Wordaholics

Word-obsessed comedy panel game hosted by Gyles Brandreth. With comedians Lloyd Langford, Holly Walsh and Paul Sinha and novelist and classicist Natalie Haynes.

Today's Letter of the week is the sinuous letter 'S'. Lloyd Langford has to work out what the Victorian term 'Smothering a parrot' meant. Natalie Haynes works out what a 'Saint Giles Carpet' was. Holly Walsh works out what she'd be doing in the 1700s if she were to ride on 'Shank's mare'. And Paul Sinha works out what a 'spermologer' is.

In a round about portmanteau words Natalie is asked what a 'chork' is; Holly a 'geep'; Paul 'smirting' and Lloyd a 'flexitarian'.

Next the panellists are asked to guess the meaning of some foreign words which have no direct equivalent in English. Lloyd tries to guess the meaning of the Central American word 'chaquetero' and Holly works out what the Chilean phrase 'pagar el piso' means.

The panel then try and ban the words which drive them most mad including 'foodie' and 'chillax'.

Finally they try and decipher what the long-forgotten words from the early 1600s are: 'mulct','matrixe', 'pistated' and 'obnubilate'.