Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29662 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Thursday, April 29, 2021 | |
Setter
RayT (Ray Terrell) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29662]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Kath | |
BD rating
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| Difficulty - ★★ / ★★★ | Enjoyment - ★★★ |
Falcon's experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐
███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ | |
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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
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Introduction
I did eventually conquer this puzzle—after my second or third assault on it.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 | |
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Planted one's plant // well (12) |
Well[5] is used as an adjective meaning in a satisfactory state or position ⇒
I do hope all is well with you and your family.
| 9a | Posh daily purchased by choice /in/ capital (9) |
"posh " = U [upper class]
In Britain, U[5] is used informally as an adjective (in respect to language or social behaviour) meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes ⇒
The term, an abbreviation of upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956).
In Crosswordland, the letter U is frequently clued by words denoting "characteristic of the upper class" (such as posh or superior) or "appropriate to the upper class" (such as acceptable).
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In Britain, U[5] is used informally as an adjective (in respect to language or social behaviour) meaning characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes ⇒
U manners.
The term, an abbreviation of upper class, was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, and popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956).
In Crosswordland, the letter U is frequently clued by words denoting "characteristic of the upper class" (such as posh or superior) or "appropriate to the upper class" (such as acceptable).
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Daily[5] (noun) is a dated British term for a woman who is employed to clean someone else’s house each day.
Char[5] is an informal British term for charwoman[5] (or charlady[5]), a dated British name for a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office.
Bucharest[5] is the capital of Romania. It was founded in the 14th century on the trade route between Europe and Constantinople.
| 10a | Expert // fitting round edges of doorframe (5) |
| 11a | Problems /with/ paper handkerchiefs wiping face (6) |
| 12a | Obscure // rich meet in new order (8) |
Hermetic[5] is used in the sense of difficult to understand because intended for a small number of people with specialized knowledge ⇒
obscure and hermetic poems.
I would say this term could well be applied to many of the senses in which RayT uses words.
| 13a | Regular on the Spanish // team? (6) |
"the Spanish " = EL [Spanish definite article]
Eleven[5] (often appearing as a Roman numeral XI) is the number of players in* a cricket[7] side [team] or an Association football[7] [soccer] team — and is frequently used as a metonym for such a team ⇒
at cricket I played in the first eleven.
* Note that, in Britain, the words "side" and "team" are synonymous and a player is said to be "in a side" or "in a team" rather than "on a team" as one would say in North America—although I do note that the clue is phrased "on the ...team".
| 15a | Earrings // finish inside drawers (8) |
In Britain, the word pants[5] does not mean trousers* as it does in North America. Rather, it refers to underwear — specifically men's undershorts or women's panties (the latter otherwise known as knickers[5] to the Brits).
* Then again, this may not have always been the case or may not be true in all parts of the UK as evidenced by the following observation made by Lincoln Latic in a comment on my review of DT 28909 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog:
I didn’t see this [pants used as a synonym for trousers] as an Americanism. I grew up in the northwest of England (before the big influx of Americanisms into the language) and ‘pants’ was the usual term for trousers. You had short pants as a real youngster then progressed into long pants as you got older which for most of us was when you were nearly at the end of primary school probably around aged 9 or 10. What most people consider ‘pants’ refers to now, were called underpants because they went under your pants.
| 18a | Quietly letting out ... // Charming! (8) |
"letting out " = LEASING
Let[5] is a British* term meaning to allow someone to have the use of (a room or property) in return for regular payments ⇒ (i)
* However, based on its appearance in US dictionaries[3,11], I seriously doubt this word is as exclusively British as Lexico (Oxford Dictionaries) would have us believe.
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Let[5] is a British* term meaning to allow someone to have the use of (a room or property) in return for regular payments ⇒ (i)
she let the flat [apartment] to a tenant; (ii)
they’ve let out their house.
* However, based on its appearance in US dictionaries[3,11], I seriously doubt this word is as exclusively British as Lexico (Oxford Dictionaries) would have us believe.
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| 19a | Company man /is/ powerful (6) |
Powerful is used in the sense of convincing ⇒
The proponents of the proposal put forward powerful arguments in support of it.
| 21a | Dances trying to hold // line (8) |
| 23a | Gold seen in abundance /in/ bog (6) |
| 26a | Writer // is best selling English novelist initially (5) |
Henrik Ibsen[5] (1828–1906) was a Norwegian dramatist. (show more )
He is credited with being the first major dramatist to write tragedy about ordinary people in prose. Ibsen’s later works, such as The Master Builder (1892), deal increasingly with the forces of the unconscious and were admired by Sigmund Freud. Other notable works: Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881).
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He is credited with being the first major dramatist to write tragedy about ordinary people in prose. Ibsen’s later works, such as The Master Builder (1892), deal increasingly with the forces of the unconscious and were admired by Sigmund Freud. Other notable works: Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881).
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| 27a | Testing // old boy in parking lot (9) |
"old boy " = OB
In Britain, an old boy[5] (abbreviation OB[2]) is:
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In Britain, an old boy[5] (abbreviation OB[2]) is:
- a former male student of a school or college ⇒
an old boy of Banbury County School
- a former male member of a sports team or company ⇒
the White Hart Lane old boy squared the ball to present an easy chance from 12 yards
‘Look here, old boy,’ he said.
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| 28a | Female teacher // hides master's mobile (12) |
Headmistress[5] is a British term for a woman who is the head teacher in a school.
Scratching the Surface
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Mobile[5] (short for mobile phone) is a British term for a cell phone[5] (short for cellular phone) ⇒ we telephoned from our mobile to theirs. |
Down
| 1d | Turn to gas // to get high (7) |
Sublime[5] is a term used in chemistry to denote the change of a solid substance directly into vapour when heated, typically forming a solid deposit again on cooling.
Sublime[5] is an archaic term meaning to elevate to a high degree of moral or spiritual purity or excellence.
| 2d | Fixes // charge for the audience (5) |
| 3d | Son miserable about sweetheart // lacking form (9) |
"sweetheart " = E
A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue the letter 'E', the middle letter (heart) of the word 'swEet'.
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A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue the letter 'E', the middle letter (heart) of the word 'swEet'.
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| 4d | Port /ound in/ a study (4) |
Aden[5] is a port in Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea. Aden was formerly under British rule, first as part of British India (from 1839), then from 1935 as a Crown Colony. It was capital of the former South Yemen from 1967 until 1990.
| 5d | Some unite there, definitely /getting/ hitched (8) |
| 6d | Sphere /of/ physical mass (5) |
| 7d | One's served // porridge, perhaps (8) |
Porridge is a British informal expression* for either:
- jail[1]
- time spent in prison[5] ⇒
I’m sweating it out doing porridge
* The expression apparently derives from porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons.
I'm not sure this really qualifies as a double definition as the two definitions both point to the same meaning of the solution.
| 8d | Impales small insects (6) |
Fact Check
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| Ticks are not insects; they are arachnids. While creatures such as spiders and ticks (each of which have eight legs) as well as centipedes (which can have from 30 to 354 legs) are often loosely called insects, a true insect[10] is a small air-breathing arthropod of the class Insecta having a body divided into head, thorax, and abdomen, three pairs of legs [and thus six feet], and (in most species) two pairs of wings. Insects comprise about five sixths of all known animal species, with a total of over one million named species. |
| 14d | Use // tax cut by Queen (8) |
"Queen " = ER [regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth]
The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.
* A cipher[5] (also cypher) is a monogram[5] or motif of two or more interwoven letters, typically a person's initials, used to identify a personal possession or as a logo.
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The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.
* A cipher[5] (also cypher) is a monogram[5] or motif of two or more interwoven letters, typically a person's initials, used to identify a personal possession or as a logo.
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| 16d | Toiletry // 'grungy' don't adore? (9) |
| 17d | Valiant // Independent printed anyway (8) |
"Independent " = I [politician with no party affiliation]
I[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the sense of a politician with no party affiliation.
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I[1] is the abbreviation for independent, in all likelihood in the sense of a politician with no party affiliation.
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Scratching the Surface
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| The Independent [7] (nicknamed the Indy) is a British online newspaper. Established in 1986 as an independent national morning newspaper published in London, it was sold to Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev in 2010. It began as a broadsheet, but changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition of The Independent was published in March 2016, leaving only its digital editions. |
| 18d | Still // clan's leader wears tartan (6) |
| 20d | It's old taking balanced // infusions (7) |
A tisane[5,10] is an infusion of dried or fresh leaves or flowers, such as camomile — in other words, a herbal tea.
| 22d | Ungodliness faces Church // following (5) |
| 24d | Stomach /is/ tender in Accident and Emergency (5) |
A & E[5] is the abbreviation for accident and emergency[5] (also known as casualty department[5] or casualty ward), a hospital department concerned with the provision of immediate treatment to people who are seriously injured in an accident or who are suddenly taken seriously ill ⇒ (i)
a nurse at work told me I should go to A & E; (ii)
an A & E department.
| 25d | Travel over large endless // desert (4) |
The Gobi Desert[5] is a barren plateau of southern Mongolia and northern China.
Key to Reference Sources:
[1] - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
[2] - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
[3] - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
[4] - TheFreeDictionarycom (Collins English Dictionary)
[5] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Dictionary of English)
[6] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (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)
[15] - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )
Signing off for today — Falcon
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