We know how much our readers love their puzzles. When a pursuit elicits such devotion, it is understandable that frustrations occasionally bubble to the surface. These bubbles of pent-up pique swell ominously, the filmy domes stretching and thinning. And then, with an audible pop, an email lands in my inbox.
A recent Polygon word puzzle caused the bubble of Philip Connolly, a digital subscriber, to burst quite dramatically. It was titled “More Odd Polygonisms” and concerned the acceptability of certain answers, starting with those we disallow for being plurals. It proceeded thus: “I would argue that measles is a singular noun — who’s ever heard of a measle? Also easel — why on earth is easel rejected? I know this must all seem trivial to you but if the puzzle is haphazard and there is no space for competitors to share their woes . . . Then it’s only a few steps to anarchy.”
Of course I can only agree that institutions such as puzzles in The Times are a bastion of modern civilisation and, like ravens at the Tower of London, the whole edifice may depend on their continued prosperity. Thankfully the Polygon puzzle is guarded by that doughtiest of beefeaters, Roger Phillips, who has set the puzzle since its inception.
It turned out that “easel” had in fact been allowed all along (although my elder daughter when young used to insist that the word didn’t exist, preferring to believe that artists created their masterpieces on “weasels” instead). Measles is a little more complex, however.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD) classes “measles” as a plural noun, and while the entry indicates that it is “treated as singular”, this has no bearing on its acceptability as a Polygon answer. Roger Phillips elaborates: “Polygon only takes account of the part of speech that a word is (according to the COD), not how it’s treated in a sentence. Thus measles is out (and measle isn’t in the COD), like butterflies, mumps, glanders, shingles and worms, while rabies and scabies are in.”
Advertisement
While this strict adherence to COD does throw up some unusual anomalies from time to time, using a widely available objective reference is far preferable, in my view, to subjectively deciding what should be in or out. That way anarchy lies.
The art of solving clues
The Times Crossword is, generally, an anarchy-free zone. Our cryptic crossword clues are governed by rules, which may allow some leeway for interpretation, but are largely precise, explicable and consistent with standard English grammar. However, there are certain long-established conventions that, really and truly, you just have to know — and until you do, confusion is likely to result. A case in point was provided by Toni Evans of Stoughton, Leicestershire: “I would like to point out that the French word ‘ès’ is increasingly being misused by crossword setters as a translation of the word ‘art’. It is a contraction of the words ‘en les’ simply meaning ‘in the’. So a ‘licence/doctorat ès lettres’ is a degree/doctorate in the arts, but equally a ‘licence/doctorat ès sciences’ means the equivalent in the sciences.”
Ms Evans is right that “ès” (with a grave accent) translates as “in the” rather than “art”. But that’s not what the crossword setters are getting at. They are actually referring to a different French word, accentless “es” as in “tu es”, which may be translated as “you are” or more relevantly “thou art”. So a setter may use a phrase such as “French art” (ie the French version of “art”) to lead to the letters “es”.
In honesty, this requires a greater knowledge of French than we would usually allow in a Times Crossword and the archaic nature of “art” is something we would tend to flag up or possibly avoid entirely in a construction like this. However, it is such a regular sight in crosswords that it has almost attained the status of a reassuring family friend for veteran solvers. And with enemies like our crossword setters, solvers can do with all the friends they can get. While we are in no hurry to add to our stock of crossword conventions, those that do exist have their place. They are part of the shared language that has made the crossword community so close-knit, enduring and, dare I say it, unconventional.
Perfect agreement
We can never please all the people all the time, but it’s nice to receive some acknowledgment of partial improvement at least. Back in October, Michael Fortescue, a Times Crossword solver, emailed as follows: “In today’s (Saturday) cryptic, the definition part of a clue was ‘northerner’, and the answer was ‘inuit’. ‘Inuit’ is a plural (singular ‘inuk’), so the definition should have been ‘northerners’.”
Advertisement
While the Times Crossword isn’t beholden to follow the strictures of our Style Guide, this was one area where the latter was followed to the letter: “Inuit is the singular and plural noun”, it avers. This recommendation is supported, for use outside Canada at least, by the Cambridge Guide to English Usage and several other reference works.
Having responded with a straight bat to Mr Fortescue, I was gratified to receive this magnanimous follow-up a few weeks later: “It would be churlish of me now not to acknowledge the erudition of the Times correspondent (David Crossland) in last Wednesday’s edition (November 24) who correctly wrote in a headline ‘Inuit . . . sue for compensation’. Covering the same story, the BBC News website had the ghastly solecism ‘ . . . Inuits seek compensation . . . ’, although it was later corrected.” Much like the noun and verb in the Times headline, we are in perfect agreement.
David Parfitt is puzzles editor
Rose Wild is away