Driving back yesterday from a
baking hot very damp Devon (one afternoon on the beach - wearing a waterproof - does not a holiday maketh), we were in need of a fillip. And Radio 4's Hobson-Jobson:
A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of
Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive did the job; a thoroughly riveting thirty minutes charting the story of the Colonial-Indian dictionary; how it was conceived, written, published and in the 21st century, despite the fact that the days of Raj and Empire are long gone, the lexicon lives on.
Hurdy-gurdy, hugger-mugger, higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, tit-for-tat, topsy-turvy, harum-scarum, roly-poly, nirvana, pyjamas, bungalow and juggernaut are proof indeed (no need to watch Goodness Gracious Me re-runs) that if these words didn't exist we'd have to invent them. It's still up on the
iplayer if you missed it.
