About average difficulty this week, I’d say, with some very interesting bits and bobs of language in there.
I did have to cheat quite shamelessly to get AMICUS CURIAE and PRECISIVE, though they seem quite reasonable in retrospect.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | OFFSET – from SET OFF, with its component parts swapped. Quite a rare device, I think. |
| 5 | PALACE – (A + L) in (P + ACE). The L is a pound, and I learn that a sovereign does indeed have a nominal value of one pound. A nice &lit clue too. |
| 10 | BLOOTERED – LOOTER in BED. |
| 11 | EUROSTERLING – (OR TRUE SINGLE)*. |
| 14 | ACTA – T in ACA. |
| 15 | SIMAROUBA – SIMA + ARBOU[r]*. |
| 16 | MAIREAD – (A + IRE) in MAD. |
| 18 | ESNE – [d]ENSE<. |
| 19 | PING – N in PIG. A small message sent to test if a computer is responding. The response is, of course, a pong. |
| 20 | LIONCUB – ONCU[s] in LIB. “Oncus” appears to be Australian slang. |
| 22 | BILINGUAL – B[o]ILING + U + AL[l]. |
| 23 | LEFT – F[ish] in LET. |
| 26 | PREDIGESTION – REDEPOSITING*. |
| 27 | OVERREACT – RACE* in OVERT. |
| 28 | LEADED – [p]LEADED. |
| 29 | KAMEEZ – (ZEE + MAK[e])<. Familiar to me from once having lived above a shop that sold them. |
| Down | |
| 1 | OBEISM – E in (MOB IS)*. |
| 2 | FORAMINIFERA – FOR A + (MARINE + IF)*. |
| 3 | SOON – SO + ON. |
| 4 | TETH – hidden in [wri]TE TH[is]. A Hebrew letter. |
| 5 | PRELUDI – P + (I RULED)*. |
| 6 | AEROBIONT – O in BARITONE*. |
| 7 | AMICUS CURIAE – (Cu in Martin or Kingsley AMIS) + (A in Marie or Pierre CURIE). |
| 8 | CONTINUAL – CON + (U in LATIN*). |
| 9 | ENGAGE – ENG + AGE. |
| 12 | NIAISERIE – (A1 in SIN<) + Lake ERIE. |
| 13 | PRECISIVE – SICE< in PRIVE[t]. “Sice” is the six in various dice games. |
| 17 | ALLEGED – ALL + E[d]GED. |
| 19 | PALPAL – PAL + PAL. Compare “palpable”. |
| 21 | BLINTZ – [baco]N in BLITZ. |
| 24 | JERK – two definitions: search for contraband/spices. The former is derived from “jerque” and the latter is as in chicken. |
| 25 | STEM – two definitions: check/timeber support. |
5ac. Sovereign = pound. Of course! I actually knew that but didn’t make the connection when trying to parse that. Whereas in 13dn I didn’t know that sice = six. I could see the privet part but didn’t think to look up sice in Chambers (and I’d just bought the new edition). Thanks for the explanations.
Thanks S&B.
Dormouse, I too (alas) bought the new Chambers. 450 words (of the type used in advanced cryptics) are missing due to a mistake along the line. Apparently there will be a PDF of these on the Chambers website, but nobody knows when.
I’d not heard that. I’m still wondering why “taser” (as in a recent Inquisitor) was missing from the 12th edition when it was in earlier editions and is back in.
And I think I see what happened. There were a number of obscure words highlighted in the 12th edition, and they seem to have left those words out of the new edition.
Apparently there has been a dearth of management (during a changeover) during the production process. I think it was The Don who wondered whether the instruction ‘take out the highlighting’ might have been misinterpreted as ‘take out the highlighted’.
I certainly found the highlighting a bit of a mixed blessing. Certainly I found the words interesting, but often when looking for an answer I would miss a word because my eyes would skid over the highlighting without spotting the word.