“A change of regime has led to a new political correctness. Six clues have no definition and their answers must be altered to comply with the new requirement to MIND YOUR LANGUAGE. Extra letters generated by the wordplay of down clues spell out a further instruction affecting 12 cells. Numbers in brackets refer to entry lengths. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, One answer is an abbreviation; 20dn is in Collins.”
The six thematic alterations are as follows:
HART -> VENISON
SHEEP -> MUTTON
DOVE -> PIGEON
HENS -> POULTRY
COW -> BEEF
SWINE -> PORK
I initially thought that this was a (for me, unsavoury) puzzle about meat. However, the words on the left are of Old English origin/Germanic, while those on the left are derived from Old French/Latin.
The bottom line reads LE ROI LE VEULT, which refers to an esoteric political procedure in which royal assent to a public bill is announced in Parliament in Norman French.
I found this relatively gentle, but I know that at least others felt it was relatively difficult. In any case, the clues for 32 across and 21 down are nice ways of handling words that include the same letters twice. There’s a sneakiness there too – my solving was not at all helped by trying to fit HARP and DEC into the latter!
Merci bien, Ovid!
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Extra letter | AUNT |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slowing down score at Pitlochry (3) | RIT | |
| 3 | RECK (Care about) [E (English) giving way to O (old)] danger (4) | ROCK | |
| 6 | Houses in Scotland A (are) [held by] E (English) [in] HMS (His Majesty’s Service) (5) | HAMES | |
| 11 | ARBROATH* [ravaged] [when [wild] BOAR* escapes] (7) | HART/VENISON | |
| 12 | S |
SERFS | |
| 13 | Great swimmer [featured in] MirROR QUALified (7) | RORQUAL | |
| 14 | Union when MEN (people) [follow] CE (church) T |
CEMENT | |
| 16 | [On return], < {NiagaRA FAlls} shows from along way away (4) | AFAR | |
| 17 | This country TAN (beat) ZA (South Africa) < IN [eastern] A (America) (8) | TANZANIA | |
| 19 | C |
CRY | |
| 20 | SH (Quiet) E (electronic) P (piano) [follows] E |
SHEEP/MUTTON | |
| 21 | DO (Perform) [centrepiece of] |
DOVE/PIGEON | |
| 22 | [One third of] |
AID | |
| 25 | Affectedly theatrical {CASES TRY}* [undergoing plastic surgery] (8) | ACTRESSY | |
| 28 | Cats may like these [end bits of] |
NEPS | |
| 31 | Grass TO [finally] |
TOETOE | |
| 32 | HE (Ambassador) [drained] N |
HENS/POULTRY | |
| 33 | Severe STERNE (writer) [loses last letter] (5) | STERN | |
| 34 | Laments when BE (qualified teacher) [meets] WEE (small (Scottish)) PS (private secretary) (7) | BEWEEPS | |
| 35 | L (League) < YORE (long ago) [backing] King’s servant (5) | LEROY | |
| 36 | Old dear LEVE |
LEVE | |
| 37 | ULT | ||
| Down | |||
| H | 1 | Scamp [comes out of] cRASH CALmly (6) | RASCAL |
| I | 2 | Driving surface O (oxygen) [off] [volatile] AR |
TARMAC |
| G | 3 | Directors ERR (slip up) [after] REF (arbitrator) [over] ERGS (pieces of work) (9) | REFERRERS |
| H | 4 | Sure, CHER (Sonny’s old partner) has TAIN |
CERTAIN |
| L | 5 | Famous CLOWN (entertainer) [transforming C (Charlie) into K |
KNOWN |
| I | 6 | IRE (Anger) [follows] HI [report of HIGH] wages (4) | HIRE |
| G | 7 | Lament MOG (local cow) [over] URN (repository for remains) (5) | MOURN |
| H | 8 | ANTHE |
ENATION |
| T | 9 | SULTAN | |
| R | 10 | [Dishevelled] |
COW/BEEF |
| O | 15 | [Change] {ESTATE INTO}* delicate fabric (9) | SATINETTE |
| Y | 18 | MI (Military intelligence) CRY (report) O (on) BE (live) bacterium? (7) | MICROBE |
| A | 20 | AMIS (Friends in France) TYPE (print) key wrongly (7) | MISTYPE |
| L | 21 | PALL (Become wearisome) [following] PAL (mate) of Ant’s mouth organ (6) | PALPAL |
| A | 23 | Political prisoner [disturbed} {AUNT DEE}* (6) | DETENU |
| S | 24 | USE (Employ) NEST (tangled mass) pioneering newsgroup system (6) | USENET |
| S | 26 | More sincere RUSE (trick) [in] TR (Turkey) (5) | TRUER |
| E | 27 | Will’s two-year-old deer SORE (irritated) EL (railway in America) (5) | SOREL |
| N | 29 | SW NINE (9) (4) | SWINE/PORK |
| T | 30 | Scots rising rapidly STET (restore) Y (yard) (4) | STEY |
| R | I | T | R | O | C | K | H | A | M | E | S |
| A | B | A | E | V | E | N | I | S | O | N | U |
| S | E | R | F | S | R | O | R | Q | U | A | L |
| C | E | M | E | N | T | W | E | S | R | T | T |
| A | F | A | R | T | A | N | Z | A | N | I | A |
| L | M | C | R | Y | I | M | U | T | T | O | N |
| P | I | G | E | O | N | I | A | I | D | N | U |
| A | C | T | R | E | S | S | Y | N | E | P | S |
| L | R | R | S | S | O | T | O | E | T | O | E |
| P | O | U | L | T | R | Y | S | T | E | R | N |
| A | B | E | W | E | E | P | S | T | N | K | E |
| L | E | R | O | Y | L | E | V | E | U | L | T |
I thought this was fun! Figured out the concept pretty quickly and learnt that the alternative words all come from French, which is obvious with hindsight but I hadn’t realised. It also seems Le Roy (previously La Reine!) Le Veult is still in use to this day, which I found fascinating.
Some cool clues in there as well, including “SW9”, although maybe a tad too many double anagram devices for my taste.
Thank you both
I thought we were changing languages, entering MOUTON, POULETS and PORC, before becoming stuck tying to fit BOEUF into 4! At least I managed to finish this one, unlike last week’s Ifor…(;+<)
Thanks to Ovid and Mister Sting.