Times Quick Cryptic No 3216 by Dangle

CROTCHET is a 15th century word for a “staff with a hook on the end”, which definition also applies to the tool used in crochet work (both the handicraft and the surgical instrument). Both words are diminutives of croc “hook”, from which we get the shepherd’s crook.

Its figurative use in musical notation for “quarter note” is from the shape of the notes.

Example: She decided to commit/devote more time to improving her piano playing.

Lance ARMSTRONG achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his titles in 2012 after an investigation into doping allegations found that ARMSTRONG used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

‘Outsider’ as in someone with an outside chance of doing well

In internet terms, a MEME is an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.

The word was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in “The Selfish Gene” (1976) as follows: “We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme… It should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream’.“

Believe to have originated from the Latin ninnus meaning “fool, simpleton” and likely evolved through Italian dialects.

This 13th century insult to a “base or low-born rustic” (ultimately from Medieval Latin villanus “farmhand”, from villa “country house, farm”), was attested in English by the late 14th century as a bondsman, the lowest class of unfree persons under the feudal system, hence generally and in contempt, “one low-born, a commoner lacking a gentleman’s manners.”

By the mid-16th century, this had sharpened to “scoundrel, man capable of gross wickedness,” which was also sometimes used humorously or affectionately. The meaning of “character in a novel, play, etc. whose evil motives or actions help drive the plot” is from 1822.

The word GINSENG originates from the Chinese term “rén shēn” (人蔘), which literally means “root of the man.” This name reflects the shape of the ginseng root, which often resembles the human body.

The definition refers back to the previous clue.