Azed 1931

by

A pretty straightforward Azed, though containing some unusual words, including lots of Scottish words. Unusually for an Azed, there are no ‘hidden in’ answers this week.

There’s no competition for my favourite clue this week — it has to be 15a.

Across
1 NOMIC No mic[k] (‘mick’ in this sense is deemed offensive by Chambers). Customary; (esp of spelling) conventional.
5 GABNASH *(Bans hag). A cheeky chatterbox in Scotland.
10 A NATURA REI *(a tuna); RARE = excellent; I = one. Latin for ‘from the nature of the case’.
11 FACETE FACET = view; E = English. An old word meaning ‘facetious’.
12 SUNDOG SG = Solicitor General; about UNDO = annul. Here are some examples of sundogs, or parhelia,.
14 GAWP W = with; GAP = interval.
15 ALEWASHED *(he was lead). An excellent Shakespearean word meaning ‘affected by drinking beer’. The porter in Macbeth, who opens the castle gate to Lennox and Macduff, is drunk.
16 BORD BOD = person; R = last of filler. An obsolete spelling of board.
17 WANT IN WAN = sickly-looking; TIN = can
19 ACCREW A C; CREW = company. Spenser’s spelling of ‘accrue’.
21 ODES O = nothing; DES = ‘sed’ backwards. Quintus Horatius Flaccus was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.
23 STORMCOCK *(corm); in STOCK. The missel thrush.
26 SWOB BOWS (= front) backwards. Same as the more commonly used ‘swab’.
28 BIFOLD IF = condition; in BOLD = rash.
29 LINEAR *(I learn).
30 TOP-NOTCHER TOCHER = a dowry in Scotland; P = penny; NOT = cut short (‘with close-cut hair; polled’).
31 RESIANT IAN = Gaelic form of John; in REST. Old form of ‘resident’.
32 SASSY SY = faces (first letters) of ‘some youngsters’; ASS = dull (stupid) one.
Down
1 NAFTA NA = not applicable; AFT = near end (‘near or towards the stern of a vessel or aircraft’). North American Free Trade Agreement
2 MACHER Ma chèr[e]. An influential or overbearing person.
3 ITEM ‘Mite’ with its first letter moved to the end. People ‘going steady’ are said to be ‘an item’.
4 CUT-RATE T = time; in CURATE = assistant clergyman. Thanks to David for pointing out that I had wrongly transcribed what I had actually written in the grid — I should edit myself more carefully!
5 GREASEWOOD GOOD = suitable; around *(a sewer). A name for various oily American shrubs of the goosefoot family.
6 BRUTE R = ‘race’ minus ‘ace’; BUTE = popular name for butazolidin (phenylbutazone), illegally used to disguise lameness in horses.
7 AIDANT AT = mostly ‘ate’ (consumed); ID = I’d (I had); AN = one. Archaic word.
8 SHOWPIECE *(sec); ‘bottling’ (containing) HOW = method, and PIE = an easy thing (‘easy as pie’).
9 HOGPENS *(He pongs).
12 SCHWARZLOT *(Chars); W = with; ZLOT[y]. A type of black enamel decoration on glass, pottery and porcelain.
13 CLOCKWISE CLOCK = notice; WISE = prudent. Direction of the hands on a clock.
16 BASS-BAR BASS = beer; BAR = where you’d expect beer to be. A strip of wood on the belly of a violin, etc, under the bass foot of the bridge, to distribute the vibrations.
18 ARMPITS A = one; RITS = scratches (another Scottish word); around MP = member.
20 CROFTS *(C frost).
22 DOSEHS SO = therefore; SHED = part; all reversed. The doseh was a religious ceremony at Cairo (abolished 1884), during the festival of the Prophet’s birth, when the sheikh of the Sa’sidi dervishes rode on horseback over the prostrate bodies of his followers.
24 TALPA ALP = very large hill; TA = centre for boTAny. Talpa is a genus in the mole family Talpidae.
26 KERRY ERR = stray; in KY = cows in Scotland. Reference to the Kerry Blue Terrier
27 INCA ‘Root Inca squad’ = *(a conquistador). The conquistadores did some pretty unpleasant things to the Incas.

7 comments on “Azed 1931”

  1. You can’t have “facete” for 11 across and “curtate” for 4 down – it must be “cut-rate”

  3. 1ac i still don’t get ‘nomic’ ?

    i understand your explanation jetdoc, and lucky enough it’s what i entered in the grid,
    everywhere i looked though everywhere said it was a

    ‘game where changing the rules were the game’. so i put it in anyway!

  4. Thanks, Jetdoc. I did have CURTATE for 4dn, which meant I couldn’t get 11ac. Also had RESCANT instead of RESIANT.

  5. 1a = no mic(k), “mick” being a somewhat derogatory slang name for an Irish person (male).

  6. David –

    thanks for the info. I’m not too up on Irish slang, but one I’ll remember though.

    Cheers.

  7. Well it’s English slang really! I remember it being used for immigrant Irish workers when I was young, but I haven’t heard it for a long time now.

Comments are closed.