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growf 😊accomplished
October 12 2006, 14:06
Listens: None
I can't imagine many of you are cryptic crossword nuts but one clue in today's Times Cryptic Crossword was a doozy - and terribly clever with it.
24A What old Scandinavian rings mean (3-5)
With all the other clues completed, the letters were:
O _ E _ O _ _ E
The Times Cryptic's clues typically follow a standard construction: half of the clue represents the definition and the other half represents the cryptic construction. There are other forms (two definitions of the same word, whole clue is construction and definition, straightforward pun, etc.) but this clue has the classic form.
Old is mainly used to clue the single letter O:
O or O. abbrev Ohio (US state); old; ordinary.
Scandinavian brought to mind the word NORSE:
Norse adj Norwegian; ancient Scandinavian.
What took an age to realise was that rings was a construction clue meaning that the letters clued by old Scandinavian surrounded another word - and the only way that was possible was:
O N E _ O R S E
That meant I was missing a two-letter word, starting with E meaning either what or mean.
eh interj expressing inquiry, failure to hear or slight surprise.
So the answer is:
O N E H O R S E
But why? The only word left to provide the definition was mean. Again, it took a long time before the phrase one-horse town occurred to me. Sure enough:
one-horse adj drawn by a single horse; (of a place) poor, mean, lacking amenities.
An evil, but perfectly formed, clue - and all solved (and LiveJournalled) whilst I should have been working.