Stop your ticklin’

“Have you ever heard of gargalesis and krismesis? Probably not, unless you’re a fan of the TV programme Would I Lie To You?” writes a Craigie regular.

“Susie Dent told the panel she had broken her leg trying to escape from a bout of gargalesis imposed by her father when she was a young girl. Her story turned out to be true and gargalesis means heavy tickling.

“She said light tickling was described as krismesis. The compere could not find the words in his dictionary. Neither could I, not even in the ‘Shorter Oxford’.

“I finally found the words on Google. The words were apparently coined in 1897 by psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Allin. What on earth for?”