Keeping the judges honest

Judging the competition entries always results in much discussion around words and meanings. Sometimes things get a little heated, but we always come to a decision and are as kind as we can be, while still being fair to all entrants. This month’s entries provided much brain-stretching for our team.
At 1dn in the Goliathon ‘Originated’ was BEGAN but a few entries had BEGUN. Testing out our lexicological abilities, we realised that in an example such as ‘Language may have originated in Africa/ Language originated in Africa’ BEGUN and BEGAN replace the single word ‘originated’ – so both answers were okay.
The clue at 10dn ‘Widely’ wanted BROADLY. However quite a few entries had GREATLY. As greatly can mean extensively and widely can mean largely, we had to admit that, while in general use the two words are different, there is enough overlap that it was also acceptable for this clue.
Another dilemma arose at 3dn ‘Hanker after’. We wanted CRAVE and most of you had this but CHASE appeared a few times. Looking up ‘hanker’ it definitely means ‘have a yearning for’ and so we only accepted CRAVE.
ELLIPTICAL means ‘Egg-shaped’ (123dn). Eclipsis is a rare word for ellipsis, but this is unrelated to the shape. It refers to an omission in a sentence or the three dots that indicate this (…). We often use ellipses in our clues. The entries that had ECLIPTICAL for 123dn were unfortunately incorrect.
The Bigcash was not without its pitfalls. ‘Ponder’ at 9ac suggested CONCENTRATE to some of you. This seemed okay until you came to 12dn ‘Slowly removed, … out’ which was PHASED. To make all fit you had to come up with CONTEMPLATE for 9ac.
UTILISE and UTILIZE were both fine for ‘Put to work’ (77ac) but you needed NEWSMEN, not NEWSMAN, for 32dn ‘Journalists’. ‘Maintains positively’ at 56ac was ASSERTS not ASSENTS, which means ‘agrees’.
At 8dn in The Demon was the clue to a ‘Textured upholstery cloth’ that many of you had not heard of. The answer was DIMITY, a word that comes from Medieval Latin, origi­nally from the Greek di- ‘two’
and mitos ‘thread’, i.e. double-threaded. The cloth has fine raised cords or ribs running as stripes, squares or diamond patterns on the warp. It was originally silk or wool but is now made of cotton. This pretty fabric and dainty word have inspired some to call their baby girls, Dimity. Perhaps there is a Dimity amongst our puzzlers.
At 69ac ‘Knave’ needed the answer VARLET. A couple of entries had HARLOT, which we immediately thought incorrect. However we always check alternative answers in a few sources and to our surprise under ‘harlot’ in Oxford, the original meaning is listed as a ‘promiscuous woman or man’. It comes from the French for knave or vagabond, so we had to concede that this answer was, while borderline, now acceptable.
The ‘Gated canal sections’ at 28dn were LOCKS not LOCHS and ‘Fertilised ova’ at 77ac was ZYGOTES not ZYGOTIS.
The ‘Medieval outer petticoat’ at 119dn was a KIRTLE. A few of you had found this as KYRTLE, so we accepted that also. For men the kirtle was a knee-length tunic but for women it was a full-length garment. As a petticoat it was worn by upper class women over a chemise, with a formal gown over the top. For the less well-off, a kirtle would have been worn as a dress.
Where else would you come across so many wonderful words?