Rhyme

A conversation about words with no rhymes arose in the library yesterday, fuelled by the kind of whimsy that overcomes those steeped in boredom with 1st century AD rhetorical theoreticians. Examples touted included "orange," "silver," "month," "purple" and "traffic". Of these "orange" seems to stand, as does "silver". "Month" I dimly recall rhymes with "krunth", which as far as I remember is something in Sanskrit (vel sim) and also has some botanical meaning. I don't know if that counts or not, I'm prepared to let it go. Purple is a scandal, though: "hirple" is a perfect rhyme and a fine Scots word to boot. I checked and it is in the OED, so there. (It means to walk with a limp or awkward gait, as any fule know.) However, I will let people off for not knowing about the word "hirple." But I must insist that there is no excuse for anyone, especially a classicist, claiming there is no rhyme for "traffic". As well as being an indispensable piece of metrical terminology and the adjective for one of the greatest artsists in the literary history of Europe, we must also consider how impoverished would be our vocabulary of euphemisms for sexual deviants without the glorious term "Sapphic." More elegant than "Lesbian," less graphic than "tribade," less prosaic than "gay," it is the choice of queens. It even rhymes with Seraphic (QED x 2). However, may I suggest that you do not, in your innocent determination to find rhymes for "Sapphic," type this word into google and press search. It took me half an hour to clear my desktop.