“Old with new”? Nonagenarian.
“Add thirds to halves”? Adultery.
“Wipe before washing”? Affront.
“Butcher shops closing day”? Armistice.
“Tripe or gut”? Kill.
“Empty the sinks and fill the bathtubs”? Intermission.
“Tube of red”? International.
“In the desert, but not on the sand”? Emir.
“Work of art and death”? Requiem.
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You will have noticed it with these few examples: whether or not you indulge in crosswords, it is difficult not to notice that certain definitions are close to the tops. Those who invent them form a kind of cheerful sect, a guild made up of French lovers and witty dingos. They are called verbicrucists – not to be confused with cruciverbists, who try to fill in the grids they have designed. They are only a handful and yet they have been delighting millions of players for a good century. It is true that, for the most part, the buggers have quite a talent and have been able to give this game its letters of nobility. It is no coincidence that well-known writers have indulged in it, from Tristan Bernard (“Follows the course of the rivers”? Diamond dealer) to Georges Perec (“He is indeed missing a leg”? Anputé).
Out of a sense of duty or pure masochism, verbicrucists force themselves to respect certain rules. Not that any professional order monitors them, but because there exists in this strange corporation a form of shared ethical awareness, a sense of honor that leads these men and women not to give in to ease. No question, for example, of multiplying the number of black squares at will. No question either of using unknown proper names (and yet, there must be a host of rivers in Outer Mongolia and New Guinea that would allow them to complete their task more quickly).
“Waist size” ? Skyscraper
To unravel the mysteries of creating a grid, I interviewed one of these craftsmen, Julien Soulié. He explained to me that we could group the definitions by categories, in particular these:
The ambivalence. “Waist size” ? Skyscraper. “Wardrobe ?” Freezer. “It’s him ?” Shines. “Intoxicated by tobacco”? Self-satisfied.
The pun. “Letters and neon”? Taught. “Peaks and peaks and passes and dramas”? Mountaineering. “This good dough suggests that Wolfgang has arrived”? Mozzarella.
Paronyms (words with different meanings, but similar in form): “Conversation or conservation”? Interview.
Hyphens. “Viceroy”? Immorality. “Curfew” ? Shroud.
Disambiguation. “The torture of the stake”? Insomnia. “Cash advance”? Swim.
Francophonie. “Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, but only for Belgians and Swiss”? Ninety-three.
Truncation. “Little crescent”? Teen.
According to Julien Soulié, this taste for witticisms is particularly marked in France. Because in this area too, each country has its own traditions. The Americans forbid two-letter words and prefer square grids (while ours are sometimes rectangular). Among the British and Australians, the black boxes can represent up to half of the total. Italians like very large formats. In Spain, “double letters” like he occupied a single square for a long time, before the rule changed in 1994…
“Mysterious Mosaic”
Tribute, therefore, to the inventor of this game, a journalist of English origin named Arthur Whynne who published on December 12, 1913 the very first crossword puzzles in history in the supplement to the New York World, in the USA. Under the name “Mosaic Mysteries”, they were copied in France on November 9, 1924 by the weekly Sunday-Illustrated, soon imitated by Gallic And The Excelsior.
The success has not been denied since, to the point that this a priori innocent pastime almost… cost the life of the person in charge of the dedicated section of the Daily Telegraph, during WWII. A few days before D-Day, an officer discovered with horror that the charts he was publishing referred to the code names chosen for the operation: Utah, Omaha, Overlord, etc. Neither one nor two: Leonard Dawes was interrogated for a long time – and brutally – by the soldiers, who ended up releasing this English teacher, convinced that it was a matter of pure chance. Wrong? The episode, it seems, still divides historians today…
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The Catalan threatened with banning in the municipal councils…
The municipalities of Elne, Port-Vendres, Amélie-les-Bains and Tarérach will be judged on April 18 at 11 a.m. by the administrative court of Montpellier. What are they accused of? To have authorized their elected representatives to use Catalan in their deliberations and their oral interventions. It was specified that these would be systematically accompanied by a translation into French (which was not the case for the rules of procedure of the Assembly of Corsica, recently rejected by the administrative court of Bastia), but the prefect considered that this practice was unconstitutional. This highly anticipated judgment will shed new light on the place left to minority languages in France. Minority language advocates are invited to assemble at the court hearing.
… and celebrated by his supporters on April 22
Chance of the calendar: a day in favor of the Catalan language will take place on April 22 in Perpignan, avenue Louis-Torcatis, on the banks of the Têt river. Multiple activities are planned, from singing and dictation to Scrabble games, video editing workshops, readings, concerts and even live television.
In 2021, the Constitutional Council ruled that the use of special signs such as the tilde (~) in civil status documents was contrary to the fundamental law, which prevents, for example, Breton parents from naming their child Fañch. However, the site of the Paris police headquarters writes the name of its boss, Laurent Nunotez, using that famous tilde.
Bretonnize or feminize: should we choose?
The college of Kerhallet, in Brest, will henceforth be called Joséphine-Baker. A “debretonization” that does not please everyone.
Anglicisms: an appeal against Pôle emploi
Can a public service multiply job dating and others job store ? No, believes the association Defense of the French language in the Pays de Savoie, which has just filed a legal action against Pôle Emploi. According to her, this practice contravenes the Toubon law and article 2 of the Constitution, which stipulates: “The language of the Republic is French”.
New edition of the report to Parliament on the French language
The General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France, attached to the Ministry of Culture, has just presented the new edition of the report to Parliament on the French language. It contains analyses, key figures, interviews with personalities and expert testimony.
The currency of the worldthe book by Philippe Ménard dedicated to Marco Polo that I mentioned last week, was published by Paradigme editions.
In Paris, a round table on place names on April 26
A round table entitled “The names of places, heritage and potential” will be held on Wednesday April 26 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Grande Arche de La Défense (Ségur room) on the occasion of the publication of the book Place names, a moving heritage (editions Honoré-Champion). I will have the pleasure of mentioning the place given to regional languages alongside the author of this work, Pierre Jaillard, president of the National Commission on Toponymy and of the United Nations group of experts for geographical names; Xavier Greffe, economist and president of Patrimoine sans frontières and Bertrand Monthubert, president of the National Council for Geolocated Information. FREE ENTRANCE.
TO LISTEN
In Brittany as in Africa, children speaking their mother tongue were humiliated
This is what underlines in this program of France Bleu Rozenn Milin, who has just written a thesis on the subject. Only the object with which the “guilty” pupils were decked out varied according to the location: here, a clog; there, a monkey’s skull… The opportunity, also, to better discover the very astonishing career of the brand new president of the Cultural Council of Brittany.
TO WATCH
How Ireland is losing its languageby Linguisticae
After my article last week dedicated to the Irish language, a reader pointed out this excellent video of the youtubeur Linguisticae, which I in turn recommend. You will find additional and very precise information on this subject.