Monday, July 20, 2020 — DT 29232 (Published Saturday, July 18, 2020)

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29232
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, December 12, 2019
Setter proXimal (Steve Bartlett)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29232]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By pommers
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

As a welcome change, not only did I recognize early on that the puzzle was shaping up to be a pangram (or, rather, a near-pangram given that the puzzle was published in the UK on a Thursday) but I also remembered to track the letters. To top it off, I was actually able to put this knowledge to work to help solve the puzzle.

This puzzle appeared in the UK on the day of the 2019 general election, so one could suppose that the setter left his X at the ballot booth.

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

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.

Markup Conventions
"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present	"solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	One hating Englishman/'s/ old pub in a new world (10)

"old " = O [linguistics]

In linguistics, O^[12] is the abbreviation for Old ⇒ (i) OFr [Old French]; (ii) OE [Old English].

However, a second entry from this same source shows o (lower case) meaning old (not capitalized) suggesting that the use of this abbreviation may not necessarily be confined to the field of linguistics.

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"pub " = PH [symbol used on maps]

Public house^[5] (abbreviation PH^[a]; symbol used to identify location of pub on a map) is the formal (British) name for a pub.

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^[a] TheFreeDictionary.com

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"new " = N [abbreviation used on maps]

N^[5] is an abbreviation (chiefly in place names) for New ⇒ N Zealand.

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6a	Meat // starter of mutton introduced by resort (4)

Scratching the Surface
Starter[5] is another name* for an appetizer or the first course of a meal. * although British dictionaries consider this term to be British[5] (or chiefly or mainly British[4,10,14]), this usage of the word would seem to have become well established in North America and is found in American dictionaries[3,12]

9a	Take courage, // try size down from twelve (7)

In Britain, as well as North America and Europe, women's clothing^[7] comes only in even sizes^*. However, the numerical value of a given size varies from country to country. For instance, a US size 8 is a 12 in the UK, a 38 in Germany, a 40 in France, and a 44 in Italy. The sizing of men's clothing^[7] is less consistent with jackets having only even sizes and trousers having both odd and even sizes.

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^* This is not strictly correct as the odd numbers are used for women's junior miss sizes which (if I understand correctly) are not so much smaller sizes as they are sizes cut to fit a less curvaceous body shape.

10a	Dunce is entangling // leads (7)

12a	Core of students warning: stop // environmental change (13)

Fore^[5] is an exclamation called out as a warning to people in the path of a golf ball.

14a	Abhor // husband being enthralled by gloater endlessly (6)

"husband " = H [genealogy]

The abbreviation for husband is h^[1,2] or h.^{[3,4,10,11,12]} or H^[12] or H.^[4,10,11,12]) [although no context is provided, it may well come from the field of genealogy].

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15a	Comparatively nauseated // when one consumes rum? On the contrary (8)

Contrary By Convention
The phrase "on the contrary" tells the solver to reverse the logic or meaning of the statement immediately preceding it. Doing so restates the wordplay to read "rum consumes when one".

Rum^[5] is a British informal dated term meaning odd or peculiar ⇒ it’s a rum business, certainly.

17a	Phone wife or daughter /in/ new term (4,4)

"wife " = W [genealogy]

The abbreviation for 'wife' is w^[1,2,12] or w.^[3,4,10,11] [although no context is provided, it likely comes from the field of genealogy].

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"daughter " = D [genealogy]

In genealogies, d^[5] is the abbreviation for daughter ⇒ Henry m. Georgina 1957, 1s 2d^*.

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^* Henry married Georgina in 1957. Their marriage produced 1 son and 2 daughters.

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19a	Item of furniture/'s/ firm support (6)

22a	With disapproval, // European interrupts cooking of phall curry (13)

"European " = E [as in E-number]

E^[1,2] is the abbreviation for European (as in E number^*).

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^* An E number^[1,4,10,14] (or E-number^[2,5]) is any of various identification codes required by EU law, consisting of the letter E (for European) followed by a number, that are used to denote food additives such as colourings and preservatives (but excluding flavourings) that have been approved by the European Union.

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Scratching the Surface
Phall[7] is a British Asian curry which originated in the British Bangladeshi-owned curry-houses of Birmingham, England and has also spread to the United States. It is not to be confused with the char-grilled, gravyless, finger food phall from southern India. Phall has achieved notoriety as the hottest generally available dish from Indian restaurants, even hotter than the vindaloo.

24a	Tense about a relative/'s/ betrayal (7)

"tense " = T [grammar term]

Grammatically speaking, t.^[10] is the abbreviation for tense.

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25a	Guest // in capital of Vietnam is there regularly (7)

26a	Table // not totally made skilfully (4)

27a	Soldiers // circle armoured vehicles around German man (5,5)

Herr^[5] (plural Herren) is:

• a title or form of address used of or to a German-speaking man, corresponding to Mr and also used before a rank or occupation ⇒ (i) good morning, Herr Weber; (ii) my trip with the Herr Doktor was postponed 
• a German man

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

Down

1d	Pain // in stomach eases (4)

2d	Relative/'s/ piano, a piano that's upright (7)

"piano " = P [music notation]

Piano^[3,5] (abbreviation p^[5]), is a musical direction meaning either (as an adjective) soft or quiet or (as an adverb) softly or quietly.

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3d	No longer at risk // having sold certain golf clubs (3,2,3,5)

4d	Empty // a shed in European country (6)

5d	Ecstatic // catching leader of fraud in fake US bills (8)

7d	Composer // docked pleasant vessel from South Island (7)

Giacomo Puccini^[5] (1858–1924) was an Italian composer. Puccini's sense of the dramatic, gift for melody, and skilful use of the orchestra have contributed to his enduring popularity. Notable operas: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904).

Scratching the Surface
South Island[5] is the more southerly and larger of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the North Island by Cook Strait.

8d	I'm upset with guards /making/ errors (10)

11d	Don't mention // mounted trophy I've ordered paramour (4,1,4,4)

13d	Worry about American work, editor // added detail (10)

Labor is the US spelling of labour^[5].

16d	Prince redesigned court /for/ district (8)

"court " = CT

Ct^[2] is the abbreviation for Court in street addresses — and possibly in other contexts as well.

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18d	Flies, perhaps, // ones that move fast (7)

20d	Act deceitfully /as/ sea god, keeping close to enemy (3,2,2)

In Greek mythology, Triton^[5] is a minor sea god usually represented as a man with a fish's tail and carrying a trident and shell-trumpet.

21d	Shortened copper // post (6)

23d	Parisian's first person on wings of this // aircraft (4)

The French first person pronoun je^[8] means 'I'.

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 Advanced 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)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon