We had quite a few enquiries about clue 135ac in The Demon of our February BIG Crossword. And we agree this was a devilish clue – but we know you expect nothing less of us.
At 129dn ‘Gold leaf’ needed to be GILT and not GILD and at 124dn ‘Lingered (on)’ was DWELT, as in dwelt on an idea or thought. (“Ah!” do I hear you say?). Until you sorted out these two you could not get 135ac.
The answer to ‘Trumpet flourish’ can be found in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. In Act V there is the stage direction, [A tucket sounds], followed by Lorenzo’s words to Portia “Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:” So the elusive Demon word was TUCKET.
Some of you found SENNET as a trumpet call and this is true, but it did not fit. Also some queried 123dn ‘Know-all, smart …’ as you thought it should be ALEC but Collins Dictionary has ALECK.
That was a tricky spot, so well done if you unravelled all the answers. Though I think for some of you it proved more like a ‘Zen riddle’ – something to ponder, but unanswerable. ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ is a simple example of what a KOAN (2dn) is.
‘Upwardly mobile person’ does not mean someone taking off at an airport, but refers to those on the move in economic and social circles. It is a marketing term from the 80s that goes hand in hand with YUPPIE, the answer to 136ac. The U of yuppie can stand for either upwardly-mobile or urban. (The Y is ‘young’ and the P is ‘professional’). Other similar words followed in the media such as DINKs – Double Income No Kids and DEWKs – Double Employed With Kids – perhaps you know of others.
If you are ‘Spirited’ you are FEISTY but we agree with some of you that FRISKY is also a good answer. We did not think FLASHY was the same, however.
A sophist is a person who dazzles his audience with the aim to deceive or at least confuse. The answer to ‘False argument’ at 32dn was SOPHISM. You needed the P of this answer to make PITEOUS correct at 45ac ‘Wretched’.
The trickiest spelling in The Demon was perhaps at 43dn where ‘Jewish skullcap’ was YARMULKE (not YAMMULKE or YARMALKE). It can also be spelt YARMULKA but this did not fit in with UNMADE at 83ac.
A word that always causes confusion popped up at 102ac. ‘Indian Muslim nobleman’ needed the answer NAWAB to fit with GREAT WHITE shark, crossing it from 74dn. Some of you found this only as NABOB, which is a correct alternative, but unfortunately made 74dn wrong.
A couple of guesses at the shark included the GREAT BRIDE and also GREAT BAIZE.
In answer to Bigcash clue 91ac ‘Robe’ you needed GOWN. We had a few calls claiming gremlins, thinking we meant to put ‘Rope’ with the answer CORD. We were surprised at this, but were able to trace the problem back to 86dn ‘Plus’, where many of you opted for ADD but you needed AND (one plus one / one and one). Also for 75dn ‘Least’ you needed FEWEST and not MEREST. You will see that all then fitted in quite neatly.
FUSELAGE comes from the French fusele meaning spindle-shaped. FUSILAGE was incorrect for ‘Aircraft body’ at 11ac in the Goliathon.
Another couple of spellings to watch are TENTACLE not TENTICLE for ‘Octopus arm’ (131ac) and CORDUROY not CORDOROY for ‘Ribbed textile’ (160dn).
ABACK was in the Goliathon in answer to ‘Stunned, taken …’, but where did this strange-sounding phrase come from? The two words ‘a’ and ‘back’ were originally put together as nautical term describing the sails blown back onto the mast. Similar words are abeam, astern, aweigh and aboard. Now off a-puzzling you go!