On the menu – Colossus Crosswords 215 Contests

Have you ever wondered why a ‘Shellfish soup’ is called a BISQUE (Stinker 286ac)? Well I have, so I embarked on some research and still don’t really know. It is the case with many words that their origins are more the stuff of theory than fact.

The Oxford dictionary has simply – origin French ‘crayfish soup’. I found two versions of where bisque originated: from the French bis cuites ‘twice cooked’ or from the cuisine of the Bay of Biscay, which lies between France and Spain.
Perhaps the reality is that both are connected, as seafood abounds in the Bay of Biscay and the soup is twice cooked, once to make the stock and then to make the final soup.

Biscuit comes from bis cuites, as biscuits were a two-step process, baked and then baked again on a low heat to dry them out so they kept longer. In pottery, bisque, or biscuit, describes a piece of pottery fired but unglazed.

Another couple of Stinker words coming from French were at 207ac ‘Alto oboe, cor ANGLAIS’ and 217ac ARRIVISTES for ‘Upstarts’.

The cor anglais is also known as an English horn, but it is neither English nor a horn. The instrument has a horn-like curved shape and the name is thought to have been originally cor angle (bent horn) and somewhere along the way it changed – as language does!

Arrivistes seems more straight-forward coming from arrive. An arriviste is a person who metaphorically wants to arrive, that is, make a grand entrance.

Imp, scamp, rascal and little devil can all be ways of describing a ‘Boisterous child’ but none were the answer to Stinker clue 62ac. For this you needed HELLION, which sounds like a cross between a big feline and a place of eternal fire and torment! The word’s origin is unclear but it could be a useful addition to your vocabulary if you have any young hellions in your life.

A couple of small errors to note; 9dn ‘Physical strength’ was BRAWN not BRAIN which is mental strength. Edward the CONFESSOR (not CONFESSER) was the founder of Westminster Abbey at 124dn. Similarly at 1ac TRAITOR was correct for ‘Double-crosser’. A couple of you had TRAITER.

Churlish is a word quite well known but CHURL less so. It was the answer to ‘Boor’ in the Baffler but a few entries had THURL.

The WWII tank unit was PANZER not PANDER and some of our non-gambling puzzlers had trouble with ‘Baccarat card holder’ which was SHOE not SAFE or SALE. For any who have been to a casino dare I say it was a shoo-in?

In the Giant Cryptic contest 58dn was a clue split into two parts. ‘Tribe’ – CLAN, accepts ‘sovereign’ – KING gives you CLANKING for ‘armour rattling’. CLANGING was incorrect. 59dn was a clue using two meanings giving the answer STICK OUT – ‘Project’ and ‘last the distance’. STUCK OUT was incorrect as was STAND OUT.

Finally to the Cashwords and the trickiest word appears to have been at 296ac in answer to the clue ‘Tatty’. This is a hard clue for TAWDRY which means showy and gaudy but also of poor quality and Collins dictionary gives tawdry as one of the meanings of tatty. We did not accept TIDDLY nor any of the misspellings such
as TARDRY.

A couple of small errors found in the Cashwords were ANNAM instead of ANNUM at 72ac and 103dn was VIRILITY not VIRILATY.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy, prosperous and puzzling
New Year. We’ll do our very best to find some new and interesting words for you to uncover throughout 2010.