Introduction
Another puzzle with a moderate degree of difficulty - pretty much on a par with yesterday's puzzle.
Fundamentals of Cryptic Crosswords - Part II
Before beginning today's installment, I should perhaps offer a bit of a disclaimer. I confess that I am a relative newcomer to the field of cryptic crosswords and I am also largely self-taught in this area. Therefore, you will likely find that I may sometimes be unfamiliar with common conventions and orthodox notions associated with this art (but I am learning more every day, especially with knowledgeable and much more experienced practitioners such as xwd_fiend and Big Dave to provide guidance). What you will see in these blogs are my attempt to synthesize what knowledge I have managed to pick up over my rather brief period of solving cryptic crosswords and document it in a coherent fashion. While I may not always use the traditional parlance, I hope that the ideas are at least clear and well articulated. Having been an Electrical Engineer by profession, and also holding a degree in Mathematics, I acknowledge that I do tend to be rather analytical. You will likely notice, from time to time, that I may appropriate certain concepts from these fields, as well as from the study of languages, where I got the idea for categorizing clues as either regular or irregular, corresponding to the way linguists classify verbs.
Yesterday, we began to look at the structure of clues and today I would like to expand on that discussion somewhat.
At this point, I do need to introduce another concept - that of envelopes and payloads. While this material may seem a bit obvious or mundane, please bear with me, as it sets the stage for things to come.
All clues (both regular and irregular) consist of an envelope and a payload. The envelope is the same for all types of clues. It is the payload that differs and it is the differences in the payload that distinguishes a regular clue from an irregular clue.
The envelope consists of a header and a trailer which surround the payload. The header (appearing at the front of the clue) is a clue identifier (such as 14ac or 9d) which defines the cell position in the grid at which the solution begins and the direction in which the solution runs (horizontal or vertical). The trailer (enclosed within parentheses at the end of the clue) indicates the magnitude of the solution (i.e., the number of letters in the solution) and the pattern of the solution (i.e., the number of words in the solution as well as the length of each word, and the existence and positioning of any hyphens in the solution).
Some examples from today's puzzle will serve to illustrate the concept of the envelope:
14ac Convey meaning (6)
3d Affectedly pretentious young man and woman (2-2-2)
9d With nothing to do, vandalize a seat on dole (2,1,5,3)
The headers of these three clues are respectively, "14ac", "3d", and "9d". The trailers for these clues indicate that the solution for 14ac is a single word of six letters; the solution for 3d is six letters in length with hyphens following the second and fourth letters; and the solution for 9d consists of four words of lengths two, one, five and three letters respectively.
Since the envelope is common to all types of clue, in future I will generally discuss clues solely in terms of their payload. However, it is always understood that each clue has both an envelope and a payload.
With that, I conclude today's installment. As always, comments are most welcome.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
import - to bring into (verb defn. 1 and 2) or to signify, imply, or portend (verb defn. 4), therefore (in either case) to convey
import - meaning (noun, defn. 5)
sc - scilicet (Latin), namely (abbrev., entry 4, defn. 1)
seat - a large country mansion (noun, defn. 12)
stand-off - a position in rugby (noun, defn. 2)
stroppy - (Brit.) ill-tempered
Today's Links
I found three questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle. They (together with the clues to which they relate) are:
AnswerBank [DT 25849]-a: 23ac, 25ac
AnswerBank [DT 25849]-b: 19ac, 25ac, 13d
AnswerBank [DT 25849]-c: 10ac
Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25849].
Solution to Today's Puzzle
| Legend: | "CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition |
| "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed | |
| "( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted |
Across
7ac REC(IT)AL
8ac MINOR|CA<
10ac FATA(LIST)IC* - {A FAC^T I}* + (LIST)
11ac _TY|PE_ - dir[TY PE]rfume
12ac F(OOTB*)ALL - F^ALL + (BOOT*)
14ac IMPORT - DD
15ac STANDOFF|IS|H
19ac SU(PE|R)B
20ac E|N(TREAT)Y_
22ac _HE|RO_ - t[HE RO]mans
23ac LONG|FELLOW
25ac M(A|G|N)ATE
26ac RE|CEIPT~ - CEIPT sounds like SEAT
Down
1d SE(N)AT|O|R
2d DIVA<
3d LA-DI-DA
4d M|IS|CHIEF
5d TOOTHPASTE* - {TEA TOP HOST}*
6d SC|EPTRE* - SC + PETER*
9d {AT A LOOSE END}* - {A SEAT ON DOLE}*
13d TO T|HE| P(O)INT
16d NOB|I|LIT|Y
17d FUNERAL - CD
18d S(TROP<)PY
21d _T|OF|FEE_ - scen[T OF FEE]t
24d LEEK~ - sounds like LEAK
Signing off for today - Falcon
Falcon
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if today is your first encounter with Dr b and Beatrice35 on AnswerBank (10 across).
Dr b is an American who has become a great cyber-friend. He loves British crosswords, and has learned all about cricket just to be able to complete them.
Beatrice35 suffers from a complaint that we here in the UK call verbal diarrhoea, and has an annoying habit of guessing cryptic answers and getting them wrong.
I think you can guess which one gives the better advice.
Your note on stroppy got me thinking. It is a very common shortened form of the word obstreperous, which most of us can neither pronounce nor spell, which is why we use stroppy.
Similarly grotty (which comes up in DT 25933) is a shortened form of grotesque.
Hi Big Dave,
ReplyDeleteYes, I usually find Beatrice's contributions on AnswerBank to be somewhat interesting. I even made reference to one of them in the Introduction to my post on May 8, 2009.
Envelope and payload: Watch out for the occasional clue that borrows either the clue number or the enumeration as part of the clue. Simple example: a clue for FOUR might use the final "(4)" as the def.
ReplyDeleteHi xwd_fiend,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this suggestion. The information will actually fit nicely into the topic I plan to discuss over the next few days - and which I almost certainly would not have thought to include without your prompting. While I do recall having seen the rare clue that borrows the clue number, I have yet to see one that borrows the enumeration (yet another wrinkle for me to keep an eye out for). However, I have no reason to believe that either of these types of clue would be inconsistent with anything that I have defined to date. The first instance is certainly just another type of substitution, a subject I introduced in today's blog (i.e., Tuesday - as I am responding to you a few days after you left your comment). As for the second instance, I think I will have to give it some more thought before deciding how to handle it. If I can find no other way to deal with it, I always have the out of declaring it to be an irregular clue :-)