Comments on: The Confusions from DA’s 4th of 2010

By: RB

RB — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:30:44 +0000

Or was that A for Ace? Likewise J for Jack etc.

By: RB

RB — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:27:27 +0000

OK, Ian, that’s a pretty convincing list of well known abbreviations which use U=United. I feel better about it now. Thank you.

I’ve always been OK with the Bridge (and Chess) abbreviations. BTW shouldn’t that be D (diamonds), not A.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:47:31 +0000

Abbreviations are OK if they are sufficiently common. U for united crops up in UN, USA, UK, UAR. U for union is often used, and again it mainly appears in combination, as in CFMEU, USSR, ACTU. I can’t think of an instance where either is used independently, but they are hallowed by long use, and sorry RB, they are both in the dictionary. All dictionaries.

AG, you mention C for club. Check the bridge column in you paper. Here you will find A, C, H and S, all perfectly reasonable.

I assume your nontrivial wordplay on an indirectly referenced word would be like being given CAT, having to guess OCELOT, and being expected to anagram that. The indirect anagram is an example of what is generally accepted as being against the rules.

By: RB

RB — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:37:33 +0000

Can’t quite get my head around your pet peeve, AG. Have you got an example?

By: AG

AG — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:35:47 +0000

RB:
The point you raise is a sound one. While happy with U in this case, I occasionally grimace at the use of some single-letter abbreviations.

Exactly what makes them acceptable? At first it seemed that it hinges on the frequency with which the abbreviation is encountered. I was happy with U at the time – thought of it and used it to get the answer – yet if a setter tried on the equally common C for “club” or “council” I wouldn’t buy it. In this case I think it was helped by the fact that “United” was capped because it started the clue, and maybe that “Man U” isn’t just a normal initialism.

In the end, it’s a personal thing, just like how close a synonym has to be to be fair (cf. raise/promote), or nontrivial wordplay with indirectly referenced words not present in the clue (a pet peeve of mine).

By: RB

RB — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:50:54 +0000

Still mulling over U=united. Should I roll over on this just because UN is the well known abbreviation for United Nations? To do so would imply that I should accept N as an abbreviation for “nations”. And P for “prevention”, C for “cruelty”, A for “animals”. And I’m not ready for that. Thankfully, our Aussie setters don’t employ as many abbreviations as the UK ones do.

By: RB

RB — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:41:05 +0000

Peter, thank you. I’ll buy that. U for United as in UN. That’s better than my example of ManU. Like you, I try to do DA without external help. But I always have a few things to check or confirm afterwards! Such as (this week) Grimaldi, Benjamin Button, Futurama, Ireland.

Further to my promote=raise query, I’ve relented on this one to a large extent, as I considered this usage: to promote/raise awareness of something.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:44:55 +0000

I thought that the U for united was fair, as in United Nations.
There was certainly enough information there not to need a dictionary.
The challenge for me is to complete DA without resorting to any aids such as dictionary or google.

By: RB

RB — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:13:57 +0000

Ian: I dislike the over reliance on a single central authority. In the case of single-letter abbreviations, I just don’t like them. I’m not saying they are wrong; I’m not making an authoritative pronouncement. OK, I’m comfortable with the better known ones (t=time, m=male, c=century/about, etc etc), but not the arcane ones. The list in Chambers is huge: have you memorised the list or do you look them up as required? I have two objections: first, I feel it’s a copout on the part of the setter who has a letter left over and seeks the easy way out; second, I like to solve clues using my own wits and brainpower, so the fewer reference sources required, the better. And it seems such a pity to have to consult a reference source for a single letter!

I specifically wrote “no Chambers apologias please” (knowing full well that Chambers enthusiasts would ignore this request!) because I wanted to see if anyone could come up with a usage better than my unsatisfyingly narrow example (ManU = Manchester United). If someone does, I may change my mind on this particular U=united abbreviation.

Ian again: I said promote=raise didn’t seem quite right to me. It wasn’t the preposition aspect that bothered me. It was the normal usage, as in promoting a cause (you wouldn’t say “raising a cause”). Or raising the profile of something (you wouldn’t say “promoting the profile”). Or raising an issue (not quite the same as promoting it). If you can think of something which can be raised or promoted (without any change of meaning), I’ll be happy. It’s only a very minor quibble, anyway.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:55:06 +0000

JG:
14a: Grange = farm, “close to” (as a verb) = seal. So we have F(A L SEAL)ARM.
RB:
U for united is quite OK. You mention Chambers only to dismiss it, but like it or not, it’s the most-used authority in crosswords and scrabble. The relevent entry is:
“U or U. abbrev: unionist; united; universal, (a certificate designating) a film that people of any age are allowed to see; university.” Similar definitions are in Collins and our own Macquarie.
Raise = promote is also fine. Look up raise in the dictionary and you get “to cause to rise”, “to make higher or greater”, “to advance” and “to elevate”, all without need of a preposition.