An extraordinarily small crossword from Phi today — just 22 clues — no easier than usual, but just as good. There were some hardly-known words and plenty of recourse to the dictionary, but even this was not enough for me to be confident about 5dn.
The unchecked letters round the edges suggest something, since they don’t seem to be entirely random, but as usual…
(Defs in italics.)
Across
5 Border country not up for recall, a plateau (9,4)
DEBATABLE LAND
(Abed)rev. tableland — Debatable land, not something I previously knew, is said by Chambers to be a tract of border land between the rivers Esk and Sark, formerly claimed by both England and Scotland.
8 Sound of engine backing up beside expensive car (4)
PURR
(up)rev. RR [= Rolls-Royce]
9 Dance Tannoy one repaired after end of ceilidh (10)
HOOTENANNY
{ceilid}h (Tannoy one)*
10 Hack’s latest article accepted by everyone on Independent – it’s basic stuff (6)
ALKALI
({Hac}k a) in all I — an alkali is a base in chemistry — the use of ‘on’ as being equivalent to ‘coming before’ is perhaps justified by the surface — personally I think it’s fine, but so far as I know the Indy has rules about this
11 Find/time to return to the CD player? (8)
DISCOVER
2 defs — when the disc (of either type) is over one might return to the CD player
12 Result of drink company’s introduction of flat charge, with reasons (6,7)
COFFEE GROUNDS
co. f{lat} fee grounds [= reasons]
15 Manic flicks capturing historic time in Hollywood technology (8)
CINERAMA
(Manic)* around era — Cinerama is a method of film projection on to three screens, giving a three-dimensional effect, introduced in the 1950s.
17 Rule? Here’s foremost of generals ruling last of militiamen (6)
GOVERN
g{enerals} over {militiame}n
19 Tone of voice: what one catches around start of line (10)
INFLECTION
infection around l{ine}
20 An example of film/speed (4)
CLIP
2 defs
21 Reduction on pack amongst various reductions here? (8,5)
DISCOUNT STORE
(reductions)* around sto{w}
Down
1 One’s live, on air, turning up in European countries (6)
IBERIA
I be [= live] (air)rev.
2 Problem having no opening item for broadcast? It leads to scratching (4,4)
ITCH MITE
{h}itch (item)* — had never heard of it, but it’s Sarcoptes scabei
3 Rugby game still appearing in sections (6)
SEVENS
s(even)s
4 Uncover rear having brought a vehicle in? It’s a piece of cake (8)
MACAROON
(a car) in moon — a macaroon is I suppose a piece of cake, but I’d always thought of it more as a biscuit
5 Greeted Anglo-Chinese style, say,/showing some weightiness? (6-7)
DOUBLE-CHINNED
2 defs? A greeting Anglo-Chinese style may consist of some sort of contact between the chins. But this is clutching at straws and no doubt there’s a perfectly straightforward explanation.
6 Very substantial binging aboard when at sea (13)
BROBDIGNAGIAN
(binging aboard)* — referring to Brobdignag in Gulliver’s Travels, where everything was very substantial
7 Set parts of targets in German article on crime (6,7)
DINNER SERVICE
inners [parts of targets on darts boards] in der [German article] vice
13 Look up in writing names of ticket recipients (4,4)
FREE LIST
(leer)rev. in fist [= handwriting] — I had to confirm the definition since it was new to me
14 Musician sang trio with ornamentation (8)
ORGANIST
(sang trio)*
16 TV journalist‘s article: hard work (left unfinished) (6)
ANCHOR
an chor{e}
18 One turning out, not getting first place? Yes and no (6)
VICTOR
{e}victor
*anagram
5dn is a play on the chin-chin expression, which is an old anglicisation of an Chinese term used as an informal greeting, farewell or toast.
Apologies for the typo above, it should have read “a Chinese”.
Anyway, as far as the puzzle is concerned, I found it fairly straightforward, although I was also surprised by how few clues there were. ITCH MITE and DEBATABLE LAND were my last two in, and I didn’t enter either until I was completely happy with the wordplay because they weren’t expressions I knew.
I can’t see a nina or a theme, although with it being a Phi puzzle there is probably something there that has gone completely over my head.
Andy B at #1 has the same idea as me for 5d, I didn’t find this too easy and no themes, Ninas seem apparent, thanks John/Phi.
Re 6 dn: Chambers gives the spelling as Brobdingnagian and a Google search for Brobdignagian gives Brobdingnagian results first. In fact as I’m typing this I have an error underline on Brobdignagian. This contradiction threw me at first, in the end I realised I had to go with the “error”. Is it an error?
The correct spelling is BROB DING NAGIAN !!!
Brobdingnag appears to have been alternatively spelled as Brobdignag over the years. Here is a link to a Gillray cartoon from 1803 with the alternative spelling at both the top and bottom, so it seems to have been around for a while:
http://www.napoleonicmedals.org/lith/gillray.htm
Here is another link that shows the cover of a book that was issued to English Literature students:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gullivers-Journey-Lilliput-Brobdignag-Literature/dp/B001CIT2GM
That may mnot be given as an alt spelling, I don’t think Collins has it.
Thanks Phi and John.
I particularly liked 8a, 11a, 18d, 13d & 5a and my favourites were 7d DINNER SERVICE & 6d BROBDIGNAGIAN – I was helped by the fact that it was anagram fodder. I also discovered that it is an alternative spelling for Brobdingnagian which is the more common way of spelling it.
ITCH MITE and DEBATABLE LAND were also new words for me.
Where did you find the alt spelling, Micjelle?
I was thrown by 6dn as I couldn’t spell it myself so I looked it up and then found it wouldn’t fit.
“Debatable Land” I knew from Tolkien as on the map of Middle Earth, South Gondor is marked as a debatable land. (And there’s a connection between Middle Earth and today’s setter. 🙂 )
Rowland@7, are you the alternative spelling police? All I have done is provide historical examples of the alternative spelling, and they are the sort of sources from which dictionary compilers in the past would have gleaned their information. For all I know the alternative spelling may have been how Swift originally spelled it, but as I don’t own any Swift first editions I don’t know. It is always possible that what is now regarded as the correct spelling came about because somebody thought it scanned better and altered it in a later edition, or it could just be that Gillray and Burrell made the same error. Again, I don’t know, and neither, I suspect, do you. Dictionaries almost always drop old spellings when they drop out of general use.
You seem quite angry Andy B. I am not ‘the alternatice spelling police’ as you put it, and why would I be? In the dictionary I use , which is Collins, it has only BROBDINGNAGIAN. That is how Swift speells it as far as I know, ansd it is how it is spelled in all editions and also on a map that was presented with the book in 1726.
Dp you have a source for the ‘wrong’ spelling please? That is all I asked about, no ‘biggie’. I don’t know why you are annoyed.
Here is the part of the bnook which talks of the spelling:
“Note also that in Gulliver’s in-character preface to the story, headed A letter from Captain Gulliver to his cousin Sympson, he specifies that the correct spelling is in fact “… Brobdingrag (for so the word should have been spelt, and not erroneously Brobdingnag), …” (emphasis added). This “correction” by the supposed author is of course only a device used to add an element of verisimilitude to Swift’s fiction.”
I hope you will now see the truth aboutthis.
Not being very familiar with Swift’s work I just used the anagram fodder & was blissfully unaware of the correct spelling of Brobdingnagian until I came here. But it does appear to me that ‘Brobdignagian’ only really appears as a misapprehension of the original spelling.
re 21ac when I put in Discount Store I quickly parsed it simply as Discount = reduction on Store (=pack as in pack away) & moved on. Should have given it a second thought since although mine kinda works, yours is clearly what Phi intended.
According to the online OED Brobdignag is an often incorrect form of Brobdingnag, but it lists the derivative words Brobdingnagian and Brobdignagian without any such qualification. Here is the link to the relevant page:
http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/23543?redirectedFrom=brobdignag#eid
I got to this page via my online library account so I hope the link works on its own.
I would always spell the word with the additional “n”, but when a setter comes up with an alternative spelling to any word I like to keep an open mind.
I should imagine ‘perjorative’ is a common misspelling of a word too. I tried your link by the way Andy, but got ‘subscriber login’. Thanks!
Like John, I was dazzled as usual by Phi’s deft clueing style, and given the grid, started searching for … stuff. I can’t find anything, but perhaps the maestro will be along to sort us out a bit later. A very enjoyable Friday solve.
At the back of the mind I always felt that -dig- was correct, on the grounds that anyone who came up with Houyhnhnm and the one beginning ‘Glub-‘ didn’t exactly have orthography in their sights. I’m not as familiar with the book as I should be, clearly.
Apart from that, this was just a grid I came up with when I wanted one that had fewer words. The interlocking of the long lights rather militates against Ninas, though it doesn’t always save clueing time, as retaining a variety of approaches for the long entries (don’t want them to be all anagrams) can take a bit of thinking.
Aiming to have a new puzzle up on my website later this weekend, earthquakes, Guardian Double Puzzles, Arthur Miller, and the need to prepare a Christmas puzzle permitting. (Actually, given the site’s refusal to accept that x – 4 = 4 should allow x = 8, I’ve been away, done the Christmas grid, and returned. Let’s see how 7 – x = 6 fares…