AZED 2,389

15 comments on “AZED 2,389”

1. My Dictionary of English Grammar did not show this but if you follow Wikipedia it does, I think, explain it.

   In Wikipedia look up “Supine” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supine

   Under Germanic languages: In English grammar click on “to-infinitive” (“to err is human”)

   Takes you to “Infinitive”. Click on 4.1: English: Uses of the infinitive.

   See “As a noun phrase”

2. Thank you trenodia.  So: in this case supine as an adjective means passive and as a noun is an example of an infinitive, specifically the full infinitive or to-infinitive.  Have I got that right?

3. Thank you PeeDee. That is how I read it. And thank you, as ever, so much for the blog.

4. I think the ‘respect ant’ thing at 34ac is backed up by the Chambers definition of ANT as ‘a small, hymenopterous, scavenging (or sometimes predacious) social insect (family Formicidae), of proverbial industry’.

    

    

5. Thanks for that DRC.  I had always assumed that an ant was a worker just because it could be a worker ant, as opposed to a drone or queen.  Like Bees.

6. I think that to rely directly on the ‘worker ant’ for worker=ant would involve a definition-by-example (as would, say, Siamese=cat), but of course it is the humble worker ant who must take the credit for earning the species its reputation for industry. I thought this was a neat and inventive clue, and a nice change from the rather clichéd use of ‘worker’ in puzzles to indicate ‘ant’.

   Incidentally, I had always had doubts about the use of ’round’ (as in 27ac here) to indicate the letter O, but since Chambers gives one meaning of ’round’ as ‘a round thing’ and one meaning of ‘O’ as ‘anything round or nearly so’, I realise why Azed has used it here and has accepted it in several competition entries over the years.

7. Found this was quite tricky, especially over in the NE corner… 12ac seemed to have a surfeit of vowels. 🙂

8. RESPECT ANT is a reference to Proverbs 6:6 – “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise”.

9. Very good, and a new one to me – presumably the proverb to which Chambers is referring, perhaps supported by Aesop’s fable of The Ant and The Grasshopper.

10. Didn’t do this, just popped in to gape and wonder. I think I’ve heard of a couple of the words. Can anyone tell me why yan means “in point of fact” and/or where it is so defined?

11. I think PeeDee meant that it is NAY (‘in point of fact’) which is to be reversed (‘looking up’).

12. Ah, yes, I understand now. Thanks, DRC

13. Consider her Ways was a short story by John Wyndham about a human society based on the society of ants, which is where I’d heard of the proverb.

14. I sometimes wonder whether “plain” weeks are assigned by Azed to particular days but surely the Hosanna in 2389 must mean this was scheduled for Palm Sunday. Am already anticipating something special eleven weeks from now (No 2400).

15. Tony @10 – no surprise that you didn’t understand my explanation to 8dn, my apologies!

    Re ANT: I look up all the obscure words in the dictionary when blogging Azed.  Indeed that is one of the great pleasures Azed gives.  May failing as a blogger is to forget to look up the easy words.  I think I know what a simple word like ant means so it doesn’t occur to me that I need to look it up.

    Brian-with-an-eye @8 goes right back to the source, which tops everybody else’s efforts!

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