Never a cross word – 37

Tags

anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptic clues, English for speakers of other languages, learning methodologies, words within words

Last week I left you this clue to solve:

Fool in rage about uncontrolled heat (7)

I am sorry to say that the solution is yet a further term of abuse to add to those already covered in Never a cross word – 23, published on 13th March this year.  The British seem to specialise in coming up with words to be rude to other people!  The answer is:

FATHEAD

A fathead (used only in informal speech) is a stupid person; see here.

This is derived from an anagram of ‘heat’ (the hint that an anagram is involved is the word ‘uncontrolled’) which a three letter word for ‘rage’ is ‘about’ (wrapped around).

The more common definition of rage is intense anger, but here rage has another meaning. Something that is all the rage is something which a great many people are passionate about – usually temporarily.  For example, you could say: ‘flared trousers were all the rage in the late 1960s’.  There are other words for rage in this sense: one is craze; the other (which is the word we need to solve the clue) is fad, defined as a widely shared enthusiasm for something.  The answer to the clue (meaning ‘fool’) is constructed as shown below:

FA THEA D

Now try these clues from Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle No. 27,828 dated 15th June 2015.  They bring out some interesting points of English.

The first reads:

Bold prosecutor takes on cartel (6)

A prosecutor in America can be a District Attorney (abbreviated to DA), who represents the Government in prosecuting criminal offences.  There is a DA for most US States; see the Wikipedia article here.

I think I first came across the term DA watching the TV series Perry Mason.  The show depicts a fictional US defence lawyer, who argues cases against Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger and invariably wins!

Or perhaps – I really can’t remember – I first heard it in the lyrics (words) of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.

But enough of these reminiscences (happy memories), which are causing me to get off the point (stray from a discussion of the main subject): the important thing is that the first two letters of the answer are DA.

A cartel (see the definition here) is a group of people from different associations who work together to fix prices so as to restrict competition.  This is highly illegal and, if found guilty, those who take part in such activity can face enormous penalties.  Readers who are lawyers will know that this anti-competitive (also known as anti-trust) behaviour has led to huge fines imposed by the EU, the US, or other Competition Authorities.  In some cases the sums involved have reached hundreds of millions of Euros or dollars.

The worst of such organisations are drug cartels, also known as drug ‘rings’, run by ruthless criminals.  So, in this sense, another word for a cartel can be a ring.

If DA ‘takes on’ (adds) RING, we arrive at the answer:

DARING

which of course means the first word in the clue – bold.

Now try:

Gambling game using rent in the course of journey (8)

The solution is derived from a word for ‘rent’ inside a word for ‘journey’ – yet another example of how cryptic crossword clues often involve words within words, and in the process provide a great mental workout.

A synonym for ‘rent’ (as a verb) is let. To let a property means to make it available to someone to live in or use in exchange for rent (money). The person letting the property is called the owner or landlord and the person who pays rent is called the tenant or lessee.  Both parties normally have to sign a legal contract to complete the deal. In towns and cities in the UK you often come across a sign ‘TO LET’ meaning that a flat, house, or commercial premises such as a shop, are available for rent.  Mischievous children sometimes deface (change) such signs by inserting an ‘I’ so the sign reads TOILET – a joke that is now wearing a bit thin (too well known to be funny any longer).

Another word for ‘journey’, in the sense of the directions followed, is route – a word pronounced very differently in British and American English.  To listen to the difference please click here.

Putting all this together, the answer is formed as shown:

ROU LET TE

Roulette is, of course, a well-known gambling game, generally played in a casino, with the sort of chips you can’t eat.   I am sure you are familiar with it – if not, see here.

Speaking of games, I will leave you with this clue to think about.  It is from Daily Telegraph Puzzle No. 27,835 dated 23rd June, 2015:

Ashes could be reinvigorated with this game (5)

The answer will appear next week.

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Never a cross word – 36

Tags

anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptic clues, English for speakers of other languages, learning methodologies, words within words

Last week I challenged you to solve this clue:

On foot, end traipse shattered (10)

The word ‘shattered’ (meaning broken into small pieces) is the hint that an anagram is involved.  Since the answer is 10 letters it seems pretty clear that ‘end traipse’ is shattered – and then put back together in a different order – to give a word meaning ‘on foot’.

The solution is: PEDESTRIAN

A pedestrian is someone who gets around on foot, rather than travelling in a bus, train, car – or riding a bicycle. You will no doubt be familiar with a pedestrian crossing, a designated place for pedestrians to cross the road.  In the UK a pedestrian crossing is marked with black and white stripes, and for that reason is also called a zebra crossing.

The clue is particularly apt, because, as well as supplying 70% of the letters needed to make the anagram, the word traipse has a meaning.  It means a tiring walk, see here.  Furthermore, as explained in Never a cross word- 1, another meaning of ‘shattered’ when used informally is exhausted.  You might indeed end a tiring walk exhausted – or in other words end a traipse shattered!

Here are another couple of neat clues, both from Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle No. 27,813 dated 28th May 2015.  The first (slightly altered) reads:

Cracks seen around top of short pants (5)

A crack, in certain circumstances, can be a gap; and the ‘top’ of ‘short’ is simply the first letter (S) of the word.  Put GAPS (cracks) ‘around’ S and one has the answer:

GASPS

The verb to gasp, defined here, can mean essentially the same as to pant – i.e. struggle to breathe, or breathe in with short quick breaths.  The answer has nothing to do with pants in the sense of trousers (a term commonly used in the USA) or underwear (the corresponding meaning of pants in the UK) – short or otherwise!

Now try:

Separate after carbon copy (5)

Solving this relies on a very basic knowledge of chemistry:  the element carbon is represented by the letter C.  It is almost certain that there will be a C in the answer somewhere.  The question is whether one is looking for a synonym for ‘separate’ to come after the C (in which case the answer would mean ‘copy’) or whether one is looking for a synonym for ‘copy’ to come after the C (in which case the answer would mean ‘separate’).

There is no simple way of working this out other than trial and error, but I can reveal that the first of these two options is correct.  However we now run into another problem, since nothing tells you whether the required synonym for ‘separate’ is a verb (meaning to cause to move apart), an adjective (meaning distinct or different), or even a noun (meaning an individual piece of clothing); see the Oxford English online dictionary here.

To cut a long story short (in the US: to make a long story short), the word we are looking for is the adjective ‘lone’ which can mean solitary or unaccompanied by other people – in other words ‘separate’.  The expression lone wolf can be used to describe someone who prefers his or her own company and likes to operate alone.

We now have C (carbon) + LONE (separate) giving the solution:

CLONE

which means (as a verb) to make an exact copy of something and (as a noun) an identical copy.  The word is frequently used in a scientific sense: the microbiological process of gene cloning (making an exact copy of a piece of DNA) is now well established and an essential tool in the biotechnology (‘biotech’) industry.  For other meanings of the word clone please see here.

The clue cleverly deceives the solver into thinking that carbon copy, a copy of a typewritten sheet of paper, has something to do with the answer.  This is made by inserting into the typewriter a sheet of inked paper (carbon paper) between a blank sheet of paper and the sheet which will be directly typed on (the top copy).  In the age of personal computers, printers, and photocopiers – with the potential to produce limitless copies of an original document – there is no need to use this antiquated (old) technique today.  Nevertheless the term still survives, as when a copy of an e-mail or memo is sent to someone in addition to the primary recipient the letters cc are used on the address line.  Probably few people know that those letters stand for ‘carbon copy’ but that is indeed the origin.

Let me finish by leaving you this clue to think about.  It is from Daily Telegraph Puzzle No. 27,822 dated 8th June 2015:

Fool in rage about uncontrolled heat (7)

The answer will be explained next week.

Never a cross word – 35

Tags

anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptic clues, English for speakers of other languages, learning methodologies, words within words

Last week I left you this clue to solve:

Pick of the Spanish, Italian and English (5)

This is a clue of a type we have encountered before, which relies on a very basic knowledge of a language other than English: here the first two letters of the answer are formed from EL (‘the’ in Spanish).  The third and fourth letters are IT (an abbreviation for Italian) and the final letter is E (an abbreviation for English).  In other words, the solution is:

ELITE

As already discussed in Never a cross word – 31, elite is a word meaning the best (for example ‘an elite group of artists’).  It fits the rest of the clue because the pick of something also means the best.  The pick of the bunch is used to describe the best in a particular group and the pick of the crop is a term which can be applied to the finest fruit and vegetables – asparagus, apples, strawberries etc.

Let’s switch from an elementary knowledge of Spanish to one of German.  This clue appeared in Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle No. 27,815 dated 30th May 2015.  It reads:

East German – wealthy person who refuses to recognise reality (7)

In just the same way that ‘the Spanish’ was EL in the clue above, ‘East German’ is OST, the German for East.  Think of another word for wealthy – RICH – and you have the solution:

OSTRICH

An ostrich is a large flightless bird native to Africa which, according to popular belief, has a habit of burying its head in the sand when it senses danger.  This in fact is not true (see the Wikipedia entry here) but the story persists. Because of this, a person who will not recognise reality, or chooses to avoid dealing with an unpleasant situation, can be called an ostrich.  And you could say to someone who refuses to face facts in this way ‘you are just burying your head in the sand‘, an idiom further explained here.

I started this blog by looking for a word for ‘the’ in another language – but what if I said there was another word for ‘the’ in English?  Surprisingly there is – or was!  In archaic (very old) English the word for ‘the’ was ‘ye’.  You can still see this today in names of pubs or restaurants that either are – or are trying to look – ancient.  In the city of London, for example, you will come across Ye Olde Cheddar Cheese in Fleet Street, a pub which was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666.  For completeness, I should add that the word ‘ye’ is also very old English for ‘you’ (in the plural) – as in the Christmas Carol ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’.

Armed with (having) this knowledge, try this clue from the same puzzle as OSTRICH:

Irish writer, the old dramatist, initially staring in a demented way (4-4)

This is particularly difficult because the commas have been deliberately put in the wrong places (a trick that is allowed).  What we are looking for is (a) an Irish writer; (b) a word for ‘the’ (which is old); and (c) something representing dramatist initially, all of which put together produce a hyphenated word [note the answer is four letters dash (-) four letters] meaning ‘staring in a demented way’.

The elements (b) and (c) are easy.  You now know that (b) will be YE; and demented initially is simply the first (initial) letter in demented – D.  So the last word in the answer will end in YED.

The question is: what is the Irish writer?  There are so many famous Irish writers (for example George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Iris Murdoch, Edna O’Brien – a list can be seen here) that one is spoilt for choice (there are too many to choose from).  But the fact that the last word in the answer ends in YED and the clue mentions ‘staring’ strongly suggests that it is EYED.  If that is correct, the last letter of what must be a five lettered Irish writer will be E.  Having worked that out, it does not take a great leap to realise that the Irish writer is the great Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), author of plays that are constantly revived today such as ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.  A Wikipedia entry may be accessed here.

So to solve the clue we have to put together (a) WILDE; with (b) YE; and (c) D to get:

WILD-EYED

which means staring in a demented way.  The word demented can mean literally suffering from dementia, a progressive lack of mental ability defined here, which is becoming increasingly common as the average age of the human population increases.  It would be cruel and inaccurate to describe anyone suffering from dementia as ‘mad’.  However, ‘demented’ can be used in everyday speech in a non-medical sense to mean mad or completely crazy – and there is a phrase stark staring mad which describes the wild staring eyes that frequently accompany this condition.  The word demented can also be used in an exaggerated way to describe being temporarily driven mad (made very angry) by something annoying.  For example, you might hear someone say ‘filling in this application form is driving me demented.’

That is quite enough for this week but let me leave you with this clue to think about over the weekend.  It is from Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle No. 27,813 dated 28th May 2015:

On foot, end traipse shattered (10)

The meaning of ‘shattered’ was explored in Never a cross word – 1 last October.

I hope you are enjoying this peculiar way of exploring the English language.  More next week.

Never a cross word – 34

Tags

anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptic clues, English for speakers of other languages, learning methodologies, words within words

Last week I left you this clue to solve:

Show how in reorganisation a list of people is required (4,3)

The answer is an anagram of ‘show how’ and the hint that the letters are jumbled up (put in a different order) is the word ‘reorganisation’.  Did you get it?  The solution is:

WHO’S WHO

Who’s Who is the name of a well known publication which lists important people. According to the publisher’s website, it is a directory of ‘the noteworthy and influential in all walks of life, in the UK and worldwide’.

When I say that Who’s Who is a directory I should point out that it is nothing like a telephone directory which simply lists names, numbers and addresses.  Who’s Who includes biographical details about each person’s qualifications and career.  It has been published annually since 1849 and is now available online if you have a subscription (pay for it).

Last week we discussed, inter alia (a Latin expression sometimes used in English to say ‘amongst other things’), various meanings of ‘the blues’ – a distinctive style of music being one of them.

With that in mind, try this clue from Daily Telegraph Puzzle No. 27,817 dated 2nd June 2015.  It reads:

Article penned by blues musician, to make things more confusing (5,3,6)

As noted in a previous post, the word ‘article’ in a cryptic clue usually has a grammatical meaning.  That is to say it can refer either to the definite article (the) or indefinite article (a or an). Since the middle word is three letters it is a fair bet that it is the word THE.  It is also likely that the first and third words make up the name of a blues musician, with the ‘the’ in the middle being penned between them.  ‘Penned’ here means trapped or enclosed (not ‘written’ as the clue cleverly tricks you into thinking).  If that analysis is correct then the answer as a whole must mean ‘to make things more confusing’.

The blues musician in this case is Muddy Waters (real name McKinley Morganfield), a talented guitarist who had a huge influence.  You can read more about his career in this Wikipedia article, which notes, inter alia, that the Rolling Stones named the band after Muddy’s 1950 song ‘Rollin’ Stone’.

The solution to the clue, therefore, is:

MUDDY THE WATERS

To muddy the waters means to make things more confusing (the remaining words in the clue) – see here.  This is a fairly literal idiom since if the water in a river or pond is muddy (full of fine particles of mud) you cannot see into it clearly. Similarly if something is confusing or difficult to understand you can say it is as clear as mud – in other words not clear at all!

Now let’s turn to a clue from the same crossword puzzle which reveals another English idiom.  It reads:

Problems ahead for company that makes beer (7,7)

The answer (meaning problems ahead) is:

TROUBLE BREWING

The reason this is correct is that the process of making beer is known as brewing, from the verb to brew – defined here.  Because making beer is a gradual process the word brewing has the meaning ‘slowly being created’, so one can talk about trouble brewing to indicate that problems are building up and lie ahead.  In the same way you can say there is a storm brewing if a storm is obviously coming but has not actually arrived yet. The answer to the clue is a subtle joke because if a company that makes beer has problems it may have difficulty (trouble) brewing it.

Once again a study of a few cryptic clues has enabled us to cover a lot of ground, rather improbably ranging from Who’s Who to Muddy Waters, and to one of mankind’s greatest achievements – learning how to brew beer!  Now let me leave you with this clue from the same crossword:

Pick of the Spanish, Italian and English (5)

The solution, a word we encountered in Never a cross word-31, will appear next week.