Wildwolfden
30-12-2005, 18:34
BBC2 Monday the 2nd of January 9:00 pm - 9:50 pm 50mins
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.shtml?day=monday&service_id=4224&filename=20060102/20060102_2100_4224_8470_50
New Series revealing the hidden histories behind our words, and asking the nation to help solve some of the most intriguing mysteries in the English language, and so help rewrite what's often called the greatest book in English: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
Each week Victoria Coren and guest presenters travel Britain and the world on the trail of different words or phrases. This week the letter P, with no less than 59,180 words to choose from.
Adam Hart-Davis tries to find out why things go 'pear-shaped'. Is it an aeronautical loop-the-loop gone wrong, or the legacy of a Victorian ballooning accident? Clarissa Dickson-Wright wallows in the rich heritage of the word pig. From Chaucer's 'pig in a poke' to today's 'pig ignorant' and 'pig ugly'. Playwright Mark Ravenhill explores the secret language of 'polari' which helped gay men and women communicate secretly from the 30s to 60s, when 'Bona to vada your dolly old eek' meant 'Nice to see your pretty face'. And Victoria Coren herself goes hunting for the origins of the 'ploughmans lunch', which might sound like traditional fayre but turns out to be a recent, cunning concoction.
So will the evidence uncovered in the programme cut the mustard with the big cheeses at the OED, ultimate guardians of the English language? If so, they'll rewrite the dictionary and the definitive record of the English language will get just that bit more definitive.
Contains some strong language.
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/balderdash
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.shtml?day=monday&service_id=4224&filename=20060102/20060102_2100_4224_8470_50
New Series revealing the hidden histories behind our words, and asking the nation to help solve some of the most intriguing mysteries in the English language, and so help rewrite what's often called the greatest book in English: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
Each week Victoria Coren and guest presenters travel Britain and the world on the trail of different words or phrases. This week the letter P, with no less than 59,180 words to choose from.
Adam Hart-Davis tries to find out why things go 'pear-shaped'. Is it an aeronautical loop-the-loop gone wrong, or the legacy of a Victorian ballooning accident? Clarissa Dickson-Wright wallows in the rich heritage of the word pig. From Chaucer's 'pig in a poke' to today's 'pig ignorant' and 'pig ugly'. Playwright Mark Ravenhill explores the secret language of 'polari' which helped gay men and women communicate secretly from the 30s to 60s, when 'Bona to vada your dolly old eek' meant 'Nice to see your pretty face'. And Victoria Coren herself goes hunting for the origins of the 'ploughmans lunch', which might sound like traditional fayre but turns out to be a recent, cunning concoction.
So will the evidence uncovered in the programme cut the mustard with the big cheeses at the OED, ultimate guardians of the English language? If so, they'll rewrite the dictionary and the definitive record of the English language will get just that bit more definitive.
Contains some strong language.
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/balderdash