ShopA lot of silly rubbish – Colossus 208
July 2, 2009 by The Judge
Filed under The Judge Sums Up
In the Stinker at 52ac ‘Swindler’ wanted FLIMFLAMMER as the answer. Flimflam is another word to add to the list above but also means swindle. According to our Collins its origin is probably in Scandinavia (Old Norse flim = mockery). We thought it was a great addition to our stock of words and hope you agree.
Another word for nonsense, TWADDLE was the answer to 8dn. According to Collins it was originally twattle, from twittle, in turn from tittle-tattle. And where did tittle-tattle come from? Tattle comes from Middle Dutch and means to gossip. If you have heard the expression ‘jot and tittle’ you will know tittle means a tiny amount – perhaps tittle-tattle is gossip of tiny meaning – or perhaps someone just liked the sound of it. If you had TWIDDLE then BIGAMY was incorrect as BIGIMY at 25ac.
All words were neologisms to start with. No matter how far we trace them back someone had to be the first to say them. NEOLOGISM was the answer to 89ac ‘Newly-coined word’.
So that you don’t think our crosswords are full of nonsense and gossip, let’s move on to 26ac where ‘Battle of Thermopylae’s victorious king’ was XERXES (not XERSES). Xerxes was the Persian king who raised a huge army to avenge his father Darius’ defeat by the Greeks at Marathon. The Battle of Thermopylae is remembered more for the dogged resistance put up by the outnumbered Greeks and 300 Spartans for the three days before their defeat. This famous last stand has been the subject of much literature and film.
I am sure many of you have visited the wonderful Stonehenge but did you know these amazing stones were fine examples of trilithons? A TRILITHON (234dn) is a structure with two upright stones holding a third across the top of them (Greek tri ‘three’ lithos ‘stone’).
BOLL for a ‘Cotton seed pod’ 111ac comes from a Dutch word for round and is related to the English word bowl. We did not accept BALL, which was at 218ac as ‘Debutantes dance’.
If you are in a crowded place, crammed in like sardines, it might be described as chocker – but why? Chock-a-block comes from the nautical world and describes when a block and tackle pulley is pulled as tight as possible until the two blocks are together. Chockfull is related, but which came first seems to be a bit like the chicken and egg debate. However what is clear is that CHOCKFULL, the answer to 125ac, is not someone full of chocolate!
At 171ac was a word that always seems to catch out a couple of you. ‘Satisfy (thirst)’ is SLAKE not SLATE or STAVE, which was at 100ac in answer to ‘Barrel strip’.
If at 263ac you put GLOAT instead of FLOUT for ‘Scornfully disobey’ you ended up with GASH instead of GUSH at 258dn for ‘Spurt’.
The top left-hand corner of the Baffler took some searching, as mentioned by Catherine Shaw on the letters page. The ‘Malaysian dish’ was LAKSA (a delicious spicy noodle soup). It was not easy to find, with no help on the the first and third letters from crossing words.
Sometimes clues can be ambiguous, often without us realising it, but in the Cashwords at 114ac this was not the case. MARINADE is the noun and answered ‘Soaking sauce’. MARINATE is the verb and the clue would have to be ‘Soak in sauce’.
The most common Cashwords error was at 132dn where ‘Bleeding disease’ was HAEMOPHILIA. So many vowels to misplace there!
Now on with the latest brain work-out. Enjoy!
