Thank you to Paul. Definitions are underlined in the clues. (Excuse me for the lateness of the blog.)
Across
1. Stop key piercing skin (7)
RESCIND : ESC(… for “escape”, a key on your computer keyboard) contained in(piercing) RIND(skin, of an orange fruit, say).
Defn: …/to cancel or repeal a law, say.
5. One of those on the board in ‘otel on street (7)
STILTON : ‘ILTON(…/Hilton, brand name of a ‘otel/hotel chain) placed after(on) ST(abbrev. for “street”).
Defn: …, a cheeseboard, that is.
9, 12. Temple say, where church dignitary originally involved in criminal trials (5,4)
CHILD STAR : [ CH(abbrev. for “church”) + 1st letter of(… originally) “dignitary” ] contained in(involved in) anagram of(criminal) TRIALS.
Defn: An example of which/say, is Shirley Temple.
10. See 17 Down
11. Where heaps could be made flabby? (3,2,5)
OUT OF SHAPE : “heaps” is from(Where … could be made) anagram of(OUT OF) SHAPE.
12. See 9
14. Turn up for yoga class, did you say? Boo and hiss! (12)
ONOMATOPOEIA : Homophone of(…, did you say) “on a mat appear”(to turn up for/to appear for yoga exercises performed on a yoga mat/sticky mat).
Defn: Examples of which are ….
18. Like some old houses where two little boys live with socialist behind hospital (4-8)
HALF-TIMBERED : [ ALF,TIM(two little/shortened names for boys) + BE(to live/exist) plus(with) RED(a communist or socialist) ] ] placed after(behind) H(abbrev. for “hospital”).
Defn: …, with an exposed timber frame.
21. Titaness back on the radio? (4)
RHEA : Homophone of(… on the radio) “rear”(the back part of something or someone).
Defn: …/a pre-Olympian goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology.
22. Playful crime fools jerks (10)
FROLICSOME : Anagram of(… jerks) CRIME FOOLS.
25. Those increasing pace of journey narrated story with twists (4,5)
TAIL WINDS : Homophone of(narrated) “tale”(a story) plus(with) WINDS(twists/loops around).
Defn: …, by blowing from behind in the direction of travel of a vehicle or aircraft
26. Defeat finally complete after reversal, lose it (5)
ERUPT : Reversal of(… after reversal) [ last letter of(… finally) “Defeat” + PURE(complete/involving nothing else, as in “a complete waste of space”) ].
Defn: …, ie. lose one’s temper suddenly.
27. Country game on river recalled (7)
NIGERIA : Reversal of(… recalled) [ GIN(a form of the card game, rummy) placed after(on) AIRE(a river in Yorkshire, England) ].
28. Naked dean back from Japan, say (7)
EASTERN : “dean” minus its 1st and last letters(Naked …) + STERN(the back/rear, of a ship, say).
Defn: Refering to something or someone from that part of the world in which is, say, Japan.
Down
1. Priest runs after page 3, for example (6)
RECTOR : R(abbrev. for “runs” in cricket scores) placed below(after, in a down clue) RECTO(the right hand page of an open book, an example of which is page 3).
2. Hot under the collar, collared and cuffed? (6)
SHIRTY : SHIRT(a garment with a collar/collared and cuffs/cuffed) -Y(suffix indicating “has the characteristic of”, as in “storm/stormy”).
3. Suffering if in need, it’s endless (10)
INDEFINITE : Anagram of(Suffering) [ IF IN NEED + “it’s” minus its last letter(endless) ].
“endless” doing double duty.
4. Huddersfield initially at bottom of division – how far down? (5)
DEPTH : 1st letter of(… initially) “Huddersfield” placed below(at bottom of, in a down clue) DEPT(abbrev. for “department”, a division of an organisation).
5. Explosive ingredient key in spirit, head of course blowing off (9)
SALTPETRE : ALT(abbrev. for “alternate”, another key on your computer keyboard) contained in(in) “spectre”(a spirit/a ghost) minus(… blowing off) 1st letter of(head of) “course“.
6. Island, 1/63,360 miles (4)
INCH : Double defn: 1st: A Scottish …; and 2nd: 63,360 of which equals a mile.
7. Feline and little piggies guzzling a fruit of the vine (8)
TOMATOES : [ TOM(a male feline/cat) plus(and) TOES(called “little piggies” by young children) ] containing(guzzling) A.
8. Relative instructed to cover a baked food (3,5)
NAN BREAD : NAN(familiar term of address for one’s relative, viz. grandmother) + BRED(instructed/trained and taught to behave in a particular way) containing(to cover) A.
13. Where bishop might have to move quickly, sermons about five hundred seconds (5,5)
SPEED CHESS : [ SPEECHES(lectures/sermons) containing(about) D(Roman numeral for five hundred) ] + S(abbrev. for “seconds” in time notation).
Defn: A form of chess in which each player has to move his/her pieces, eg. the bishop quickly to meet his/her total time constraint.
15. Notes in old currency collected by Paul and mum (9)
MEMORANDA : [ O(abbrev. for “old”) RAND(basic currency unit of South Africa) ] contained in(collected by) [ ME(Paul, this crossword’s setter, using the self-referential pronoun) + MA(a familiar term of address for one’s mother/mum).
16, 20. Dance bands on with the mostly funny old player (8,6)
CHARLTON HESTON : CHARLESTON(lively dance of the 1920s) containing(bands) anagram of(… funny) [ ON plus(with) “the” minus its last letter(mostly) ].
Defn: …/movie actor.
… playing an old player:
17, 10. Hump: cop off in the arms of Morpheus? (8,9)
SLEEPING POLICEMAN : SLEEPING(off in the arms of Morpheus, the Ancient Greek god of sleep and dreams) POLICEMAN(member of the police force/cop in slang).
19. Amount of space in book (6)
VOLUME : Double defn.
20. See 16
23. Thread is line in middle of bulletin (5)
LISLE : [ IS + L(abbrev. for “line”) ] contained in(in) middle 2 letters of(middle of) “bulletin“.
24. Capsizing in warfare, weakened vessel (4)
EWER : Hidden in(in) reversal of(Capsizing, in a down clue) “warfare, weakened“.
Another fairly quick run through a Paul puzzle. I prefer these midweek offerings to the‘spaghetti puzzles’ that Paul tends towards on a Friday. As I often find with Paul, answers mostly come ahead of parsing e.g. OUT OF SHAPE, INCH (barely cryptic), ONOMATOPOEIA (once a couple of crossers were in), CHARLTON HESTON. Favourites were CHILD STAR for the hidden definition and SALTPETRE for the neat construction. Failed to parse MEMORANDA as I was busy running through old currencies – totally foxed by Paul! Thanks scchua for the explanation and the excellent blog. And thank you Paul for a sprightly outing.
Nice one today. It’s unusual to see TAILWIND in the Quick and TAILWINDS in the cryptic, but it was a pleasant run through.
I loved ONOMATOPOEIA, CHILD STAR and SLEEPING POLICEMAN.
Thanks Paul and scchua.
A steady solve today with the usual wit. Favourites were the actors, CHILD STAR and CHARLTON HESTON plus SLEEPING POLICEMAN, TOMATOES, (little piggies again after yesterday’s Pasquale) OUT OF SHAPE, HALF-TIMBERED and the hilarious ONOMATOPOEIA. Great fun.
Ta Paul & scchua for the usual colourful blog.
Thanks Paul and scchua
Some nice ones. I too liked CHILD STAR, and RECTOR was neat.
I disliked the clue for ONOMATOPOEIA, not, for once, for the loose homophone. There was not much chance of guessing the answer from the wordplay, so it was “use the crossers then parse”. Even that is unsatisfactory; there isn’t a dbe indicator, and “boo” isn’t an example – it’s the actual spelling of the word that people would use to express disapproval.
Question mark about NAN BREAD too; “bred” is loose for “instructed”, and, though I suppose it is baked, it must be cooked in a tandoor to be a true nan.
I enjoyed this as much as I feel Paul enjoyed composing it. Lots of laughs and the customary groan when I finally saw ONOMATOPOEIA. SHIRTY too uses one of Paul’s pet devices. I think I’ve seen the CHILD STAR/Shirley Temple before in a puzzle, but I can’t be certain. Liked HALF-TIMBERED, TOMATOES, and MEMORANDA, but all were well worth teasing out. Thanks to Paul, and to scchua for illustrated blog
Thanks Paul and scchua!
A solid puzzle and an excellent blog! Enjoyed both thoroughly.
Top faves:
ONOMATOPOEIA, OUT OF SHAPE, RECTOR and SHIRTY.
NIGERIA
I took GIN on AIR as AIREGIN. Then reversed it.
Not sure I agree with Muffin@4 about ‘boo’. Surely the word (like hiss) is derived from the sound people made to show disapproval.
Tomsdad @7
I don’t know about you, but I don’t shout something that sounds like “boo”, I shout “boo”!
I struggled to get a start until Paris ‘ilton and the river Aire came to the rescue.
Quite handy that the TAIL WINDS also cropped up elsewhere today.
Thanks Paul and scchua.
muffin@4, Tomsdad@7. The OED is undecided on whether the word or the sound came first. It describes “boo” as “Partly an imitative or expressive formation. Partly formed within English, by conversion.”
“Hiss” on the other hand, is described as purely imitative or expressive.
I think it’s fair to describe “boo” as an onomatopoeic word since it has no etymology or meaning other than the sound it is expressing.
Yes, a good Paul, not one of his excruciating ones (which I find can also be fun, but you have to be in the mood).
As AlanC@3 points out, two days in a row for piggies=toes. I don’t remember ever seeing that connection before in cryptics, so at least for me, a remarkable coincidence.
No particular standouts today, but a lot of smiles. Got caught for a minute by NAN which I usually see as naan, but not a problem.
Thanks P&S
ONOMATOPOEIA
I am with muffin on boo as of now. 🙂
At the same time, I doubt if Paul would have made such an error.
Maybe someone will explain why boo is an Ono-thing!
me@6 correction:
GIN on AIRE*
*not AIR
A nice steady solve. Enjoyed onomatopoeia, half-timbered, oh lots of others. Held up a while by 19 and 26 as could not dislodge “tome” from my brain. Came back to it later and there was volume staring at me which gave me erupt (loi).
I generally skip Paul’s puzzles but I had a go at this one. Lower half was easier for me.
Favourites: OUT OF SHAPE, CHILD STAR.
I could not parse 27ac, 6d, 16/20d although I was thinking of the Charleston.
New: INCH Island.
Thanks, both.
You’re right KVa. Blog amended.
I amazed myself by completing this as I normally find Paul puzzles too hard and have to reveal (which of course you can’t do if it’s a Prize). So thank you, Paul, for some lovely clueing enabling me to get many of them simply from the wordplay (although it took me a while).
And thanks scchua for the lovely blog.
OUT OF SHAPE (my take-marginally different from the blog)
Where heaps could be made: OUT OF (from) SHAPE.
Quite a few BIFD and subsequently parsed.
I quite liked the pun-ny ONOMATOPOEIA, the wordplays of SPEED CHESS and CHARLTON HESTON, and INDEFINITE, despite the double-duty of ‘endless’.
Thanks Paul and scchua.
Not the hardest Paul ever (which doesn’t mean it was a write-in). Like paul@1, I often get the answers first and then parse, which is how I came to have an unparsed GELIGNITE clogging up the works at 5d for a while – it fitted the crossers I had at the time. Also missed out on NAN BREAD partly because of the unfamiliar spelling and partly because I couldn’t equate instructed with bred.
An appreciative OUCH for ONOMATOPOEIA: with clues like this, the worse they are, the better. I enjoyed the visit to Hollywood with CHARLTON HESTON and CHILD STAR (nice misdirection with “Temple”). Also liked the ‘ilton, OUT OF SHAPE and the naked dean from Japan.
[Speaking of Charlton Heston…
Cecil B De Mille
Rather against his will
Was persuaded to leave Moses
Out of the Wars of the Roses.]
I like that quirky Brit 17,10 name for a speed hump. Any advance on that in the US? Or elsewhere? C’mon, it’s so quirkable…
… like appear on a mat 😉
While a hump in oz is a speed bump in Indonesia it is a polisi tidur. Hence sleeping. policeman was familiar to me. Did not know it came from the UK. Thanks Paul and scchua.
Thank you Paul for the creative wit & scchua for the ever colourful blog.
Maybe it isn’t ex-UK, Anna in Oz, who knows how the tongues run …?
MEMORANDA
Are there two ways to parse this? Does currency in crosswords sometimes refer to a river? If so,
1: O (old) RAND (currency) in ME (Paul) and MA – as scchua explains.
2: O (old) R (currency = river) in ME AND MA
I may be barking up the wrong tree.
I initially saw it the second way, then the first. I prefer the first.
Thanks Paul for a delightful puzzle and scchua for a delightful blog and for the illustrations.
Another lovely Paul. Not one of his hardest but just right for me this morning. I had Charlton for ages and couldn’t work out what followed as my mind was stuck with footballers. The penny finally dropped and I couldn’t think what had delayed me as the original Planet of the Apes was the first adult film that really made an impression on me. Especially the ending.
Lots to love today so thank you Paul and scchua for explaining about 4 I couldn’t fully parse.
And my favourite clue was ONOMATAPOIEA, with CHILD STAR the runner up for its misdirection.
I’ve never heard of a SLEEPING POLICEMAN; here it’s just called a speed bump or a speed hump.
The ONOMATOPOEIA aural wordplay is too outrageous to complain about, i.e., so bad it’s good.
Like DrW, I’ve almost always seen the Indian bread spelled naan. And I’ve also heard it said that since naan means “bread”, NAN BREAD is redundant. But don’t take it from me–I am not conversant in any Indian languages.
And as for the puzzle in general, I agree both that this was on the gentler side for Paul, and that it was mercifully free of his usual tangled web of cross-referenced clues. But it still had the characteristic multi-light answers, which do annoy me, but I seem to be almost the only one here who feels that way.
Me@24. Forget my question. The second M is out of order. Doh!
SueM48@24
An interesting suggestion. I have come across ‘flower’, ‘runner’ and ‘banker’ for ‘river’ but not ‘currency’. Let’s see what others say.
Great fun throughout with double-ticks for HALF-TIMBERED, CHARLTON HESTON and the trademark egregious homophone ONOMATOPOEIA
Re: BOO – google says “And some say boo imitates the sound of a sad calf. Booing as a sound of discontent seems to come in to use in the 18th century”
If you cook something in a tandoor (oven) aren’t you baking it?
Cheers S&P
mrpenney@27
NAN BREAD
In Indian languages, it’s written to sound ‘naan’. However, in English, I have seen nan, naan, NAN BREAD and naan bread.
No issues with the clue, I feel.
I quite liked the idea for ONOMATOPOEIA being a homophone for a ‘sounds’ definition. (I’m not going to get into the question of rhoticism in two of Paul’s homophones today.)
I would say that boo and hiss are onomatopoeic, and not just a word we say. Boo, or similar, is common in several European languages, and even in Mandarin a tonal bu also means no or not.. So if it’s a kind of primordial human sound that works for me. Similarly hiss, mostly sibilants.
https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/hiss
No different in my mind to woof or miaow or snakes hissing, when we all know that there are many ways and tones of woofing and miaowing (and probably snakes hissing, but I try to keep my distance} to express different animal ’emotions’.
What I find amusing is the English ”cock-a-doodle-doo” for the sound that roosters make. To my ears, other languages seem to approximate the sound of crowing better than English. But if you’ve been taught that’s what they ”say” from childhood, that’s what you believe, even if it goes against roosters’ anatomy or a sonogram to show what is really being transmitted. https://blog.lingoda.com/en/animal-sounds-different-languages/
Thanks for the blog, pleased to see it was not a repeated puzzle this time. Trying hard to be positive, STILTON was quite neat .
For INDEFINTE I took the it’s as IT IS , IT part of the anagram and IS endless as the definition.
For CHARLTON HESTON I am not conviced by bands for inclusion .
[ Anna if you pop in later, the Guardian “Long Read” article today is about endangered languages , I suspect that you can find it online. ]
mrpenney@27, I’d never heard of a SLEEPING POLICEMAN either. Here in Oz, it’s called a silent cop, not exactly a speed bump/hump, but something in the middle of an intersection (before the word ”intersection” in my memory) to take the place where a policeman would stand to direct the traffic (before the word “traffic”). 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_cop ( with graphics)
Gentle for Paul!
Loved SPEED CHESS and ONAMATAPOEIA!
Thanks Paul and scchua
I see my comment @32 is awaiting moderation which will throw all this numbering out. I swear I didn’t swear, probably just the links or the boo and hiss.
Tomsdad, Lechien, muffin, bodycheetah et al
ONOMATOPOEIA
https://www.rd.com/list/examples-of-onomatopoeia/
After reading this, I have become opinion-free. dunno if ‘boo’ is an ono-stuff or not!
Roz@32
INDEFINITE
Agree with your explanation that it’s=IT IS (and there is no double duty), but I don’t understand why you say the def is ‘is endless’. The def seems to be correctly underlined in the blog.
PDM@36 your comment was there @32 , I read it before mine which was @33 then, all the different animal sounds.
Good puzzle for last night/breakfast. Thanks to Paul and scchua.
Kva @31: I take no issue with the clue for NAN BREAD, just the phrase itself! It’s the same mistake as “chai tea.”
Always pleased when I finish one of Paul’s. Temple sent me off in the wrong direction for a while.
I don’t enjoy the puzzles where I have to guess from the crossers then parse later and this was one was so convoluted that I gave up. Even after reading scchua’s excellent blog I still didn’t understand some of it. Kudos to those who found this easy. Never heard of SLEEPING POLICEMAN or INCH ISLAND.
Thanks for the fascinating link KVa@37. I had never realised that words like “blimp” and “cliché” were onomatopoeia!
[Thank you Roz for your post@34 addressed to Anna re the Guardian Long Read about endangered languages. Excellent article. I was happy to see an Australian Aboriginal language Walpiri mentioned there. I was exposed to and ”studied” Aboriginal languages years ago, and was on a pathway to live in central Australia and contribute to ”language maintenance”. Unfortunately, life got in the road. Am happy to say that there are now First Nations linguists leading the way.]
mrpenny@40
NAN BREAD
Yea, it sounds odd but the phrase is official (ok demi-official; it’s in Collins but not in the Holy Book!).
Chai and tea both mean the same but Chai tea is a special type of tea/chai!!! Languages evolve!
Lechien@43
So where are you on ‘boo’ now? 🙂
My heart sinks when I see Paul’s name on a puzzle, finding it hard to tune in to his wavelength, but this one was much kinder than normal. I even managed to deduce most of the answers rather than filling them in first then parsing after. I did have to google to confirm that Aire is a river and Inch an island.
I questioned myself over nan bread, although the clue is clear. I have not seen the spelling nan before, but apparently it is out there in the wild.
KVa@45 – I decided to ask AI whether “boo” was an example of onomatopoeia. It first interpreted “boo” as “mimicking the word intended to frighten or scare someone” and concluded that it was onomatopoeia due to the imitative nature of a word used to make someone jump. When I asked it if “boo” as in “booing as part of an audience” was to be considered onomatopoeic, it said:
The “boo” used in audience booing is a bit trickier to classify. Here’s a breakdown:
Classic Onomatopoeia: The traditional “boo” meant to startle someone is onomatopoeic, as it imitates the sound made.
Booing as Expression: When an audience boos, it’s less about perfectly imitating a sound and more about conveying a strong emotion—disapproval. Here’s why it gets fuzzy:
Not a perfect imitation: The booing sound is prolonged and exaggerated, not a precise recreation of a “startle boo.”
Focus on Meaning: The emphasis is on the message the audience is sending, not the sound itself.
Conclusion: While audience booing has its roots in the onomatopoeic “boo,” it has evolved into more of a symbolic expression rather than a pure imitation of sound.
So, my current stance is: if we take the “boo” in today’s crossword to be the “boo” made to make someone jump then it would be onomatopoeia (and I hope I never have to type this word again after this!), but if we interpret it in booing as an audience member then it wouldn’t.
I agree that there’s no double-duty in 3dn: “‘s” isn’t part of the anagram fodder; it means “is” just links the two halves of the clue (as it so often does).
Not surprised that 14ac (ONOMATOPOEIA) is a marmite clue. I loved it (unlike marmite). (Of course “boo” is onomatopoeia! Technically the lack of a DBE indicator is a flaw, but easily forgiven as far as I’m concerned, especially since the whole appeal of this clue is its effrontery.)
I’m pretty sure that mrpenney is right that NAN BREAD is a redundancy, but I think it occurs reasonably commonly in English, so I have no objection.
[NAN BREAD makes me think of Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings movies, who refers to the food given to the Fellowship by the Elves as “lembas bread”. This is the same sort of redundancy: lembas is a form of bread. I suspect that the writers of the films did that on purpose (I don’t think the phrase occurs in the books): it’s just the sort of error that the rustic Sam would make.]
oakvillereader@42: there is an actual island (in Ireland) called Inch, but INCH is also the Scots Gaelic word meaning island (akin to Welsh “ynys” and Cornish “enys”) and crops up in various place names.
Lechien@47
ONOMATOPOEIA
Thanks for the elaborate post. It establishes that the setter is right.
INCH
Seen INCH used in this sense (island) before in puzzles.
Chambers
inch (Scot and Irish)
An island
After I read a couple of comments referring to ‘INCH island’, I Googled. It is an island in Ireland!!!
Another Chai Tea/NAN BREAD 😀
Sorry gladys@49 for crossing…
Agree with Roz@32 and KVa@37 – there’s no “double duty” in 3d INDEFINITE
Lechien @47
When you say “Boo!” to frighten someone, what sound are you supposed to be imitating?
muffin @53 — it doesn’t have to be an imitation of something. It’s just a word that denotes a sound by (at least roughly) replicating in its spelling what the sound sounds like. The word “boo” refers to the sound that sounds like “boo”.
When a cat meows, it is making a sound that (to some reasonable approximation) sounds like the sound indicated by those letters. Same when a person boos. The former is surely onomatopoeia; so is the latter.
Ted
Every word denotes a sound (or more, depending on the number of syllables). “Book” denotes a sound that sounds like “book”, but it’s not onomatopoeiac.
Meow (and hiss, as given in the clue) are words trying to imitate a sound; “boo” isn’t.
Inch seems to refer to the smaller Scottish islands. I tried getting to Inchcolm when I was last visiting Edinburgh with time to explore out to see the Forth Bridge, but when cruise ships are in the ferry doesn’t run. There are a lot of other islands called Inch in the Forth – Inchkeith, Inchgarvie, Inchmickery, Alloa Inch, but there’s also Inch Kenneth just off Mull.
I found this a steady solve for Paul, with it all in and parsed fairly fast.
Thank you to scchua and Paul.
muffin @55 — I genuinely don’t understand the distinction you’re making. “The cat meowed” means “The cat made a sound that sounds like that which is denoted by the letters MEOW”. “The theatregoer booed” seems precisely analogous to me.
Ted
“Meow” is just an approximation of what the cat actually said (who knows what the cat meant?), whereas “boo” is exactly what the audience (collectively) said.
muffin@58, that’s why I was interested in the distinction between an audience booing and “boo” to frighten someone. The word “boo” to frighten someone is onomatopoeic because the actual noise is not exactly the word “boo” (at least, not when I do it). Instead, the word “boo” denotes the sound. As my comment @47 says, that’s the context in which I’m viewing this clue. I’m happy for anyone to view it differently, though. That’s what works for me.
Personally, I really liked that clue – it was one that gave me a much-needed smile this morning.
Hmm. That really doesn’t help me, I’m afraid. I don’t see how meaning enters into it: both verbs are simply ways of orthographically representing sounds. And both are approximations, in the sense that orthographic representations of sounds are always approximations.
Ted
The cat doesn’t actually say “meow” (ours don’t, at least), but it’s a conventional way of representing a cat sound. On the other hand, people certainly do say “boo”.
Being a Paul clue, my initial assumption for 5D was that “blowing off” was the definition – but FLATULENCE had one too many letters. I loved 14A though it took several attempts to get the right spelling of ONOMATOPOEIA. All in all this was right in my Goldilocks zone.
Thank you Paul and sschua.
No complaints about homophones or onomatopoeias or tandoori ovens (in which you clearly bake things!). Just a shame about ALT and ESC in the same puzzle. Wondered briefly if it was a mini theme… but no DEL appeared.
But did love the moderating wait for paddymelon@32’s comment on cock a doodle do!
Let me attempt to clarify by expressing what I think is going on with Boo, and it is a case of both-and not either-or.
[ For those familiar with old-style programming languages like C, it is akin to the situation where the value of a variable is actually equal to its address, so you don’t need to do the indirection, but you can if you want.]
If someone makes the sound “GERK”, you can say they gerked, and what you said is perfectly understandable and I daresay correct. If you say they capitulated, they might have made the sound “OK”, so one has to interpret the word “capitulate” to get to what they said. Now suppose you say someone Booed”. Which of those cases is it like? The answer is, either one. You can treat it as an attempt to reproduce the sound made, like Gerked, or you can look at the meaning of the word, which happens to mean make the sound Boo.
I’ve probably just muddied the waters, but I tried.
muffin @61 — If I understand you correctly, the reason “boo” isn’t onomatopoetic is that it’s too accurate? Well, I guess we can agree to disagree over whether that’s the relevant criterion.
Dr. WhatsOn @64 may have a handle on what’s going on. If so, then Paul is in the clear: for the clue to be sound, we don’t require that “boo” must be onomatopoetic but merely that it can be.
For “boo” to be onomatopoeiac, it should be an attempt to imitate some other sound – meaow, whinny, hiss, etc. It isn’t – it just specifies the sound “boo”.
Dr WhatsOn@64 for me you get bonus points for talking about a programming language that is still one of my daily drivers.
Ted @ various, this morning I was going to comment on the puzzle from yesterday but you said everything I wanted to say only much better .
[ PDM@45 we need something like the Svalbard seed project for languages and it requires serious money to back it ]
Challenging but great, and it felt like a victory when I finished. Torn between best clue of the day, I thought Onomatopoeia was brilliant but then the last solution, Speed Chess, made me LOL! Thank you Paul. And well done the Guardian, 2 brilliant puzzles in a week (including Brendan’s). Still the best crossword out there!
What a lot of verbal jousting today about very little.
To me muffin is spot on.
“Hiss” sounds like the noise a snake or a swan makes when provoked, hence it’s onomatopoeiac.
“Boo” sounds like a human saying “boo”, hence it’s not.
Case dismissed.
[Roz@70: maybe we could get AI to learn some of these endangered languages. A better use than generating deepfakes of politicians.]
Tripped up by a few Britishisms, unable to parse NIGERIA (thanks to a new river), and never heard of a SLEEPING POLICEMAN (we’re boring in Australia; we just call them speed humps) or Inch island. I’m more used to naan bread spelt thus. Whatever Chambers says, I thought pure/complete was a bit of a stretch. I didn’t parse ONOMATOPOEIA, having wasted time trying to concoct an anagram.
Thanks jeceris!
GdU
We live in Airedale, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it added to the list of crossword rivers!
[Gladys@73 , good idea , not sure if it would work , two things well outside my area of expertise. ]
Got there in the end. Few smiles along the way and happy to have been led astray by the clever cluing.
As ever, Paul’s crosswords are beyond me, but fun to go through the answers.
Thanks for the hints.
What larks as always with a Paul puzzle! Managed half of it on a train journey from Cambridge to Norwich to meet college friends I hadn’t seen for over 50 years, then completed it many hours later on the return journey when the correct order of letters in ONO-etc were of course greatly helped by all the crossers already in place. Same kind of thing with MEMORANDA and the SLEEPING POLICEMAN. Such a sense of satisfaction when STILTON provided the final dish/course of the day…
I must be the only one in Australia on here that learnt the phrase SLEEPING POLICEMAN by coming to Australia. That was in the days before speed humps and I was told that the lump of metal at an intersection (as per pdm @35) was called that. The intent was to stop people cutting the corner. Maybe it was a NSW thing.
Great puzzle. Thanks Paul & to scchua for a great review.
Loved last in ONOMATOPOEIA but thank heavens for spell check
ONOMATOPOEIA is a top clue.
I share some of of the opinions already expressed about NAN BREAD and SLEEPING POLICEMAN, which reduced my enjoyment of this a bit.
On a side note TAIL WINDS also applies to athletes, and can invalidate a record performance in some events if they are too strong.
GDU@74, just in case you come back, I struggled with PURE in 26a too at first, but if you think of a substance that has been adulterated it is incomplete, ie not fully itself. One that is unadulterated would be complete (completely itself) and therefore pure. Still a stretch perhaps, but it works for me.
Thanks to Paul and scchua.
People have been complaining that NA(A)N bread, like PIN number, contains a redundancy. Here’s another one: INCH Island
as noticed by gladys@50, and KVa@51 (giving it not one, not two, but – count ’em – three exclamation marks – !!! – well deserved).
No redundancy in !rish: its name is An Inis, pronounced Inish, like Sean Connery, meaning ‘the island’. It’s in Lough Swilly, a sea inlet, not even a lake, in County Donegal on the northern coast of Ireland. Other Inishes are available: The Aran Islands (plural, an archipelago, where the jumpers come from): Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer.
Not forgetting The Banshees of Inisherin(2022) – killer line: “What is he – 12?!” – thoroughly deserving of its BAFTAs for Outstanding British(?) Film,
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Barry Keoghan), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kerry Condon), and Best Original Screenplay.
Thanks P&s
While I did encounter a sleeping policeman and a sign identifying it as such somewhere in the Caribbean (I think) so I recognized it in the clue, I have to question whether this qualifies as a double or even cryptic definition. Other than that, fun solve.