Friday, October 2, 2015 — DT 27784

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27784
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, April 24, 2015
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27784]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

While I was able to complete the puzzle without using electronic assistance, I was left with a list of five solutions which I needed to look up in order to verify that such words or expressions actually existed — 22a, 8d, 9d, 20d, and 24d. Unfortunately, I should have added 16a to that list. Then again, it is a Giovanni puzzle, so obscure words are to be expected.

Then again, one might say that he who lives by the obscure word, dies by the obscure word — as evidenced by 24d.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Error in Today's Puzzle

For the third time in four days, a change was made to a clue on the Telegraph Puzzles website. However, unlike the situation on Tuesday and Wednesday where there were no apparent reasons for the changes, the change in today's puzzle was necessitated by an outright error in the puzzle.

Of course, the correction does not appear in the puzzle published in the National Post (for an explanation of why this is so, see the discussion in Wednesday's blog of how a puzzle goes from conception to publication).

The corrected clue is as follows:

• 24d   Measure /that/ sounds suitable (4)

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (&lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   Bit of food // all mixed up with sour herb inside (7,4)

Sausage roll^[5] is a British term for a piece of sausage meat wrapped in pastry and baked.

8a   Critical factor // put off worker -- pit almost falling in (11)

11a   Way to see English being knocked out /in/ defeat (4)

12a   Water /that's/ brown spreading across river (4)

A tarn^[5] is a small mountain lake.

13a   One struggling /to establish/ line in attack (7)

15a   Seats // become rotten aboard ship (7)

Addle^[5] (with reference to an egg) means to become rotten, producing no chick ⇒ the extremely hot and dry weather had caused the eggs to addle. [I had never realized that this term applied specifically to eggs.]

"aboard ship" = 'contained in SS' (show explanation )

In Crosswordland, you will find that a ship is almost invariably a steamship, the abbreviation for which is SS^[10]. Thus "aboard ship" or "on board ship" (or sometimes merely "on board") is code for 'contained in SS'.

hide explanation

16a   Strong // piece of material that may be disposable (5)

I must admit that I failed to recognize this as being a double definition. I had it pegged as a cryptic definition, interpreting "strong" to be an allusion to the odour emanating from the piece of material.

Nappy^[10] (with reference to alcoholic drink, especially beer) is a [seemingly British] term meaning:

1. having a head, frothy; or
2. strong or heady.

Nappy^[5] is the British name for diaper^[5].

17a   On edge of plate mother/'s placed/ cheese (4)

Edam^[5] is a round Dutch cheese, typically pale yellow with a red wax coating.

18a   Trim // old man getting about (4)

19a   Old buffoon // opposing the first hint of change (5)

Antic^[10] is an archaic name for an actor in a ludicrous or grotesque part, a clown, or a buffoon.

21a   Helps // foolish person -- is crossing street (7)

22a   Brilliant // hit -- hooked? (7)

Lambent^[5] is a literary term meaning (with respect to light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance ⇒ (i) the magical, lambent light of the north; (ii) his eyes were huge and lambent in his starved face.

23a   Romantic couple // despite marriage fraying at the edges (4)

The fraying is quite severe — more so on the right than on the left.

26a   Insect /that is/ loud by meadow (4)

"loud" = F (show explanation )

Forte^[5] (abbreviation f^[5]) is a musical direction meaning (as an adjective) loud or (as an adverb) loudly.

hide explanation

27a   Like well-worn sofa // OK for retrieving from skip? (11)

"Skip"^[5] is the British name for a large transportable open-topped container for building and other refuse [in North America, known as a dumpster^[5]] ⇒ I’ve salvaged a carpet from a skip.

28a   Later on I spy zany // celebrity (11)

Down

2d   Help // half of all the characters (4)

3d   Man // to walk ahead of gossipy female (7)

4d   Somehow disabled /in/ sport (4)

5d   Go on a road /as/ fugitive (7)

6d   Hard mineral, not fine // material (4)

"fine" = F (show explanation )

F^[5] is an abbreviation for fine, as used in describing grades of pencil lead [a usage that Oxford Dictionaries Online surprisingly characterizes as British].

hide explanation

7d   Injured climber, a top /becoming/ tricky (11)

8d   Rudest yawn's nastily given /as/ unhelpful response (5,6)

A dusty answer^[5] is a British expression for a curt and unhelpful reply.

9d   Ribbons /and/ label on dog upset the French female (11)

"the French female" ELLE (show explanation )

Elle^[8] is a French pronoun meaning either she (when used as a subject) or her (as an object).

hide explanation

Tagliatelle^[5] is pasta in narrow ribbons.

10d   Unnecessary // seats in line to be shifted (11)

14d   Wet season // is predominant, reportedly (5)

15d   Ruin // ground with introduction of parking (5)

19d   A project in which a learner appears // perplexed (2,1,4)

"learner" = L (show explanation )

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various countries (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

hide explanation

20d   Bad act and more or less everybody could make it (7)

This is a semi-&lit. (semi-all-in-one) clue. The entire clue provides the definition while the portion with the dashed underline is the wordplay.

I failed to grasp the informal expression of the Latin abbreviation.

"more or less" = C (show explanation )

The preposition circa^[5] (abbreviation c or c.^[5]), often used preceding a date, means approximately or about  ⇒ the church was built circa 1860.

hide explanation

24d   Suitable // encounter from what we hear (4)

The intention clearly was for this to be a homophone type clue with the solution being METE. However, the setter appears to have confused the spelling of the solution.

As the wording of the clue stands, the definition would be "suitable" which leads to MEET (an archaic term meaning suitable). The wordplay is sounds like (from what we hear) MEET (encounter).

The clue was corrected on the Telegraph Puzzles website to read:

•  24d   Measure /that/ sounds suitable (4)

Meet^[5] is an archaic term meaning suitable or proper ⇒ it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour.

In Biblical use, mete^[5] means to measure out ⇒ with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Nomenclature Malfunction

In the course of researching this clue, I discovered that the nomenclature commonly applied to this type of clue is sorely wanting. What we commonly call homophone clues would be more appropriately called heterograph clues. Homophones[7] (words having the same pronunciation but different meanings) comprise both heterographs (words having the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings) and homonyms (words having the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings). Thus in North America, tire (fatigue) and tire (automobile part) are homonyms. In the UK, on the other hand, tire (fatigue) and tyre (automobile part) are heterographs. In cryptic crosswords, homophone clues always involve words having the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings (heterographs) and never words having the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings (homonyms). Note: The definition of homonym used here is that found in Wikipedia. It is also the definition given by Chambers 21st Century Dictionary as well as the Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary. However, dictionaries do not agree on the definition of homonym. Chambers 21st Century Dictionary: A homonym[2] is a word with the same sound and spelling as another, but with a different meaning. Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary: A homonym is a word the same as another in sound and spelling but different in meaning. Collins English Dictionary: A homonyn[10] is one of a group of words pronounced or spelt in the same way but having different meanings. Oxford Dictionaries Online: A homonym[5] is each of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins. American Heritage Dictionary: A homonym[3] is one of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning. The Chambers Dictionary: A homonym[1] is a word having the same sound and perhaps the same spelling as another, but a different meaning and origin, sometimes extended to words having a different sound and the same spelling. The Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary tells us that homonyms are, in the strictest sense, both homophones and homographs, alike in spelling and pronunciation. Homonym, however, is used more frequently than homophone, a technical term, when referring to words with the same pronunciation without regard to spelling. Homonym is also used as a synonym of homograph (a word that is spelled identically to another word but may or may not share its pronunciation). Thus, homonym has taken on a broader scope than either of the other two terms and is often the term of choice in a nontechnical context. In other words, homonym has lost its precision through misuse.

25d   Slight // rest (4)

26d   Featureless // accommodation (4)

Flat^[5] is a chiefly British term for what would be called an apartment^[5] in North America — a set of rooms forming an individual residence, typically on one floor and within a larger building containing a number of such residences ⇒ a block of flats.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon