of your day. Bye bye.