Azed gives us a plain puzzle this week with an introductory note that Chambers does not give explicitly the adjectival form at 30 across.
This puzzle raises a question that I suspect has been discussed many times before, but I’ll raise it again anyway. I don’t understand why and A L’ABRI (32 across) and RAISON D’ETRE (12 down) are three words. I suppose the apostrophe is treated in the same way as a space but are L and D in these examples really separate words? Would the word ‘don’t’ in the previous sentence be indicated as two words (DON and T)?
The meaning of AFFINE used at 7 down is new to me. I was once familiar with the mathematical use of AFFINE, but wouldn’t know where to begin with AFFINE geometry now.
I think the definition of DISMAL at 23 down is the whole clue rather than just sorrowful as definitions are only very rarely located in the middle of a clue.
As I mention in the blog, I can see Azed’s compound anagrams, and I realise what the entry is, but I don’t always understand how the wordplay is interpreted to lead to the answer. If I can’t solve an Azed clue by any other method, my final searches are for compound anagrams or hidden words. Usually these methods of last resort yield something.
Despite these mutterings, I thought this was an enjoyable Azed crossword where I solved quite a few clues on the first pass through.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Hires cooks for very early meal (5) SEHRI (a meal eaten before sunrise by those fasting during Ramadan) Anagram of (cooks) HIRES SEHRI* |
| 5 |
Lenten psalm to perform in hope, mostly (7) TRACTUS (psalm sung in the Mass in Lent instead of the Alleluia) ACT (perform) contained in (in) TRUST (hope) excluding the final letter T (mostly) TR (ACT) US |
| 10 |
Strong drink knocked back with water around noon – Romans loved it (6) MURENA (a favourite food-fish of the Romans, a moray) RUM (spirit; strong drink) reversed (knocked back) + (EA [dialect word for a river or running water] containing [around] N [noon]) MUR< E (N) A |
| 11 |
Hob? Small fish put in to cook (5) FAIRY (a hob is a supernatural creature or FAIRY) AI (small edible Japanese fish) contained in (put in) FRY (cook) F (AI) RY |
| 13 |
Fend a colic off? This can reduce inflammation (10) DICLOFENAC (an anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug) Anagram of (off) FEND A COLIC DICLOFENAC* |
| 14 |
Angler’s bait, last bit cut from lump of meat (4) CHUM (groundbait of chopped fish, etc used by anglers) CHUMP (an end lump of mutton) excluding the final letter P (last bit cut from) CHUM |
| 15 |
Scot typically rejected Irish and English seizing independence (6) KILTIE (wearer of a KILT, someone who is typically a Scot) (KILT [old Irish spelling of killed {rejected} + E (English]] containing (seizing) I (independence) KILT (I) E |
| 16 |
Rare old ruminant, smash hit united with curry once (7) KOUPREY (the very rare SE Asian wild cow; rare old ruminant) KO (knock-out; smash hit) + U (united) + PREY (curry is an obsolete [once] form of quarry [PREY]) KO U PREY |
| 19 |
New actor entering, reverse of overly alert (9) ON-THE-SPOT (alert) Chambers lists this as both a single word with hyphens and three separate words. (N [new] + THESP [actor]) contained in (entering) TOO (to a greater extent than is required; overly) reversed (reverse of) O (N THE SP) OT< |
| 21 |
Beef fillet done unusually in French town (9) TOURNEDOS (small round thick beef fillets) Anagram of (unusually) DONE contained in (in) TOURS (town if France) TOUR (NEDO*) S |
| 25 |
Sights worth visiting I study with day in Virginia (7) VIDENDA (things to be seen) (I + DEN [study] + D [day]) contained in (in) VA (State of Virginia) V (I DEN D) A |
| 27 |
Flowers left beside wide part of skeleton (6) LILIUM (genus of flowers) L (left) + ILIUM (wide bone that is fused with the ischium and pubis to form the hip bone) L ILIUM |
| 29 |
Depression, a feature of singleness (4) GLEN (depression, usually of some extent, between hills) GLEN (hidden word in [a feature of] SINGLENESS) GLEN |
| 30 |
Spy magnolia son plucked mistakenly, referring to different plant class (10) POLYGAMIAN (referring a specific class of plants) – this is the entry not listed in Chambers Anagram of (mistakenly) SPY MAGNOLIA excluding (plucked) S (son) POLYGAMIAN* |
| 31 |
Injection of fluid, rarely pleasant, from behind (5) ENEMA (fluid injected into the rectum; it is indeed a fairly unpleasant form of medication) AMENE (a rare word for pleasant) reversed (from behind) ENEMA< |
| 32 |
Under cover in region of Italy (not the outer fringes) (6, 3 words, apostrophe) A L’ABRI (French for under shelter) CALABRIA (Region of Italy) excluding the first and last letters C and A (not the outer fringes) A L’ABRI |
| 33 |
Layered pastry rolled in salt (7) STRATAL (layered) TART (dish of pastry distinguished from a pie either by being uncovered or by having a sweet, not savoury, filling) reversed (rolled) contained in (in) SAL (a salt) S (TRAT<) AL |
| 34 |
Fabric woven from hair of goat, tailless one caught in heart of mountains repeatedly (5) TIBET (heavy goat’s-hair fabric used instead of fur) IBEX (any of various wild mountain goats of Europe, N Africa and Asia, with large, ridged, backward-curving horns) excluding the final letter X (tailless) contained in (caught in) (T [central letter of {heart of} MOUNTAINS] + T [central letter of {heart of} MOUNTAINS] , ie T repeatedly) ) T (IBE) T |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Paddy rudely dividing group, causing shift as before (7) SMICKET (smock; shift) MICK (offensive slang [rudely] for an Irishman [Paddy, which is itself sometimes used as a derogatory term for an Irishman]) contained in (dividing) SET S (MICK) ET |
| 2 |
Prayer book, universal, in copy, old, in varied lingo (11) EUCHOLOGION (formulary of prayers, primarily that of the Greek Church) U (universal) contained in (in) ECHO (copy) + (O [old] contained in [in] an anagram of [varied] LINGO) E (U) CHO L (O) GION* |
| 3 |
What’s back in place of origin I’m featuring in account? (8) REIMPORT ( a product manufactured from exported materials and brought back into the country of origin) I’M contained in (featuring in) REPORT (account of a matter of news) RE (IM) PORT |
| 4 |
Suffer what’s not responsive to treatment, not able (5) INCUR (suffer) INCURABLE (descriptive of something that is not responsive to treatment) excluding (not) ABLE INCUR |
| 5 |
Count out odd bits of art put up in the loft (6) TALLET (a loft) (TELL [count] + AT [letters 1 and 3 [odd bits] of ART) all reversed (put up; down entry) (TA LLET)< |
| 6 |
Corner piece for fleece (4) ROOK (chess piece that starts the game in a corner square) ROOK (to fleece) double definition ROOK |
| 7 |
Fé. brother-in-law supplying a strong brandy (ordinary) (6) AFFINE (relation, especially by marriage, e.g. brother-in-law) A + F (forte; strong) + FINE (term used to denote ordinary brandy in France) A F FINE |
| 8 |
Old photo, unevenly coloured with stylus mostly? (7) TINTYPE (ferrotype [old form of photograph taken using a film on an iron plate) TINT (unevenly coloured) + PEN (stylus) excluding the final letter N (mostly) TINTY PE |
| 9 |
Chinese ready? That could make it handier (5) SYCEE (silver ingots used as Chinese money) CHINESE READY is an anagram (could make it) of SYCEE (the entry) and HANDIER (word in the clue). One of Azed’s compound anagram clues where I can see what is going on, but don’t always how the word play is indicated precisely. SYCEE |
| 12 |
Cause to advance incorporating old trend renovated (11, 3 words, apostrophe) RAISON D’ETRE (reason for existence (purpose or cause) RAISE (advance) containing (incorporating) (O [old]+ an anagram of [renovated] TREND RAIS (O N D’ETR*) E |
| 17 |
Spear exotic fruit that’s turned mature inside (8) ASSEGAAI (Afrikaans spelling of ASSEGAI [spear]) (AGE [mature] reversed [that’s turned]) contained in (inside) ASSAI (small, fleshy, dark-purple fruit of a South American palm) ASS (EGA<) AI |
| 18 |
Extinguisher that’s odd protecting centre of dwelling (7) QUELLER (extinguisher) QUEER (odd) containing (protecting) LL (middle letters of [centre of] DWELLING) QUE (LL) ER |
| 20 |
Route? I’ll abandon public transport on it (7) TRANSIT (route) TRAINS (form of public transport) excluding (abandon) I + IT TRANS IT |
| 22 |
It’s sweet taking nag out for a gallop (6) NOUGAT (hard, chewy confection made of a sweet paste filled with chopped almonds, pistachio nuts, cherries, etc) Anagram of (taking … out for a gallop) NAG OUT NOUGAT* |
| 23 |
Is it showing first signs of sorrowful mien in face? (6) DISMAL (sorrowful) SM (initial letters of [first signs of] SORROWFUL and MIEN) contained in (in) DIAL (face) DI (SM) AL |
| 24 |
Old crocks slope, tottering (5) OLPES (Greek jugs; old pieces of crockery [crocks]) Anagram of (tottering) SLOPE OLPES* |
| 26 |
Jock’s crazy one to be taken in by fool (5) DOILT (Scottish word for crazy or foolish) I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (to be taken in by) DOLT (fool) DO (I) LT |
| 28 |
This pond pest could be pampas rodent (4) MARA (the so-called Patagonian hare; pampas rodent) Another compound anagram [could be] where the two words in the clue PAMPAS RODENT represent an anagram of the entry MARA and POND PEST, two other words in the clue) MARA |
Thanks duncanshiell for the parsing of KILTIE – I was taking ‘rejected’ as a reversal indicator, so stumped.
Agree about DISMAL.
Thanks to Azed as ever. I was puzzled by the apostrophe handling too, but will remember it I hope.
I guessed on 9, 10, 11, 15, and 28, finding the clues a bit inscrutable. I suppose they make sense. (Thanks, duncanshiell.) I think that the unusual spelling of ASSEGAAI deserved some sort of indicator. As for A L’ABRI: Has this entered common parlance as an English phrase? If not, I think this deserved an indicator as well, but if so, then those are the limits of my education, I guess. In contrast, I have no quarrel with RAISON D’ETRE, which I assume is commonly known.
Back in the day I’m pretty certain RAISON D’ETRE would have been ‘(2 words)’ – this feels a recent development and I’m not sure I like it.
Now it could just be that I’m getting curmudgeonly and thinking everything is going to hell in a handcart, so I’ll just note that it seems an odd thing to do when hyphenation is disregarded.
Thanks for the blog , very comprehensive. I like to try and finish Azed without Chambers and check words afterwards but no chance here. A lot of new words or new spellings, ASSEGAI is very common in crosswords but not seen the other version, same for MURENA.
For 9D – CHINESE READY is a phrase that could make ( anagram ) SYCEE HANDIER, these are my favourite type of clues.
Not sure where I stand on the apostrophes and number of words ? Would JE T’AIME be two words or three ? In English do we have these apostrophes at the FRONT of a new word ? Any examples ?
Roz@4: “G’day,” for example? I was thinking that there might be some nautical terms like that, but maybe the contraction is only in the pronunciation.
Thank you Cineraria, never thought of G’day and I think you might be on the right lines with nautical words, will have a think.
In French it seems to be a short first word ending in a vowel and the second word starting with a vowel.
I found this more difficult than usual, not completing it till Monday afternoon.
Enjoyable as ever. The bottom half went in reasonably quickly; managed to parse SYCEE but not KOUPREY. Like duncanshiell wondered why A L’ABRI and RAISON D’ETRE were down as three words + apostrophe. Dredged DICLOFENAC from the memory somehow. Many thanks to Azed and duncanshiell.
Drofle @8 DICLOFENAC has been killing all the vultures in India so you may have seen it in the news.
Roz @9 – Yes, now you mention it, I saw that some time ago.
This was fine by me- I even finished it on Sunday. Thanks to Azed & duncanshiell.
I think apostrophes have always, in the Ximenes/Azed strains, been treated as part of the single word., likewise hyphenated words.
Regarding single letter-apostrophe-word forms in English there is always M’lud. Some Yorkshire “words” begin t’ but those don’t make C.
Thanks for the workout Azed. And the explanations Duncan. I really needed you to explain KILTIE although it couldn’t be anything else.
The top right corner held me up longer than usual and required overnight brain resets to complete.