Tag: 22+ pages of the Oxford English Dictionary crossword clue

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Constructed by: Alex Eylar
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: See These Clues

In today’s puzzles we clues referring to clues, in a very clever way:

• 17A. See 58-Across : TAUTOLOGY
• 58A. See 17-Across : TAUTOLOGY
• 25A. See 25-Across : RECURSION
• 36A. See 66-Across : A WILD GOOSE CHASE
• 46A. See ??-Across : AMBIGUITY

Bill’s time: 12m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16. Frequent van Gogh setting : ARLES

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

17. See 58-Across : TAUTOLOGY
(58A. See 17-Across : TAUTOLOGY)

“Tautology” is one of my favorite words. It describes needless repetition, the redundant use words to convey the same message perhaps in the same sentence.

20. Calculator button : SIN

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are secant, cosecant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.

25. See 25-Across : RECURSION

When something refers to itself, it is said to be recursive, self-referential.

31. Paid (up) : PONIED

“To pony up” means “to pay”. Apparently the term originated as slang use of the Latin term “legem pone” that was once used for “money”. “Legem Pone” was the title of the Psalm that was read out on March 25 each year, and March 25 was the first payday of the year in days gone by.

32. General ___ (“Superman” villain) : ZOD

General Zod is a supervillain and enemy of Superman of DC Comics. Zod is from Krypton, Superman’s home planet, so the two have many of the same superpowers. Zod appeared in the movies “Superman” and “Superman II”, and was played by English actor Terence Stamp.

33. Prefix with gendered : CIS-

The term “cisgender” is now used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

36. See 66-Across : A WILD GOOSE CHASE

Looking for 66-across? That would be a wild goose chase, as it doesn’t exist.

40. 22+ pages of the Oxford English Dictionary : SET

The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

41. Kind of look with bangs and eye shadow : EMO

The emo musical genre originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from “emotional hardcore”. “Emo” is also the name given to the associated subculture. Not my cup of tea …

“Bangs” is another word that caught me out when I arrived in the US. “Bangs” back in Ireland are called “a fringe”. Apparently the US term is derived somehow from the hair on horses.

43. City light : NEON

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

50. Application fig. : SSN

Social Security number (SSN)

52. ___ Rohmer, French New Wave director : ERIC

Éric Rohmer was a French film director, critic and journalist. He was regarded as one of the French New Wave filmmakers, along with François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

61. Gig gear : AMPS

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

63. Snookums : TOOTS

The term of endearment “snookums” comes from the family name “Snooks”. Snooks was a name used in Britain in the 1800s for some hypothetical, unknown individual (as we would use the name “Joe Blow” today).

Down

2. Smoothie fruit : ACAI

Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

4. Wile E. Coyote prop : TNT

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Wile E. Coyote was created first, and Road Runner was invented as someone for Wile E. to play off. I love this cartoon; definitely one of the best …

7. Wake-up call? : BUGLE

“Reveille” is a trumpet call that is used to wake everyone up at sunrise. The term comes from “réveillé”, the French for “wake up”.

9. What you might see the big game on : SAFARI

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

10. “Survivor” host Jeff : PROBST

Jeff Probst is the highly successful host of the US version of the reality show “Survivor”. He is obviously a friendly guy, and ended up in a 3-year relationship with Julie Berry, one of the contestants from “Survivor: Vanuatu”.

11. Often-questionable account : ALIBI

“Alibi” is the Latin word for “elsewhere” as in, “I claim that I was ‘elsewhere’ when the crime was committed … I have an ‘alibi’”.

12. Quartet member : CELLO

A standard string quartet is made up of two violins, a viola and a cello. A string quintet consists of a standard string quartet with the addition of a fifth instrument, usually a second viola or cello.

13. German steel city : ESSEN

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

27. Application figs. : GPAS

Grade point average (GPA)

28. Host Mike of “Dirty Jobs” and “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” : ROWE

Mike Rowe is the host of the successful reality show called “Dirty Jobs” that is broadcast by “Discovery Channel”. Rowe is also a spokesperson for Ford Motor Company in a series of television commercials. He is quite the singer too, as he sang professionally with the Baltimore Opera for a while.

37. Upscale hotel chain : OMNI

Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Irvine, California and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

38. Brand trusted by “cooks who know” : CRISCO

The Crisco brand of shortening was the first shortening to be made entirely from vegetable oil. Although that sounds like a good thing, it’s actually made by hydrogenating vegetable oil so that it has physical properties similar to the animal shortening it was designed to replace. This hydrogenation turns good fats into bad fats, so medical professionals suggest limited intake.

45. Options on an IHOP table : SYRUPS

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests!

47. Celeb chef Batali : MARIO

Mario Batali is an American celebrity chef who specializes in Italian cuisine. He is often referred to as “Molto Mario”.

48. Exclamation that’s also the name of a cable channel : BRAVO!

To express appreciation for a male performer at an operatic performance, traditionally one calls out “bravo!”. Appreciation for a female performer is shown by using “brava!”, and for more than one performer by using “bravi!”

49. Latin lover’s phrase : TE AMO

“I love you” translates into “te amo” in Spanish, and into “je t’aime” in French.

56. Pioneering 1990s computer game : MYST

In the days when I played the occasional video game, the best of the bunch was undoubtedly Myst. It is a game full of puzzles with the player wandering through a beautifully-designed (for its day) interactive world.