Word of the day is BARAGOUIN just because its Chambers entry claims that it comes from the Breton (ie basically Welsh) “bara gwenn?!” which means “white bread?!”, due to Breton soldiers’ amazement that such a thing could possibly exist. How that becomes a synonym for meaningless gibberish I’m not quite sure, but it’s lovely. Runner up in this category is MONDEGREEN because I do enjoy a good mondegreen, for instance Elvis Costello’s classic 1979 song I Love A Zombie. If you’re one of the four people reading this blog, what’s your favourite mondegreen?
Some quite enjoyable cluing going on here too: 26dn is notable for having its definition part slap bang in the middle of the clue and requiring an inversion of the usual thought processes. But everything was fair and not too complicated. I do think having to shorten multiple three letter words into two letter particles is quite a hard task though – there are a lot of three letter words out there, if you’re hunting for the right one! But thanks to the setter for a uniformly enjoyable puzzle.
ACROSS
1 Knitter’s beginning to replace front of pullover with simple woollen fabric (10)
KERSEYMERE – K{nitter} to replace front of {j}ERSEY, with MERE
6 Prison bunk, both short and sweet, in Invercargill (4)
JUBE – JU{g} BE{d}
8 Pen once possessed by Mozart, a classicist recalled (8)
ALCATRAZ – hidden reversed in {mo}ZART A CLA{ssicist}
9 Aussie nipper’s reduced offer accepted by auction site in turn (6)
YABBIE – BI{d} accepted by EBAY reversed
10 Revered image of king in part of compound (4)
IKON – K in ION
11 Drug suitably absorbed by colourless mineral in kidney stones (10)
WHEWELLITE – E WELL absorbed by WHITE
12 Mount soldiers to front corporation’s war machine (9)
TORMENTUM – TOR MEN to front TUM
14 Possibly eight billion dried berries (5)
CUBEB – CUBE B
17 Teacher’s whiskey drunk by Laplander (5)
SWAMI – W drunk by SAMI
19 Moth circles round Washington’s chopper (3,6)
EGG BEATER – EGGER circles BEAT
22 Rough core from quarry in excavation is reviewed to find tree-like fossil (10)
SIGILLARID – ILL {qu}AR{ry}, in DIG IS reversed
23 Half-finished jumper with a pouch that’s warm to sleep on (4)
KANG – KANG{aroo}
24 Haunt a degenerate in a religious state? (6)
UTAHAN – (HAUNT A*) [“degenerate”]
25 A loss nearly burying quiet British guesthouse (8)
MINSHUKU – MINU{s} burying SH UK
26 Around noon, this nautical pulley is to be strung up (4)
SWIG – if you were to put the answer around N for noon, you’d get SWING, “to be strung up”.
27 Misheard words about 60 Minutes in Minnesota (10)
MONDEGREEN – ON DEGREE in MN
DOWN
1 Vancouver islanders with regular appearances in skiwear knit until start of summer (9)
KWAKIUTLS – {s}K{i}W{e}A{r} K{n}I{t} U{n}T{i}L + S{ummer}
2 Tool for scraping base element from upper atmosphere containing chlorine monoxide (7)
RACLOIR – {uppe}R + AIR containing ClO
3 Course deviation crossing road with old rod as a measure (8)
YARDWAND – YAW crossing RD, plus AND [with]
4 Hesitant words about unknown quantity that is unable to decide eg Nero’s origin story? (15)
ERZIEHUNGSROMAN – ERS about Z IE HUNG + ROMAN
5 Turtles get up to welcome brother Donatello at first (6)
EMYDES – SEE reversed, welcoming MY! D{onatello}
6 States, after the writer in French book, tree height in Morocco (5,4)
JEBEL MUSA – USA after JE B ELM
7 Water carrier wanting silence during work meeting (7)
BHISTEE – HIST during BEE
13 Mother and Mike selfishly keep little fish (9)
MUMMICHOG – MUM and MIC HOG
15 Gobbledygook in an attempt to stop airline bankruptcy (9)
BARAGOUIN – A GO to stop BA RUIN
16 Conformity of rating on island nightclub activity (8)
ABIDANCE – AB on I DANCE
18 Local maker of saddles shortened crop and upped power unit (7)
WHITTAW – WHI{p} + reversed WATT
20 European tug, craft from the south, shows small forest animal (7)
TRAGULE – E LUG ART reversed
21 Choice to get width of printing in completely filled space (6)
PLENUM – PLUM to get EN in
Edited at 2018-07-01 12:12 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the great blog!
beat noun
3 a : a regularly traversed round (see 3round 6a) · a cop patrolling her beat
and:
round noun
6 a : a route or circuit habitually covered (as by a security guard or police officer)
Edited at 2018-07-01 02:27 pm (UTC)