July 2008
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Jun
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Archive for the 'Azed' Category

Azed 1880: Prime time

Posted by Andrew on 15th June 2008

Another fairly straightforward Azed puzzle for my first official blog, with some easy hidden answers and anagrams to get started on. The grid is slightly unusual, with 38 words in it rather than the usual 36.

Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reversal

Across
1	JIMJAMS	dd	Chambers lists both meanings under the same heading, with “origin unknown”, though it seems obvious that the “pyjamas” meaning is an example of hypocorism.
6	SCRAP	CRAPS with S moved to the front
10	POUPT	UP in POT	I had to look up “cozen” and found that it means to cheat, and possibly comes from the idea of falsely claiming kinship (cf “cousin”).
12	INEARTH	(THE RAIN)*
13	EUSCARA	ca(UCAS*)us in ERA	As the note says, this spelling is only (”perversely”) given in Chambers under BASQUE. The alternative spelling EUSKARA is shown under EUSKARIAN: the fourth letter is unchecked, so either version would fit, but presumably Azed chose the spelling with C for its better clueing potential. I’ve also just noticed that EUSKARA is (presumably) mis-spelled as ESKUARA under the “Basque” heading. The Basque language is notable for being an “isolate”, i.e. not linguistically related to any other known languages,
14	PLATO	PLATOON less ON (=”about”)
18	GALANTAMINE	(MANIA TANGLE)* &lit	Perhaps a slightly tasteless clue for this word - a drug used to treat dementia - but the &lit must have been irresistible.
19	LORING	RI in LONG	A Spenserian derivation from LORE.
20	FLASER	L in FEARS*	L is apparently used as a symbol for angular momentum in physics; a new one on me (or possibly long-forgotten).
21	LAISSE	hidden
24	BONSAI	“Bonne sigh”	Nicely misleading use of “stunt”.
27	SYNTACTICAL	TACT in (SLY I CAN)*
31	RAYNE	(A ENRY)*
32	BRINIER	IN in BRIER	I had to smile when the penny dropped for this one - I’d been trying to find synonyms of “staler”, but was thinking of the wrong kind of “fresh”.
33	TROELIE	(TREE OIL)*	Cleverly disguising an implicit “that” between Palm tree
34	SINAI	Hidden in “asIAN ISland”<	The Sinai peninsula is between the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba.
35	SANDY	dd
36	BETIGHT	BE TIGHT	Spenserian past participle of BETIDE. To “be tight” is a now rather old-fashioned expression for “to have drunk far too much”, though I’m not sure about the “far” - surely “drunk too much” would be enough. Chambers just has “intoxicated”. I think being tight is probably worse than “tiddly” but not as bad as “blotto”.
Down
1	J-PEN	JP E N	JP = Justice of the Peace.
2	MUSCARINE	SCARIN(g) in EMU*
3	ATAMAN	A TAM AN	AN is apparently a form of “on”.
4	MIRIN	Hidden
5	SNAB	First letters &lit	A variety of SNOB - I think this could have done with a question mark, as surely not all snobs are characterised by their shoes.
6	SEPTAL	PLATES*	A “sept” is a clan (cf “sect”)
7	CALAMANCO	A MAN replaces I in CALICO
8	ATTONE	(E TANTO)*	The Italian phrase means something like “[he] is so upset”: turbato is the anagrind.
9	PHONER-IN	HONER in PIN	Once upon a time, people had to write in with their comments for “Any Answers”. I don’t think the quality of the debate was greatly improved by the change to a phone-in (and more recently the addition of email)
11	OUTGO	TUG* in OO	In cricket, a batsman gets a “pair” by scoring 0 in both innings.
15	GLISTENED	LISTEN in GED	Yes, a ged is a pike, though the fact that it’s a dialect word isn’t mentioned in the clue.
16	MISSAYING	MISS (GAY IN)*
17	ALLSORTS	L LSO in ARTS	There are two Ls for London in the answer, though only one is clued directly. Misleading but completely sound, I think.
22	AYMARA	ARMY* in A A
23	SAMELY	MEAL* replaces inside of SeminarY
25	OIKIST	OIK IS (birthrigh)T	Can also be spelt “oecist”. From the Greek “oikos” , meaning “house”, which is also the source of “ecology” and “economy”.
26	ALDEA	D in A LEA
28	THREE	HR (abbrev of HOUR) in TEE(vee)	Three is a prime number.
29	ABIB	A BIB.	Abib is the former name of a month in the Hebrew calendar, called Nisan since the days of the Babylonian captivity.
30	BRIT	R in BIT	A young herring or sprat; happily no mention of the horrible “brit”=”British person”.

Posted in Azed | No Comments »

Azed 1879

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 8th June 2008

It’s a competition Azed this week. For me this means one less answer to explain! I solved this crossword very quickly for a competition puzzle, I usually find them a little tougher than average. There are three hidden clues, an initialisation and some simple anagrams to get the beginner started. There is still a fair few unusual words and clever word play to test the solver. I completed this blog after I had solved the puzzle but without access to a dictionary, so I may not have inserted hyphens in some of the answers.

While you are reading this blog I’ll be somewhere in the hills around Glenfinnan (near Fort William) taking part in the second day of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t respond to comments until sometime on Monday.

Ignore the above comment. I have just returned to discover that my time-delayed publishing of this blog failed, so here is is now!

* = anagram
< = reversal
dd = double definition


Across
5	PELTAST	PELT+AS+T	this was the last clue I got. I just didn’t think of PELT as a ’shower of missiles’. ‘Troy’ refers to the weight and hence its abbreviation T.
12	OIL OF VITRIOL	OLIO< + (FRIVOL+IT)*	OLIO is a variety, I thought I knew it from the simple but delicious pasta dish ‘aglio e olio’ but according to a quick check that olio means oil. Hmm.
13	ORION	(NO+I+RO)<	ORION is the belted warrior, a mythical figure giving his name to a constellation. The cricketing surface here is wonderful, hiding the split between word play and definition in the term ‘reverse sweep’. A reverse sweep in the hands of a good batsman is a delight, in the hands of a tail-ender it can look like a bit of a chance hack.
14	WINNA	INN in WA(it)	one of Chambers’ many Scottish words, WINNA is a contraction of ‘will not’.
15	BONBON	NB in BOON
16	TWOBIT	W in TOBIT	TOBIT is one of the apocryphal books left out of the bible as we know it.
17	BEGOTTEN	B+EGO + NETT<
18	ASSOT	ASS+O+T	the famous model is of course the Ford Model T, here he extended definition of T makes an excellent surface.
19	RENNES	dd
21	NARKED	DARKEN ends swapped	either answer would fit until I had 17d.
24	CECUM	niCECUMmerbund	the US spelling of caecum. I have blogged this answer a couple of times for other puzzles and both of those were homophones (seek ‘em and Secombe). It looks like a horrible word for a charade so hiding it is one of the limited possibilities.
28	MEA CULPA	(MAP A CLUE)*
29	RADISH	RA DISH	a RADISH is normally, in the UK, served raw in a salad.
30	SCROWS	W in CROSS*
32	URINE	I in JOURNEY - JOY	excellent definition ‘we all pass this’ and great surface.
33	DINAH	I in HAND<	ref. DINAH Sheridan.
34	PASSE-MEASURE	PA + (ME in SEASURE)	a dance apparently. Bradford’s helped here.
35	THERETO	HER+E in TOT*

Down
1	DOOB	initials &lit	a grass, grasses bind sand dunes.
2	TIROES	(TO+R+IE)* + S
3	FLINGS	dd
4	BOOBOOK	BOOBOO+K	a BOO-BOO is a cock-up and K is the velocity constant in chemistry. I’m a physicist, I had to check.
6	EVENTIDE HOME	EVENT + HE< in I+DOME	clever word play but a weird term for sheltered housing for the elderly. This comes on the back of a week of programmes on Radio 4 looking at care homes, coincidentally.
7	LITTER BASKET	the straight def
8	ARIOT	IO in ART
9	SIN BIN	NIBS* + IN
10	TONITE	tnTONITExplodes
11	PLATYSMA	PLATY + SAM*	a PLATY is a central American fish.
17	BANKRUPT	(KT RAN PUB)*	the unconvincing surface here and the use of Kt in the clue made the anagram very obvious. Still, it helped with 21a.
20	NEURISM	MURINES*
22	ARARAT	ARAR+AT	excellent surface again with ‘famous anchorage’ being Mount ARARAT.
23	RUDISH	R+UDI+S(mit)H	the clue of the puzzle for me. Ian Smith declaring UDI in Rhodesia ultimately led to what is now Zimbabwe.
25	CLONUS	CL(aim) + ONUS	second clever subtraction, see 32a.
26	UPWARD	WAR in PUD*
27	RINSE	porkeRINSEason	final of the three hidden clues.
31	SHEN	SHE+N	a simple one to finish off even if I’ve never heard of the therapy.

Posted in Azed | 3 Comments »

Azed 1878: the Irish question

Posted by bridgesong on 1st June 2008

Solving time: longer than I care to admit, but see 16 across. I completed about three quarters of the puzzle in an hour, but the northeast quadrant proved to be stubborn. This is my first blog, so apologies for any formatting errors.

Across

1 SPLENITIS - SPLIT SPINE* - a simple anagram to start off.

7 UMP - an umpire deals with appeals; not sure about the wordplay but as 3 letter

words are all checked in Azed grids, it doesn’t matter too much.

11 AGACERIE - to be found in Chambers under AGACANT. The construction appears to be

ACE RI in AGE, with ACE meaning one.

12 FECULA - anagram of CAREFUL, minus the R.

13 ILIAC, from ILIACUS, which is a muscle. I thought at first that Trojan might imply

a hidden clue, but it turned out to be the definition.

14 TRIDACNA - a simple anagram for an obscure word.

15 TOPI - well, top means head, but I can’t explain the I. A topi is an antelope.

16 KINSALE - the last clue I solved, and I wasted a lot of time on it before Google

provided the answer. It’s apparently a town in Ireland popular with sailors. I

felt that we should have been warned that there was a place name not to be found in

Chambers.

18 BIGENERIC - BIG EN (a measure) ERIC (a blood-fine).

22 PAIRHORSE - an anagram of A SHOP, RiveR, IE. It means a carriage drawn by a span,

which is a pair of horses.

23 MUTANDA - AN in DATUM*

26 KNAR - it means a knot in wood, (so does KNAG) but is also RANK reversed.

27 DRAPIERS - the clue makes sense when you discover that one of the meanings of TUCK

is RAPIER.

29 LAITY - IT in LAY(which can mean to plan).

30 PINYIN - PINY (like a conifer) + IN (popular). It’s defined as an alphabetic system

for the transcription of Chinese, esp. Mandarin.

31 OMNIVORE - another simple anagram.

32 RIG - another 3 letter word, which I solved before reading the clue, as a result of

the checking letters! It’s RIG(ID), using the fourth of five definitions of RIG in

Chambers.

33 CANDLE-END - a beautifully misleading surface reading. LEADEN* in CND. SERGE is

a variant of CERGE.

Down

1 SOFT-TOP - OFT in STOP. Note that SOFT TOP is shown as the noun, but the

adjectival form is hyphenated, which is why it is shown as one word in the clue.

2 PLEROMA - anagram of RO(OM) + AMPLE.

3 LOCI - hidden in BelLOC Incunabula. A locus can be a passage as well as a place.

4 NALAS - N is final bit of IRRIGATION, + ALAS. We had NALAS (in a slightly different

form) in 1876 a couple of weeks ago.

5 TAWNIER - AWN (a beard of barley) in TIER.

6 SELFSEEKING - ELF in S(tephen) KING.

7 URINARY - YOUR RAIN* less the O.

8 MIAUL - I in MAUL. A variant of MIAOW, I suppose.

9 PECKE - c in PEKE. A Shakespearean spelling of PECK, in its third meaning.

10 HUDIBRASTIC - from Hudibras, by Samuel Butler.

17 TITLING - TIT is of course a bird, and LING a fish. I wasn’t happy with “requiring”

which seemed to suggest a slightly different meaning.

19 GODROON - GO ON round ROD*. It’s a variant of GADROON, and is defined as an

embossed decoration on silverware.

20 ICARIAN - well hidden in supersonIC ARIANe. The reference is to Icarus, whose waxen

wings melted when he flew too near the sun.

21 CORSNED - S in CORNED. A very old word, relating to trial by ordeal.

23 MILOR - OIL* in MR.

24 UMAMI - hidden (reversed) in “raviolI MA MUcked”.

25 SPIEL - I in (GO)SPEL.

28 EYNE - Y (the ultimate letter in heresy) in EYE; it’s an old spelling of EYES.

Posted in Azed | 3 Comments »

Azed 1877: Take a bow

Posted by jetdoc on 25th May 2008

Very much at the easy end of the Azed spectrum (I hope that doesn’t upset anyone). I don’t know how long this took me, as I don’t time myself and I’m usually multi-tasking (in this case, I was drying my hair in preparation for day 4 of the test match at Lord’s; but you don’t need to know that). Anyway, I’d guess that I have never completed an Azed more quickly than this one.

Favourite clue? No clear winner, but I’ll go for 31a.

Apologies for the late posting, but my internet connection has been playing up (I blame the supplier’s network; they blame my equipment — grrr!), so I have been a bit cut off from the outside world.

Across
2	CABALETTAS	A LETT = a written message (letter) without ER; in CABAS = ‘a woman’s workbasket, shopping bag or handbag’. A cabaletta is a simple operatic song or instrumental melody in rondo form, characterized by a continuously repeated rhythm; esp in 19c Italian opera, the lively final section of an aria or duet. I must admit that I got this from checking letters and electronic Chambers.
11	RYFE	F = force; in RYE = rye whisky. Spenser’s spelling of ‘rife’, meaning ‘prevalent’.
12	PAPER-DAY	D = daughter; after *(rape); in PAY. A paper-day, in law, is one of certain days in each term for hearing cases down in the paper or roll of business. Personally, I think this term could have been clued a touch more tastefully.
13	CHANA	Hidden in such an appetiser. The first one I solved; but then I already knew that hummus contains chick peas, also known to Americans as garbanzo beans, and in Indian cooking as Chana.
15	BORED	Sounds like ‘board’.
16	TIMELIER	IM; in ‘atelier’ = workshop, without A = ‘afternoon opening’.
18	SPUMONE	SUM = add; round ONE = single; P = slice of peach. Spumone is ice cream served in layers of different colours or flavours.
19	ALOE	0 = love (zero, nil), in ALE, of which Morocco is a very strong variety, anciently brewed in Westmorland. If you look at this, you will see that the aloe is no longer considered to be a member of the Liliaceae. But there we are…
20	AEROSTAT	(a rotates). An aerostat is a balloon or other aircraft lighter than air; a balloonist; an air-sac (zool)*’
22	LOPGRASS	*(l a sprogs). Lopgrass is soft brome-grass. I would like more of it in my lawn, which would not pass any lawn purist’s acceptability test.
25	COTH	Hidden in ‘discotheque’. I’m not too sure what a hyperbolic cotangent is, but presumably mathematicians are comfortable with it.
27	TAILLIE	TAIL = inferior part; LIE = remain. A taillie is an entail, a limitation of inheritance to certain heirs. The alternative ‘tailzie’ would have fitted the space, but not the wordplay.
29	ATRAMENT	*(a tar); MENT = old word for ‘mixed’. Atrament is defined as ‘blacking; ink; any black fluid, such as that emitted by the octopus’.
31	NO-ONE	E = ‘bit of elixir‘; on NOON = at sea, the approximate time when the sun was over the yardarm and it was therefore acceptable to have one’s first alcoholic drink of the day.
32	SAUNA	Ooh-er, some olden-days terminology here! Back in the dark ages, SA meant ‘sex appeal’ (also known as ‘it’ and extant only in crosswords). ‘UNA’, in Italian is the single feminine indefinite article. A sauna is (or can be) a steamy affair.
33	DESTRIER	IS in *(rider).
34	CARP	‘See’ — ‘the third letter of the alphabet (C, c)’. ARP is air-raid precautions, which is what the Home Guard were responsible for.
35	TESSELLATE	(estate’s); including ELL = a varying measure of length originally taken from the arm; a cloth measure equal to 1¼ yard. From tessella*, a little tessera — ‘marked out in little squarish areas’.

Down
1	ARCO SALTANDO	(old sonata RCA). A musical term — adv* with rebounding bow; n a quick staccato.
3	AFAR	‘A farm’ endlessly.
4	BENAME	‘Bien amie’ without the two Is, presumably. But can ‘bien’ (‘well’) mean beloved?
5	LATIN	*(tail) N. Dog Latin is spurious or sham Latin. Pig Latin is a secret language or jargon made up by children.
6	EPIMERS	*(spree I’m).
7	TEBET	Hidden in ‘contemplate Bethlehem’. Tebet, or Tebeth, is the tenth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical, and fourth of the secular, year, parts of December and January.
8	TROLLS	Double definition, although Chambers gives ‘troll’ as ‘vi to make a conscious attempt to provoke controversy or disagreement on the Internet; n an instance of this’, rather than the people who perpetrate it, as implied by the clue.
9	ADRIFT	*(raft I’d).
10	HYDROTHERAPY	I’m not sure of all the wordplay for this. It’s (hot dry pay), but where does the ‘her’ come from? I may have worked this out earlier, but forgotten. See note below.*
14	HAPLONT	*(plant ho), ‘ho’ being ‘useless house’. With a degree in genetics, perhaps I should be familiar with this term, but I’m not. It is ‘an organism in which only the gametes are haploid, meiosis occurring at their formation and the vegetative cells being diploid’ — so we are haplonts, then. I don’t think ‘organism meiotically affected’ is a good definition (diplonts are also ‘meiotically affected’, but in the opposite way), but that’s me being pedantic, and the answer’s clear enough.
17	ELATION	‘Relation’ minus its first letter.
21	EATERIE	*(eatier E) — i.e. an anagram of ‘the meatier E’ without ‘them’. Not very elegant.
23	POROSE	PROSE (with an obsolete definition ‘narrative’) including O.
24	GRANTS	RAN T in G&S.
25	CLOACA	CA = roughly (circa); *(coal). A cloaca, by extension from its meaning of ‘sewer’ etc. can mean ‘a sink of moral filth’.
26	OMERS	(Morse). An omer is a Hebrew dry measure containing about 2¼ litres, 0.1 epha; (with cap)* the seven-week period between the second day of Passover and the first day of Shavuoth, at the start of which an omer of grain or sheaf of corn is offered as a sacrifice.
28	ANGEL	NG in (ale).
30	QUAT	Hidden in ‘aquatints’. A dialect word for a pimple.

Posted in Azed | 6 Comments »

Azed 1876/Plain sailing

Posted by ilancaron on 18th May 2008

When I’ve finished writing this blog up, I’m going to count how many Scots terms there were in clues and answers — seemed like a lot but in any event this is going to be my baseline Azed Scots/English ratio from now on, and I’ll be reporting how each future puzzle rates. Actually not that many upon recount. Only 5. Perhaps I should add in non-UK terms (e.g. from S. Africa, Australia and America as well…)?

Across

1	FEE(DLO)T - old* in FEET.
6	SAROS - reverse hidden in “groupS, OR A Solo”. And it’s a Babylonian astronomical cycle — rather long (3600 years).
10	FIELDCRAFT - (Cliff rated)*
11	R,ON,C,A,DOR=rod* - it’s a fish (of the maigre family if that helps). Oh, obligatory cricket ref: ON is the “leg” side (as opposed to OFF which isn’t…).
13	DUCK - Seems like “I’ll join others in paddling” is there to disambiguate from the other option: DUNK since the N is unchecked. Other interpretations?
14	FUSTET - wouldn’t you know that if you take the alternate letters of “fouls street” you get… anyway, FUSTET is a type of sumach (a bushy tree kind of thingy…).
15	OR(VIE)TO - ref. the Italian wine (thus vino) and VIE (archaic “stake”) in root*.
17	NAUNT - it’s archaic Aunt according to C, thus “family member once”. Not sure about rest: “cutting on film-star Wayne”.
20	EAT=tea,ERIE - ref. Lake ERIE.
22	LEG,HORN - it’s a type of “straw hat” — and we have “on” being the LEG side again.
24	A,RIEN - French “has” is A (3rd person singular) and RIEN is nothing thus “love”. And ARIEN is ref. Aries the zodiac sign.
25	AUBADES - (USA abed). The dawn chorus.
28	F(INN)AC - INN in FAC[e] which is also “effrontery”. And FINNAC is a young sea trout.
30	R[ac]E,T[ens]E, first/last letter pairs of “race, tense”. It’s a neural network.
32	NULLANULLA - it’s an Aboriginal club and oddly enough NULLA (as nala) for gully shows up elsewhere as well (29D).
33	D(W)AAL - W (for wicket) in A,LAD. It’s S. African for a ’state of inattention’ (during which presumably you might miss a catch).
34	ESSEN,CE - turns out also a rather fine kind of Tokay wine.

Down

1	FORD,O - to “exhaust”.
2	ETOUDER=rerouted*,IE - from the French: “heedlessness or stupid blundering.”
3	DICKIE=”dicky” - “the driver’s seat in a carriage”.
4	LEAVE - hidden in “battLE AVErted”.
5	OLDSTER - (strol[l]er)* - exactly one L removed from “stroller”.
6	SCR(UNT)Y - nut * IN SCRY: 4 Scots terms in a single clue: SCRY for “practice crystal-gazing” (thus, observe), “unco” Scots superlative, SCRUNTY for stunted (Scots) meaning wanthriven, which is Scots for… stunted.
7	[h]ARMS - I suppose the def is “soldiering” as in an arm of the military — and “is ‘urting” is ‘arms.
8	R(APT,URE)D - APT=suitable and URE=archaic practice in RD.
9	ST,UTTER - I assume that ST is abbrev(stumped) (from cricket perhaps?) and it’s in the COD which I haven’t checked. Nice cricket surface though it must be said. Though unfortunately no mention of on or leg.
12	VENICE TALC - a type of soapstone: NICE in (lav etc)*
16	V(AGINUL)A - (A Luing)* in V,A[cre]. Hmm… interesting association of moss and vagina which I refuse to point out much less mention.
18	PLAFOND - rev(Fal) in POND. Turns out PLAFOND a term for an old version of the card game Bridge.
19	GO,NADA,L - while we’re on the subject of vaginas, might as well bring in the gonads as well. Spanish “nothing” is NADA.
21	AN,UR(O)US - didn’t know what ANUROUS nor acaudate meant until I looked them up: taillless. And URUS is an extinct wild ox.
23	WARLSE - (re laws)* — Scots wrestle which presumably is done at the Highland Games (along with eating hammers and throwing haggis).
26	BU(RL)S - R[ugby] L[eague] in BUS (coach) and turns out its an Australian term for “attempt, shot”, thus a go so the definition is “goes”.
27	SENTE - hidden in “preSENT Elections”: coin in Lesotho. However, not sure what role “inevitable” plays in: “Some change in Lesotho inevitable in present elections”.
29	NALA=rev(Alan) - ref. Alan Partridge - and NALA is a NULLA which we already know is a gully or stream.