The Verb
I recently had the pleasure (and honour) of appearing on BBC Radio 3’s excellent programme about poetry and words, The Verb. The show is hosted by the poet Ian McMillan who I have admired since enjoying his visits to the Mark & Lard Show on Radio 1 in the 1990s. If you don’t catch Ian at one of the many events he pops up at all across the country his twitter feed is a delight, in particular his early morning strolls.
Before my appearance it was agreed that Ian and I would bat words back and forth to play with in a game of ‘Word Service’. Our tweets (and a few responses) are below.
Day One 21 Oct 2018
Ian:
Time for the first round in our @R3TheVerb THE WORD SERVICE challenge. For the first four days of the week, @MooseAllain and I will give each other a word or two to play with, with the results on @R3TheVerb on Friday. Moose, today’s words from me are GRAPEFRUIT and TROMBONE.
Moose:
Thank you Ian. Grapefruit is a lovely word to roll around and I’m sure I’ll be able to get something out of Trombone if I put it to my lips. May I lob Mollusc and Festoon at you?
Ian:
Here’s my mollusc section for our @MooseAllain @R3TheVerb challenge:
At dusc
The mollusc
Buscs,
Beating a husc
With a tusc.
Here’s my Festoon piece for our @MooseAllain @R3TheVerb challenge:
I feston our moon across the sky.
I festoon the twin moons of Mars across the sky.
I Festooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon the 79 moons of Jupiter across the sky.
Moose:
It is time for the noble GRAPEFRUIT to strike out for independence from the grape, to take back control, to finally have its own name. I suggest Shudderball or Wince. But what would you call it?
And here are some of the suggestions I received:
Pinkbitter
Eyesquirt
Squirtsqueal
tonguetingle
Soursphere
Sourpout
Vastberry
A Jumst
“Are grapefruit crappy in in the UK? Why all the hate? Out here in the US southwest, our pink grapefruit are a sublimely sweet joyful mix of tart and sweet. It’s like eating sunshine”
GREATFRUIT was suggested (and bemoaned) by a few people as a common mishearing although a quick look at the etymology suggests that it may have been this originally and have slipped the other way.
Also suggested were the lovely Spanish & Portuguese version Pomelo and the French Pamplemousse, but I felt we needed a new English word. Someone suggested the wonderful Shaddock (an eponym, from a Captain Shaddock, who brought it back to Europe. I’ve no idea whether his reputation deserves preserving in the name of the fruit, but it’s a great name for it with its echoes of the word ‘shudder’, so I’d plump for its reintroduction.
TROMBONE
Future cockroach archaeologists will gaze in awe at its peculiar maw and try to conjure in their minds the great beast of which the trombone is the skeleton.
Day Two 22 Oct 2018
Ian:
Time for the second of our @R3TheVerb @MooseAllain word challenges: THE WORD SERVICE. Today, @MooseAllain,the word I give you to play with is caRdigan
With that rogue capital R, which makes it instantly strange...
Moose:
IntRiguing! I am going to throw two more at you: Pneumatic Psalm and any other silent peas you fancy.
Ian:
I’ll have the Pneumatic Psalm Dinner, waiter.
Ah, that’s the one with
The Shouty Fish,
The Singing Chips,
The Silent Peas.
Moose:
A Cardigan
A card igan undone
A craidagn buttoned up wrong
A ᶜᵃʳᵈᶦᵍᵃⁿ shrunk in the wash
A caRdigan with a big new button
to replace the one that came off
in the wrestling match
lost in the wreckage
of pipes and sliprpers
Day Three 24 Oct 18
Ian:
In the next instalment of our @R3TheVerb THE WORD SERVICE challenge with @MooseAllain, I offer the following wordy thing: MAMMOTH Take it away, @MooseAllain!
Moose:
Thank you Ian. May I offer you a PRONG?
Ian McMillan @IMcMillan Oct 24
Ian:
That old song:
Just a prong at tinelight
When the forks are low
And the spoon’s curved shadow
Softly comes and goes
Moose:
The mammoth,
resurrected from a single strand
of DNA,
cowers in the towering shadows
of the city of men
and wonders
how its name ever came to mean
HUGE.
Day Four 25 Oct 2018
Ian:
The final challenge for @MooseAllain in our @R3TheVerb THE WORD SERVICE Verbstravaganza: An evening word, set out thus:
SUN
SET
See you later in Salford, @MooseAllain !
Moose:
Thank you Ian. DREAMSCAPE
Ian:
Doctor Sleep swirls her dream’s cape around my snoozing head.
Moose:
SUN
SET
Pity the SUN,
SET in its ways.
Up at dawn every day, trudging the same old paths,
then off to bed at dusk to rest its rays.
Have a lie in occasionally, or stay up all night partying!
Have a day off, why don’t you?
LIGHTEN UP .
___________
Podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsf/episodes/downloads
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