Is ‘bumhole’ a legitimate word? Apparently so, according to the word-wise boffins on cult British game show Countdown.
Resident linguist Sudie Dent blushed and fellow judge Janet Street-Porter gave her trademark cackle when host Nick Hewer asked them if they could better the two contestants’ five-letter word combinations for the vowels and consonants presented.
“What have we got in the corner, anything interesting there?” he queried.
“I can’t say it,” a bashful Dent protested. “Ok, lets get it over quickly. Bumhole is there.”
Oxford University graduate and co-host Rachel Riley duly arranged the letters for the Channel 4 viewers. Indeed, it was there!
The Australian version of the long-running British word game show Countdown is called more simplistically Letters and Numbers, so as not to be confused with the legendary 70s and 80s Aussie music show Countdown.
