Sweet Succor and Sour Suckers

 Episode 109 of I Hate Talking centers on the word “succor,” exploring its pronunciation, etymology, and modern meaning as help, aid, or relief in times of distress. The hosts also compare “succor” with “sucker” and “lollipop,” digging into regional language differences, candy terminology, and how words can shift in meaning over time.

From there, the conversation turns to a broader reflection on DIY work versus hiring professionals, including home repairs, painting, plumbing, electrical safety, and the confidence that comes from doing things yourself. The episode blends language history with practical life experience, connecting word origins to the satisfaction, frustration, and learning that come with homeownership and hands-on problem solving.

Keywords: succor, sucker, lollipop, pronunciation, etymology, British English, American English, Bible language, help and relief, DIY home repair, hiring professionals, painting, plumbing, electrical safety, stud finder, DIY confidence, homeownership, I Hate Talking podcast, episode 109.

Transcript

I Hate Talking: 0:29

Welcome to episode 109 of I Hate Talking. Hi everyone. So I believe you have our word or phrase of this episode. That's true. I want to talk about the word and then the ideas around sucker. Like a lollipop? No, not a sucker, like a lollipop. S U C C O R. See, I think I would pronounce that, and I'm not certain of this succor or like a bit more emphasis on like a OR sound at the end, cause it has an OR at the end, right? It is, yes, succor -- U C C -- O R. I if that, we'll then play the Pronunciation from this robot that says sucker. What? I just wanna hear if there's a difference. If you want me to look up sucker like a lollipop, right? OK, and see if it sounds different than succor. All right, what did you find? OK, so this is Google's American pronunciation, we'll do the S U C C O R first, which I would Pronounced perhaps improperly as succor. So, according to Google, it says this sucker. And now if I use the same search engine, same voice for sucker, like the lollipop. It has this same voice, American pronunciation. S U C K E R. Sucker And it is exactly the same and interesting to note that the pronunciation guide. Both have sucer S U H. Dot KR. So the pronunciation is exactly the same. So, I really love doing this podcast with you because my entire life, people have told me I speak improperly and pronounce things wrong. But I'm starting to guess, second guess these people, because I'm often correct and um I'm corrected incorrectly. That is true. We are on the journey to understanding through talking, so. Perhaps I will learn something as well. Yeah, and I think I'm too quick to say I'm wrong often. If I think I'm right about something, I'll fight for it. But If I'm not convinced I'm right, I give in too quickly, and I think all this time I give in and you're like, that's not how you pronounce it. I'm like, oh, OK. And I accept it. Now I should start googling everyone's corrections. That's true, that's what I do. I did find some articles, particular responses to the pronunciation guides for sucker and apparently sucker, and that part of the issue may be an American pronunciation, because this is not how you spell the word sucker in Britain. And that's where the word came from. Correct. Well, I think so. We'll check that too. I don't know. I don't know this for a fact. So it would be not. S U C C O R, but in Britain it would be S U C C O U R. the British U. I always like that O U R like honor, savior, I like it. And there you go. Honor would be actually what it would rhyme with. It would be sucker with a U R instead of an ER. And some of the particular comments around this pronunciation are stating that the sort of OR sound, succor would be to distinguish it from sucker, but most people conclude that the word that we're talking about, S U C C O R, is archaic and unused, and therefore, if you say the word sucker, it's basically the S U C K E R in nearly all contexts in the modern day. I agree. And did you look up what it means? No, I did not look up what it means. It's something that I've encountered in perhaps biblical texts or religious books, and I think it has something to do with like being nourished, perhaps, like you get fed or you receive sustenance of some kind. OK, I mean, at first I can see how you'd think that because it's almost like sucking the honey from the plant and stuff. Is that what you're thinking? Well, honey comes from bees, but Well, like, no, I was like, oh, like honeysuckle. OK, yes. Our kids love to find honeysuckle. Well, suckle is a different word altogether. OK. All right, so let's go back to this word. It sucker, like the lollipop in slang, often if you call someone a sucker, that's not a good thing, that's right, they're a person that's easily duped or taken for a ride or something like that. And actually I think that's probably why growing up, lollipops were called lollipops. I don't Really, yeah, I don't really recall encountering the word sucker for a lollipop until much later in life. Because your family thought it was a mean term. I'm not sure if it was my family in particular, or maybe, again, sort of the Northeast that does not use that particular term for A hard candy on a stick. Yeah, no, it was always a sucker. -- There's also -- Tootsie Pop, I think -- Tootsie Rolls -- roll. No, but my point is that Tootsie Roll was in the Northeast and it's a Tootsie Pop, -- not a Tootsie -- sucker. Yeah, Tootsie Pop, a Tootsie roll. No, Tootsie roll, is that or is that something else? Tootsie Roll is inside the Tootsie Pop and the age-old question, how many licks does it take to get to the inside of a Tootsie Pop, but it's not a Tootsie sucker. Oh no, is that another one of those, um, Mandalorian effects. No, it's not a Mandalorian effect. Yeah, I was, I was confused when you said that. I was like, yeah, no, that's a, that's Disney movie. Oh man, maybe we can start a new thing. We can have the Mandalorian effect. Lots of people I know are going to see the new Star Wars this week. Are you gonna see it? I would like to at some point, but I do not have specific plans at this point in time to actually go see it. The theater movie I'd want to see is The Devil Wears Prada 2. I still have not seen the space movie. Oh, I thought you were gonna say Devil's Wears Prada. You can watch it after this. Yeah. What's the space movie with the guy that goes out and saves the world from the sun? Oh, from the book we talked about. Uh, I don't remember. OK. Anyways, that's the movie that I would like to see that I don't even recall the name of, -- but it's -- probably gonna be on streaming soon at this point, -- probably a -- long time ago. All right, Zucker, S U C C O R. It comes from, and I'll read the definition. You were saying that you think that it gives you like nourishment or help in that way, right? Or sustenance, sustenance, OK, sustenance. -- Oh -- no, not subsistence. -- I didn't say -- subsistence. You had a B in there, I think. No, so it means to offer help, relief, or assistance, particularly to someone in distress or difficulty. Like a verb would be to aid someone in distress, he was succored by the passing stranger, or if it's a noun, charity provided succor to the refugees. So it seems like it's just general assistance and general help. It does not necessarily have to be food or nourishment per se. Am I thinking of like a religious context though, Perhaps with succor being used as a particular nourishment. It's in the Bible, right? Where did you, why, why is this word relevant to you? I'll find out. Is that what you said? I don't think our listeners heard that. You backed up from the mic on that one. It is from French. I've sort of thought that. I didn't say that, but It is from French and then medieval Latin before that. Interesting. So according to our favorite American Heritage dictionary, sucker, I'll pronounce it the American way, I suppose, comes from the Middle English succor, which just has the U, which comes from succors in Old French, succors. And then that came from medieval Latin succorus, and there's a whole bunch of different variations of the Latin that have different endings, but essentially that same thought there. And in the Latin, going back as far as you can, it means to run and help is like the literal translation. If you put it in terms of more of a formal definition, it means to run to the aid of in the Latin. All right, and it makes sense that you would think it's a Bible term, cause it is. And an example of several times in the Bible, in the KJV, which is what you would know better, 18 that says, for he himself, and that means Jesus, hath suffered being tempted. He, Jesus, is able to succor them that are tempted. So because Jesus was tempted, he's able to help us and aid us who are tempted. There you go. There's a bunch of references to King David being suckered or needing succored. So yes, I've seen the word before. I didn't necessarily know what it meant, but ultimately you're asking why I wanted to talk about this word. It's because I have a topic I want to discuss even more so, so maybe we can get into that now. Are you ready for that, or do we need to talk more about this origins and all that? I don't, I'm sort of curious on the light pop thing. I don't know if we've put that to bed. What is it? Why is lollipop and sucker different, right? Is that a regional thing? Let's find out. Or is there even another word, right? Like you have pop and soda and I don't know. I thought there was a 3rd, 3rd word, but lollipop is more commonly used in British English. -- Sucker is often used in American -- English. In Britain, don't they call it a lolly? Yeah, I've heard that before. Yeah. So according to Luna Candy Company, so perhaps they are experts on candy, so they probably can have a say. They, on their website, state that the difference between a lollipop and a sucker is not technically different. It's basically hard candy on a stick. There's a whole bunch of like history. It's like we're reading one of those recipes, like, Well, if I was to tell you the difference in my head. What the difference between a lollipop and a sucker are. So if someone use them interchangeably, I wouldn't have an issue with it. But for me, when I'm describing it to somebody, like to my children, go get a lollipop. I'm thinking one of those really big. Kind of flat, circled. They're often like striped or multicolored. Do you know what I'm talking about? And it's on a stick and it's like huge and you can't ever eat it in one setting and then you put it down, and it gets sticky everywhere. So that's what I think about as a lollipop and then a sucker is like a small circle one that is just a couple, you know, in a couple of minutes it's gone. That actually is, if you read all the way down to the bottom of Luna Candy's website, they do say that in general nowadays, lollipops tend to be the larger sort of flattened disk type candies, that's, whereas suckers are the smaller, more compact, spherical shaped. Yeah, that's, well, there you go. I know my candy. Yes, but they still maintain that that's not actually where it came from, and This, in terms of the history of lollipop, is that the machine that was invented, so according to their history section here on the website, is that The machine that was invented in order to produce said candy was called the lollipop machine, invented in 2008 by George Smith. So lollipop was Perhaps a little bit more of the official term at the start of the invention of said candy, and then it seems like sucker became more of a Euphemism Of how the candy was eaten, that people started using and that term. Stuck. OK. I mean, it's a better definition of what you're doing. A lollipop is cute, just too long of a name. Well, I think sucker can have a lot of different meanings, right? Like we talked about, it could be this other word completely that means running to the assistance of or aiding people, or it can be the person that is easily duped. I don't think there is any other. Particular word usage for lollipop, like a lollipop is a lollipop. Yes, lollipop is a type of sugar candy, hard candy usually mounted on a stick. So I'm going to continue to use the term lollipop for a particular hard candy on a stick. All candies? No, a particular hard candy on a stick flat. No, all, no, hard, hard candy on a stick. A dum dumb is a lollipop. Yes, I actually met a guy that was born and raised in the town that invented Dum Dums. Oh. Huh Interesting. That was like his one claim to fame, so, or his talent's claim to fame rather. Well, good for him. Does he like Dum Dums? Do they, does he eat them? I did not ask. That'd be cool if we lived in that town. I'd give everyone Dum Dums who came to visit us. I'd get a bag of Dum Dums as a welcome gift. There you go. Well, they would be suckered by the sucker because they would be aided by the candy on a stick, I suppose. All right, so now we'll get into why you wanted to talk about this word to begin with, -- I -- suppose. OK, let's pivot now. Yeah, so I wanna talk. Because, um, you know, we moved this past year, and so we've had a lot of work done on our old home, a lot of work done on our new home. And Partially because of our phase of life, a lot of it because of time constraints, we've had to hire help to do a lot of house stuff like painting, fixing things, etc. that we would normally have in the past done ourselves. You and I are big DIYs, but this move kind of took us by surprise and Just things have happened this year's been crazy, so we hired out help, and I've always been jealous of, I mean, jealous is a harsh word, but people that hire say painters. I've always been like, oh, that must be nice, because I grew up, my family was very big with DIY. we had to paint everything, we had to do everything ourselves, and you and I do that, especially in the beginning of out of necessity. And then cause we enjoy it and because we're kind of cheap, and so we do it, and I've always kind of just been like, oh, that'd be so nice. Seeing the work. That professionals do, a lot of it, I mean, some I can't do, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful for all of it. Some of it I could not do, period. A lot of it, I look and go, I could have done a better job. Well, that is true. That's one of the reasons that I do prefer DIY and you left that out of your list is that I'm fairly particular when it comes to the results of a particular project. So oftentimes I do prefer to do something myself because I will do it in a way that is The outcome is satisfactory to my liking. Yeah, we had, uh, did have one issue with some professionals and I had to call up their, you know, call it back like, hey, this wasn't done appropriately or safely. I mean, it wasn't a safe thing they did. So I had to call and we had followed up about it. The person, the owner was like, Should I come back out? And I was like, honestly, my husband can just do it himself. Because at that point you were like, I don't trust them to, it was our kids' beds they were making, and we weren't happy with the quality that they did. And so the hardware was not installed properly. It was loose. Some of it was OK, like bolts were tightened too. Unnecessary tightness, but many of them were completely loose and the structure was not secure. Yeah, and they're bunk beds. So if the top bunk falls, underneath its squished or who knows, you know, like this is not something we want to mess with safety wise. And that's why when I was like, he'll just do it himself. And she was like, oh yeah, I understand. My husband would do the same. Right. And these aren't like cheap. Metal death trap bunk beds, but they're wooden structure that are assembled and have a variety of supports and everything like that. So you built them and you did a great job building them, and then somebody else took them apart and somebody else rebuilt them here. So they did not have the plans. I was at least impressed by that, that like the hardware was used in the correct spots. I did not have to change any of the hardware. In terms of where it was utilized, but it did, it was just, it was not, yeah, it was not, not secure. Yeah, so anyways, I think that, and then the same thing like with painting, I just look and I'm just kind of like, oh, like, I thought in my head, like, you know, if we hired painters, the ceiling, you know, the edging would just be crisp and great, and it's not. And I, I feel really bad saying that, and I don't want to sound unthankful or anything like that, so please don't think that at all. I think that's what I want to talk about is like, I think I've learned from this process that like, I don't mind being a DIYer because I like saving money, first of all, and I think I'm more proud, like I can look at that and go, hey, look, I did that. And in the grand scheme of things, this has given me a better self-confidence in my skills. I'm like, oh. I could do that or better. So like. Good job, me. That's true. So I feel more self-confident in my abilities now. Indeed. So, yeah, I will tackle painting and Hardware projects, drywalling and things like that, plumbing to a degree, like, I'll do the Fixtures and pipes. Like I'm not going to probably take apart walls to get the plumbing per se. No, but like installing dishwashers. Yeah, I've done dishwashers. The only thing that I do particularly stay away from is electrical work. The only thing that I feel comfortable doing for my own personal safety and not necessarily the fact of doing it in a certain way or doing it in a way that is cheaper than a professional, but strictly for my own safety is I only do things at the junction boxes. I won't ever do anything upstream. So, I can take the particular precautions of making sure the service panel is switched off so that there's no electricity. I have the tools with like a multimeter to check if there's any current remaining in the system and things like that, but I'll just swap out things at the junction boxes with like Swapping a switch or an outlet or installing a ceiling fan or something like that, but in terms of like rewiring or messing with anything that I'm not 100% sure is not a live circuit, then I don't do that. Is that because you're afraid to get electrocuted or you're afraid to start a fire? My own personal safety, electrocution. Now, in America, it's 110 volts. It's not gonna probably kill you, it can. It's not like other regions of the world where they're working with 220 and things like that. I don't know what any of that means, but I believe you. Well, and it's not the voltage that kills you, it's the amperage anyway, so there you go. Yeah, I agree. I think you are very handy, and I mean, now YouTube and all that is so helpful because we can just look stuff up. It's a bit of a pet peeve for me. I hate YouTube, how to. I'd rather read it. Oh no. I have to watch this 5 minute video to find like the 32nd clip of the thing that I need, whereas I could skim the equivalent information in a written format in said 30 seconds and find the exact paragraph that I need for what I need to do. You're an excellent skimmer. Like you can read really quickly, so that's, I can understand you thinking that. I like watching someone do it and if you search YouTube properly, and nowadays it will um give you the whole video, but it sends it straight to that little section, -- that 30 -- seconds. Yeah, it's still, I still find it annoying. I was actually watching a video on social media and it was a thing about how like you can speed read and it was like, we'll start at 200 words per minute or something like that, and it was like scrolling each word. And then it was like, now we'll go to 300. I was like, this is really slow. Let me put this on double speed. And I was like, now we're at 500, you're at like so fast. And I was reading this at 1000 speed. So and you could read it at 1000 words per minute. I was not catching every word, but maybe like every 9 out of 10 words, yeah. I, I want you to do it for me. I wanna see how fast I can read. OK, we'll find out and you can see if you can read it 200 words per minute or cause I was, I, I found it slow. And so I was like, I'll put this on double speed and then I was still able to keep up, but. I don't know, it was a strange experience. And you can regurgitate what you read. I don't remember it I can read quick, but then I have a hard time retaining the information. I actually find it easier to retain information when you're reading it quickly because you're not reading every word, you're taking concepts and thoughts. So it's not good for like if you wanted to like proofread something. You can't speed read. But if you are just getting like general concepts, and really the concept of skimming something is you're not necessarily going to get every single detail. So if there is a need to read like a contract or something, I'm not going to read at that speed, but I'm just generally getting an idea of something. Yes, I can interpret and retain that, and actually, in most cases, retain that better. Then if I was reading. At a slower pace for specific details. Interesting. Hm. Sometimes I read things backwards. That's a great way to proofread things. Like the word backwards, like sucker would be. No, no, no, you just, no, you read the, the words backwards. Backwards you would read the words. Oh, very Yoda of you, like the Mandalorian. There you go. We've come circle full. But yeah, I think the other thing, uh, you're talking about what you like doing and don't like doing. I have found a love, and I don't think you appreciate this love necessarily, but I love our stud finder. In previous homes, I just kind of would willy-nilly, if it was a heavy thing specifically or important thing, I'd wait for you and you would hang it up. And then when we left a couple of homes ago, we had so many nail holes that you were like, never again are we using a nail and hammer. Only 3 M's that come off easy. So that's what we did in our previous home. Well, it comes to eight year old 3M. Strips, those little like ones that aren't supposed to leave any marks on your wall. After 8 years, they take the paint off. They, uh, do not last. That law or they, so we found that out this past move. And so then I was like, well, I'm gonna might as well do a hole. I think it's probably easier to patch a hole in the hole. 3M strip that got ripped off. So I've been going around our house using. A nail and hammer often now, and I'm having so much fun finding all the studs in our house. It's so rewarding. Well, stud finding technology has advanced quite significantly over the years. So, like the one that you're using is like. Very specific. Like you can find the edge of the stud and the center of the stud, and you can change it for different material depths and things like that. So if you're looking at just drywall or if you're doing like something that's perhaps more concrete, like -- concrete -- iron, it shows where the metal is and iron and yes, it can even detect like wires and things like that, which There have been electrical. Style stud finders for a while now, I guess, where at least you can find the stud and it will beep when you're near it or in the middle. But I remember using my dad's stud finder and it was a magnet. And not only did you have to, you, you didn't have to find the stud, you had to find the nail in the drywall attached to the stud, and then like hang a plumb bob to the where that mark was so that you could go down. And then he had to make sure that the stud was like. Actually level or straight. So you had to sort of assume that so you could perhaps do two nails and draw a line between the two to see if the stud was, it was lined up, yes. And that was a lot of work. That sounds ridiculous, but that probably costs about the same amount of money as the common stud finders now too, huh? They're not, right? Yeah, I would say so. But, uh, the one that we have now, it is again, so rewarding, because like you were talking about, it tells you where the beginning of it is in the middle and the end. And it flashes and beeps, and I sort of feel like I've won a contest or, you know, like, um, you're in Vegas with the slot machines or something as I'm finding this stud and then it's like. I'm like, yes, I found it. And it, I, I get so excited. So that's what I've been doing the last couple of days is walking around with my. Screwdriver and. Putting screws and nails everywhere. There you go. But I think it looks nice, right? It's not cluttered or overcrowded. Yeah, it looks good down till we take everything down and we'll have to patch all the holes and repaint everything, and then the paint doesn't match. So then we have to repaint everything. And then we get paint on the carpet, and then we have to replace the carpet, and then so on and so forth. So, which that's what happened to the previous, previous owners that sold the house and they hired professionals and the paint was all over the carpet, so much so that they had to pay to replace the carpet. Yeah, we got. Should have DIY'ed it. Yeah, maybe, yeah, we lucked out of that. It was the previous owners and we got some new flooring because of it. That would have bummed me out if you hire professionals and then they screw up and then we had extra payments. Because any of the stuff that the, well they, they went after the painters. Oh, they did. I'm not 100% certain, but I've heard rumors from, from the realty people. Uh, yeah, so I think that was the whole thing was like. The question about sucker and like getting help or aid with something versus just doing it yourself. So that's what I wanted to talk about because I, my takeaway now is I'm so thankful that we were able to hire out people. First of all, that's a huge blessing. But my takeaway is I am so much more confident in my abilities, and I think I do a pretty good job now actually. You do better, I will say for sure you are much more meticulous. And say we're painting, I won't usually go straight up to the ceiling because I don't have a steady hand. So I'll paint all of it except for that line, and then you'll come in. And do the line, but as a team, we do that. Versus a professional who seems to do as good of a job as I would do with blue paint tape and all. -- There you -- go. I suppose my takeaway is that I'm realizing how much perhaps of my childhood lexicon is. Informed by British. Instead of German. Yeah, I, with the pronunciations, yes, Saker. Versus sucker, that's the British pronunciation, archaic, of course, and, and sort of the Lollipop versus the the sucker. Both are American, but it seems like lollipop is preferred by the British as well. There you go, yeah, I agree. So if you enjoyed this episode and want to aid a friend in perhaps understanding Any of these words or? The discussion on doing it yourself versus hiring a professional, you can always Sucker them To this episode. Well, I don't, I mean, I guess it could be open for interpretation. Are you running to their aid and sharing this episode so that they can learn, or are you suckering them in to listen to this and take them and dupe them? -- If -- you're a kid especially listening, man, I would have used this when I was a kid if I knew this word, because say you wanna diss your sibling. You're such a sucker. My mom would yell at me, right? Like, not yell, but like, hey. We don't say that word. I like I'm saying he's so helpful. Thank you for being such a helpful sibling. Oh man, I would have 100% said that. Yeah, I don't know if it works as a noun. You could use it as a verb, like, you suckered me, and that would be like, No, in the definition, it's a noun and the verb sucker. I read it in the beginning. It's now, yes, OK. You're such a I suppose so. So a person can be a sucker. I don't know, but I would have totally tried to. -- It's -- a I would have tried to insult my sibling and then try to turn it around as a positive. Yeah, the noun does not refer to a person, though. Oh no, it is one that affords assistant relief. Oh, OK. There you go. You're such a sucker. So there you go, if you want to. If someone And then if you get called out, you can flip it quickly and actually try to encourage them and be positive. It works out really well. Interesting. Or you could just use the word lollipop and then aid, and then no one will be confused. That's what I will do. I believe you. So, from your friends at I Hate Talking, until next time, remember, it is only through talking that we begin the journey to understanding.