Atrica provides our daily exercise in the vagaries of the English language.
More so than usual today: the theme became fairly obvious with three of the first four across entries, and continued with some classic examples in the down entries. It’s a concept I was familiar with, but hadn’t thought of finding a name for it, until I saw that Atrica has given us the name in 22d 19d: ORPHAN NEGATIVE. This refers to words that appear to have a negative prefix, but for which the corresponding positive form isn’t in common use; it may be obsolete or rare, or may have a different vowel (for example inept = not apt, insipid = not sapid). Or in some cases the words aren’t actually derived from a corresponding positive form at all.
I enjoyed finding all of these. In my opinion Atrica has been COUTH, EPT, full of GORM, and a BECILE; the puzzle is RULY, GAINLY, WIELDY, and SIPID; and I finished it feeling ERT and thoroughly GRUNTLEd. And among the non-thematic clues, I had to laugh at both the definition and the surface of 30a. Thanks Atrica for all of this.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | UNRULY |
International group genuinely leaderless and out of control (6)
|
| UN (United Nations = international group) + [t]RULY (genuinely) without its leading letter. | ||
| 4 | UNGAINLY |
Not making a profit, perhaps? Awkward (8)
|
| Double definition, the first cryptic: “gainly” might perhaps be interpreted as “making a gain” (a profit). | ||
| 10 | WIDGEON |
One duck winged around, circling another (7)
|
| O (0 = zero = a duck, in cricket scoring), with an anagram (around) of WINGED surrounding it (circling).
Extended definition, referring back to “one duck”: a widgeon (or wigeon) is a species of duck. |
||
| 11 | UNCOUTH |
Ploughman’s perhaps wiping mouth, eating out with no manners (7)
|
| [l]UNCH (for example a ploughman’s lunch = food marketers’ name for a simple plate of bread, cheese and pickle), wiping out its first letter (mouth), containing (eating) OUT. | ||
| 12 | EVER |
The first girlfriend, right as always (4)
|
| EVE (the first woman, and partner of Adam) + R (right). | ||
| 13 | IRRESOLUTE |
Flip-flopping Tories rule badly (10)
|
| Anagram (badly) of TORIES RULE.
Irresolute = flip-flopping = indecisive. |
||
| 15 | DETAIL |
Endless delay with large catalogue (6)
|
| DETAI[n] (delay) without its ending letter, then L (large).
Catalogue, as a verb = detail = provide a full list of. |
||
| 16 | INSIPID |
Cool drink setter had in flat (7)
|
| IN (cool = slang for fashionable) + SIP (drink) + I’D (the setter of this crossword had).
Insipid = flat = uninteresting. |
||
| 20 | DRAGOON |
Bore and thug taking advantage of the same good cavalryman (7)
|
| DRAG (bore = something tedious) + GOON (thug = a henchman chosen for brawn rather than brains), overlapping so that they share the central G (good). | ||
| 21 | FEEBLE |
Wishy-washy, but offered bolder ingredients occasionally (6)
|
| Alternate letters (ingredients occasionally) of [o]F[f]E[r]E[d] B[o]L[d]E[r]. | ||
| 24 | RECOUPMENT |
Recovery of space in defective computer (10)
|
| EN (en-space, in typography = a medium-width space between words, typically the width of the uppercase letter N) in an anagram (defective) of COMPUTER. | ||
| 26 | ACTA |
Official record secreted in Cluniac tabernacle (4)
|
| Hidden answer (secreted) in [cluni]AC TA[bernacle].
An offocial record of public events, or a collection of papers published by an academic society or confererence; from the Latin for “things done”. |
||
| 28 | HABITUE |
Regular, somewhat boring colour (7)
|
| A BIT (somewhat) inserted into (boring a hole in) HUE (colour).
Habitué = regular = a frequent visitor to a particular place. |
||
| 29 | PIRELLI |
I’ll drive on the right and tear around in this brand of tyre (7)
|
| I’LL + right-hand (end) letter of [driv]E + RIP (tear), all reversed (around). | ||
| 30 | NONSENSE |
New Age philosophy according to some: a sort of oneness with nature, primarily (8)
|
| Anagram (a sort = a rearrangement) of ONENESS + first letter (primarily) of N[ature]. | ||
| 31 | CHASTE |
Pure and mostly humble (6)
|
| CHASTE[n] (as a verb = humble = subdue), without its last letter (mostly). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | UNWIELDY |
Clumsy French article widely misinterpreted (8)
|
| UN (a form of the indefinite article in French) + anagram (misinterpreted) of WIDELY. | ||
| 2 | RED-LETTER |
Socialist message, like the words of Jesus? (3-6)
|
| RED (slang for Socialist) + LETTER (message).
A reference to “red-letter Bibles”, in which the words spoken directly by Jesus are printed in red. |
||
| 3 | LIED |
To Schubert, a song told a story (4)
|
| Double definition. The German word for “song”, or more specifically a German-language song written for solo voice and piano (plural Lieder), such as those by the Austrian composer Schubert; or “tell a story” = tell a lie. | ||
| 5 | NAUSEANT |
It makes you sick seeing North America exploit worker (8)
|
| NA (abbreviation for North America – or two separate abbreviations if you prefer) + USE (exploit) + ANT (for example a worker ant). | ||
| 6 | ANCHORITES |
People in solitary confinement? Turkish city-dwellers, some say (10)
|
| Homophone (some say) of ANKARITE = a citizen of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey.
Historically, anchorite = a person who withdrew from society for religious reasons, and lived alone in a cell usually attached to a church. |
||
| 7 | NAURU |
Island‘s gold found in capsized vessel (5)
|
| AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold, from Latin aurum), in URN (a vessel) reversed (capsized = upside down in a down clue).
The world’s smallest island nation, in the Pacific Ocean. |
||
| 8 | YAHWEH |
One most revered? Question of motive raised about article he brought up (6)
|
| WHY? (a question about the motive for something), reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue), around A (the indefinite article), then HE reversed (brought up = upwards in a down clue).
English transliteration of the Hebrew name of God, YHWH (otherwise written as Jehovah). |
||
| 9 | INERT |
Turn around, very unwelcome still (5)
|
| IN[v]ERT (turn around = reverse), with the V(very) excluded (unwelcome).
Still = inert = not moving. |
||
| 14 | DISGRUNTLE |
Dreadful day, resulting in upset (10)
|
| Anagram (dreadful) of D (day) + RESULTING.
Disgruntle = upset (as a verb) = annoy. |
||
| 17 | IMBECILES |
Those who are stupid as I live in foreign climes (9)
|
| I, then BE (live, as a verb) in an anagram (foreign) of CLIMES. | ||
| 18 | GORMLESS |
One of the sides of gym’s not as dim (8)
|
| G OR M (one of the two side letters of the word G[y]M), then LESS (not as = a comparative, as in “the weather has been awful but it’s not as bad now”).
Gormless = dim = stupid. |
||
| 19 | NEGATIVE |
Pessimistic, no? (8)
|
| Double definition – though obviously both senses are derived from the same basic meaning. | ||
| 22 | ORPHAN |
Admirer, they say, supporting soldiers someone abandoned (6)
|
| Homophone (they say) of FAN (an admirer), after (supporting = below, reading downwards in a down clue) OR (abbreviation for “other ranks” = ordinary soldiers as opposed to officers). | ||
| 23 | INEPT |
Clumsy writer from the South defined by sex (5)
|
| PEN (writer), reversed (from the South = upwards in a down clue), surrounded (defined) by IT (slang for sex). | ||
| 25 | CABIN |
Bishop is at first trapped in toilet in passenger section of plane; … (5)
|
| B (abbreviation for bishop) + first letter of I[s], trapped in CAN (slang for toilet). The ellipsis isn’t necessary for this clue, but the following clue refers back to it . . . | ||
| 27 | ARCH |
… supporter of cathedral gets him a promotion (4)
|
| . . . a reference to the previous clue 25d, indicated by the ellipsis. A bishop can be promoted by making him an ARCHbishop. |
This promised for a very depressing day.
I was hoping the next theme might be more cheerful(cont p 94)
Interesting. Not too difficult to solve either. And the blog cleared some of the parsing I didn’t get. ‘Supporter’ in 22. I thought ‘fan’ first. I liked the ‘boring’ in 28 once it was explained as well. Thanks.
Although I spotted all the un’s – good ‘uns and bad ‘uns – I didn’t make the connection to orphan negative though I’ve always enjoyed the idea and, in this house at least, both GAINLY and COUTH are employed as adjectives on occasion.
Everything solved in the end but I was very much in need of crossers to complete some like IRRESOLUTE and RECOUPMENT. I liked the linked clues in 25d and 27d, WIDGEON is probably my favourite for the extended definition and the clue for DISGRUNTLE describes the view from my study window perfectly – though not the mood within.
Thanks Atrica and Quirister for a most amusing preamble.
This all seemed a bit downbeat but just like 18d, I was a bit ‘dim’ and missed the clever ORPHAN NEGATIVE theme. Would have been difficult anyway as I had a blind spot for 22d for which I put in an unparsed “urchin”.
I agree (in two ways!) about NONSENSE being a good clue.
Thanks to Quirister (enjoyed your intro) and Atrica
I. too, could have done with a bit more GORM and missed the theme. Nice puzzle and great blog.
Have never heard orphan pronounced as if the lastpart was FAN (always the schwa in my experience) but this didn’t detract from a pleasant puzzle.
Thanks to S&B
I think sometimes, themes result in rather clunky clues, 18d being a good example (at least for me).
The best two clues today, and they were both superb, have nothing to do with the theme: 20 and 28 across.
Thanks all.
Didn’t know the term orphan negatives but, like PostMark @3 and Quirister in the blog, we often use them. Couth and form in particular. Thanks to Atrica for a crossword that was educational and fun and Quirister – top blog.
Gorm. Curse this predictive text
Thanks to Atrica, a less familiar setter to me. Delightful puzzle, and since I missed the theme I wound up learning something as well!
Thank you Atrica (on my screen the small font made it look like Africa!) , that was great fun – although I did not fully grok the theme and was just wallowing in general Februarian depression until I came here and saw the full scheme. Very nice piece of setting! Faves for me were the non-themers 2-DRAGOON and 13-IRRESOLUTE : always up for a bit of political satire.
Thanks so much to Quirister for a superb blog. I’m glad you felt ert and gruntled. Thanks also to all posters. I’m inclined to agree with gsolphotog, sometimes themes necessitate words that are difficult to find clues for. However, I usually learn quite a lot myself from them. For instance, I did not know that “imbecile” derives from “baculum” in Latin, and literally means “without a walking stick”. Fortunately I’ve not yet reached the age at which being an imbecile is a serious impediment.