Toff

Toff – ‘a rich or upper class person’.

University dress includes an academic cap, or mortarboard, with a black tassel. At Oxford and Cambridge from around the 1600s the titled young undergraduates began to wear gold tassels, known as tufts, as a mark of their superior status.

As often happens with language, the word’s usage was extended to the young men themselves. It gradually shifted to tofts and by the mid-1800s was toffs. It became a slang word used by the working class for the upper class, or for someone who dressed smartly, as an aristocrat might.

The nowadays rarely-heard tuft hunter, for a sycophant or toady, has its origins here too. A tuft hunter was someone who followed, flattered and fawned before these young noblemen.

Colossus Crosswords 140 - Gremlin

 The Knowledge - Page34

The clue 1dn should indicate (3,8) not (3,7).

Thanks to Christine Lucas, of Pine Mountain, Qld, for alerting us to this numbering error.

CodeCracker Starhunts 66 - Gremlin

 Acrostic 1 - pg9

The clue at S should read ‘Monday’s child is … (4,2,4)’ rather than ‘Tuesday’s child is … (4,2,4)’.

Thanks to Robyn Mays, of Blackmans Bay, Tas, for alerting us to this error.

Holiday Collection 80 - Gremlin

 Collection Contest  - pg 4

Clue 88dn reads ‘Confectionson sticks’  but should have a space so that it reads ‘Confections on sticks’.

Thanks to Pam Bendle, of  Heathmont, VIC, for alerting us to this little gremlin!

BIG Crossword 1 - pg 17

Clue 94 Down: ‘Eurpoean plane manufacturer’ should be ‘European plane manufacturer’.

Thanks to K Rankin.

Handy Cryptic Crosswords 36 - Gremlin

 Cryptic Castle 3 pg 71

Clue 3 is incorrect and should read ‘Is leaving top side out at bus terminus’.

Thanks to Paul Coughlin, of Alice Springs, who alerted us to this error.

Handy Fill-Ins 60 - gremlin

 Triplets - pg 23

In the list of three-letter word parts PUP should be CUP.

Thanks to Toni Maizey, of Maryborough, Qld, for spotting this incorrect letter.

Flavour of the month

Meaning: Something temporarily in fashion – akin to a ‘one-hit wonder’.

This relatively recent expression comes from American advertising posters of the 1930s. It became popular with ice cream companies who saw a flavour-of-the-month as a great marketing idea. Often the featured flavour would be offered at a reduced price to encouraged customers to part with their money.

This expression is used often now in a derogatory way for a celebrity considered overrated. The phrase suggests that a meteoric rise to fame is most likely to be quickly followed by a meteoric fall.

Send to Coventry

If you send someone to Coventry, you ignore them or ostracise them from your group. It is form of a playground bullying and also used to punish strike-breakers.

Why Coventry?

During the English Civil Wars of the 1640s, Cromwell sent Royalist soldiers to be imprisoned in this cathedral city in Warwickshire, England. They were shunned by the locals who didn’t want them there. This is suggested as the origin of the expression.
Another theory is that it was troops who were billeted in the town that were unwelcome and ostracised.

The phrase appears in Enid Blyton’s school stories where sending a girl to Coventry is the ultimate punishment.

Another example is Charles Dodgson, who was ‘sent to Coventry’ by the Liddell family for unknown reasons, thought people speculated that it had something to do with his relationship with young Alice.

Colossus 136 - The Judge Sums Up

Stows away
in the shop
Let’s start with clue 169dn in the Stinker, which was a little ambiguous. ‘Stores’ suggests a few different answers including two that fitted the spaces on our grid; the noun SHOPS, places you buy things, or the verb STOWS, stashes away. We accepted both answers.
One of the world’s endangered animals is a Himalayan creature called a Hispid Hare. The hare is so named because of its bristly coat. Stinker clue 72ac was ‘Covered with bristles’ and needed HISPID as the answer. HISUID and HISHID were incorrect.
At 63dn the ‘Dramatist’ was ‘BERTOLT Brecht’ not BERTOIT or BERTORT. This German playwright and poet is perhaps best remembered for his collaboration with Kurt Weill on the satirical musical, The Threepenny Opera. One of the songs from the show, the murder ballad known as Mack The Knife, has been recorded many times since its creation in the 1920s.
Intrepid is a word that is quite well-known; an intrepid explorer is one who is fearless even while facing unknown dangers. The word comes from the Latin trepidus meaning alarmed or anxious and so the lesser-known TREPID was the answer to 35dn ‘Quaking’. TREVID and TREMID
were incorrect.
‘Jot’ was the clue at 87ac and while a simple little word, it did cause some trouble. Jot means to write down quickly and briefly. By extension it means a little bit, especially in the phrase, “I don’t care a jot”. WHIT has a similar meaning and was the answer we were looking for. CHIT means a voucher for food or drink, a memorandum, or an impudent girl.
For 136dn ‘Kin’ both RELATIVES and RELATIONS seemed to be suitable, but only RELATIVES would fit with 186ac APE for ‘Tailless primate’.
At 76dn the clue ‘Do penance’ needed EXPIATE. The second part of expiate shares its Latin root word pius with pious, which we might clue as ‘devout’ or ‘reverent’. EXPLANE, is unfortunately not a word , perhaps those who opted for this were thinking of EXPLAIN.
A few simple spelling errors to note include CHARLATON, which needed to be CHARLATAN for ‘Quack’ at 15ac, INADVERTANT, which needed to be INADVERTENT for ‘Unwitting’ at 129dn and USERER, which needed to be USURER for ‘Greedy moneylender’ at 291dn.
Over in the Giant Cryptic and 61dn was ‘Centre area of club is a candy store? (5,4)’. The answer was SWEET SPOT, the clue containing two meanings. A sweet spot on a golf club, tennis racquet or bat is the centre area from where the most effective shots are made. A sweet spot could also be a place to sell ‘candy’. A couple of entries had SCENT SPOT.
We had a lot of discussion about 63ac as many different answers appeared in entries including IFS, ITS and ILS. The ins and outs of something are the intricacies or details, so INS was the answer to ‘Half of the finer details’.
In Cashwords entries we noticed quite a few blank squares. This can easily happen when you leave a letter to check the spelling in a dictionary and then forget to go back and fill it in. It’s a shame to do all the work of filling in the answers to then be disqualified for one or two blank squares. So, a friendly reminder from our judges to recheck your entries before posting.
‘Narrow river crossing’ at 1dn was FORD not FEED and ‘Unlatch’ at 157ac was UNBOLT not UNBELT.
‘Be an omen of’ at 61ac needed BODE not MODE, RODE or CODE. I could say that this didn’t bode well for the rest of the Cashwords, but that would seem a bit cruel!
There were two acceptable spellings at 132dn. ‘Car’s petrol-mixing device’ was either CARBURETTOR or CARBURETTER.
‘Soundest of mind’ at 71ac was SANEST not SAFEST and 141dn ‘Happiest’ was CHEERIEST, not CHEEKIEST. For both these answers I am reminded of that strange idiom, ‘close but no cigar’, meaning your worthy efforts unfortunately fall just short and receive no reward.
The expression, which was used in the 1935 film of Annie Oakley, apparently comes from a time in the US when cigars were given out as fairground prizes.
I’m sure you eager-beavers are all as keen as mustard to tackle the next lot of contests. May you fare well in your quest for the sweet smell of victory!

BIG Crossword December - The Judge Sums Up

Flying through
the clues
We were faced with a bit of a dilemma in the Bigcash. The usual English spelling for ‘Small handbill’ is FLYER but quite a few entries had FLIER. This is more common in American English, but as it is a variant spelling and does appear in some dictionaries, we had to accept it as correct as well at 10ac.
A couple of other acceptable alternatives should also be mentioned. For 56dn ‘Medicinal inhaler’ both VAPORIZER and VAPORISER were okay and at 93ac ‘Cruel wisecracks’ could be GIBES or JIBES.
‘Argue’ at 14dn was DEBATE not DEBASE and ‘Strain’ at 17dn needed EXERT not ELECT or ERECT.
For 24ac ‘Perplexed’ only BAFFLED was correct. BAFFLES was the wrong tense. Similarly, 28ac ‘Carved into shape’ needed HEWED and not HEWES. 29dn ‘Judges’ was DEEMS not SEEMS.
A couple of entries misspelt HUSTLE at 28dn as HUSSLE and one or two of you opted for JOCKIES instead of the correct JOCKEYS for 82dn, ‘Horse riders’. JOCKIES made 109ac incorrect as well.
The word jockey comes from the Scottish name Jock, a colloquial equivalent of John. As far back as the 16th century the name was used to mean ‘a boy or fellow’ (compare the English Jack the lad, Jack of all trades, Jack tar etc.). Like most words, the path it took to reach the usage we now know, is not clear, but Jock gained use as a word for horse dealers and trickster and jockey was adopted for a person who rode a horse in a race around 1670.
Over in The Demon both AMEND and EMEND were accepted for ‘Revise’ at 73ac. For 82dn ‘Street vendors’ we wanted PEDLARS but also had to accept the US spelling PEDLERS, which appears in dictionaries. Not surprisingly in this age of computers and global industries English and American spellings are getting closer and there is more overlap. Most so-called American spellings have a long history in English anyway, from the time before Samuel Johnson put together his prescriptive English dictionary in 1755 followed by Noah Webster’s American version in 1828.
Another unexpected alternative answer was spotted at 97dn. For ‘Stretcher’ we wanted LITTER but a few entries had LIFTER. We first considered this incorrect, but in checking various dictionaries, a lifter was defined as ‘a person or thing that lifts’ and so we had to agree that by our definition of what a clue is, we had to accept that answer as well.
We did not accept TONG in answer to 36dn ‘Chinese dynasty’. You needed TANG. TONG is a word but describes a Chinese secret society.
Your Goliathon entries were almost error-free. Congratulations!
The few small errors noticed by our judges included INCER at 13dn instead of the correct INCUR for ‘Become liable for’ and TEEMED at 106dn instead of TEAMED for ‘Combined forces, … up’.

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