Rachel Riley, 35, has teased her Countdown co-host, Susie Dent, 56, when she answered a fan’s question, “should we be suspicious of lexicographers?” in view of her 669,000 Twitter followers. Susie, the long-time Dictionary Corner resident, sparked interest earlier when she tweeted about the relationship between slang and punctuation.
Earlier today, the self-proclaimed ‘woman in Dictionary Corner’ Tweeted an insightful fact about the relationship between a certain type of punctuation and its etymology: “The dog’s b*******’ began as typographers’ slang for the colon dash because of its appearance :-
“Its meaning shifted to follow other formulae of excellence, such as ‘the cat’s whiskers’, ‘the bee’s knees’, and the sadly-lost ‘kipper’s knickers’.”
Susie’s Countdown co-star Rachel Riley was quick to retweet the fun fact while also taking the chance to aim a jibe at her friend.
The mathematician said: “Typographers’ slang, similar to Cockney rhyming slang, was created to encode and conceal their illicit and criminal activities.”
Before she added: “Never trust a typographer.”
However, a quick thinking fan jumped at the chance to fuel the friendly fire between the Channel 4 stars.
Referring to Susie’s profession, they wrote: “What about lexicographers? Should we be suspicious of them?,” with a thinking face emoji at the end.
Hilariously, Rachel replied and said: “Lexicographers is an anagram of GRAPHIC SEX LORE.
Another added: “Susie out of control again I suppose…”
Just days ago Rachel took to her Twitter to relay to her followers the story of how she had a run in with bouncers over bagels while trying to get into a bar on Brick Lane.
She wrote: “I almost didn’t get let into a bar on Brick Lane once, as I was so excited to show my friends ‘beigel’ written the way my family says it, as had been mocked for yonks.”
The Countdown star added: “The bouncers thought I was too drunk.”
Last year Susie revealed that Rachel sometimes refuses to speak on the show until she has solved her maths conundrums.
She disclosed: “She also doesn’t want anybody to help her!
“It really, really matters to her that she gets it and I think that’s such a great thing!”
Speaking to OK! magazine, she continued: “It really matters to Rachel, so if she hasn’t got the numbers round then you can’t talk to her for however many minutes she needs to be in her own world and get it. “
