Another thumbs down from me, as dictionaries have no evidence that livery means disagreeable. I think this comes from “liverish” which means disagreeable, so maybe a Liveryman is really a Liverish-man. Member of City guild - a disagreeable chap? (9) Although I do know that BRILLIANTINE was used as the French title for the film Grease in Quebec And the unchecked initial letter made an F for fine very tempting. INPUT – IN (fashionable) + PUT (place, as in the verb)įine diamond, possibly, in English hair oil (12)īRILLIANTINE – BRILLIANT (Diamond possibly) + IN + EĪnother pretty obscure word. Not sure about this, I’ve always used “lamp”.Ī Liberal bar, one attracting a European state (7)ĪLBANIA – A + L + BAN (bar) + I + A “The plain-song or canto-fermo in old church music”(OED). I’ve sung in choirs my whole life and never heard this word. And finally, LA is just as much “the french” as LE, so Cantilana was perfectly acceptable. NHO this word, and Cantina itself is pretty obscure. Spanish wine shop accommodating the French vocal style (9)ĬANTILENA – CANTINA (Spanish wine shop) contains LE (the French) Laughing out loud with accountant in pub (5) SAMBA – SA (South America) + A + MB (Doctor)Īlways need to make sure to discount the Rumba when a 5 letter word for dance contains a doctor. Had to go back to this.ĭance a doctor introduced to South America (5) I had RIGHTEOUS here because it fitted the checkers. I went into this one backwards, seeing Net, but then having to think about Lynette, Janette.ĮRR – Contained in (“some) improp er responseĪccuracy of intelligence, abandoning leading bishop! (9) Think of “plat du jour”, plate of the day.ĪNNETTE – ANTE (stake, as in betting) containing NET (mesh) This required quite a bit more knowledge of French Grammar than the usual Le, La, Un and Une. Part of bedding of the French surgeon (5)ĭUVET – DU (French for ‘of the’) + VET (surgeon) KALEIDOSCOPE – Anagram of (spooked alice)* He imagined that Oscar Hammerstein just wrote “a note to follow Sol” and thought he would have another look at it later, but never got round to it.ĭefinitions underlined in bold italics, ( Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and other indicators.Ĭhild’s toy spooked Alice, unfortunately (12) Douglas Adams noted that in the song “Doe a deer”, the line “La, a note to follow Sol” should be considered a placeholder. Octopuses is such an example, with Octopi being a hypercorrection. Style guides now frown on creating new Latin plurals, especially for words like EUCALYPTUS which are really Greek and only became Latin to fit with Linnaean naming. Most botanicals have Latin roots, and could provide endless obscurities for crosswords, do we have to look out for a gapanthi, hydrangeae and chrysanthema? I could pick on several clues that I didn’t like, but I’ll just vent about EUCALYPTI. Some of the clues and vocabulary are Mephisto level. Not sure what Orpheus is trying to do here. If you thought yesterday’s QC was tough, this was the hardest QC I’ve ever seen.
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