h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A quick quiz today. People will solve this in no time, so don't read beyond post 1 if you want to avoid spoilers.

All these words have something in common. Can you find them?


1. A familiar form of address to a man (4)
2. A lower-class lout in designer sportswear (4)
3. Cockney pound coin (3)
4. Diesel fuel (4)
5. GPS device (6)
6. Jewish congratulations (8)
7. Jewish household extension, to allow banned Sabbath activities (4)
8. Operate an engine with the clutch disengaged (3)
9. Petty black-marketeer (4)
10. Sub-machine gun (11)
11. Toilet (3)
12. Unrehearsed performance (6)
13. Wagnerian theme (9)


Icy

Do they all end in 'v'?

1. A familiar form of address to a man (4) - Bruv/Brov
2. A lower-class lout in designer sportswear (4) - Chav
5. GPS device (6) - satnav
8. Operate an engine with the clutch disengaged (3) - rev
9. Petty black-marketeer (4) - spiv
11. Toilet (3) - lav
12. Unrehearsed performance (6) - improv

<BB<

10. Kalashnikov

<BB<

13. leitmotiv? I thought that was spelt with an f...

<BB<

I thought it was leitmotif, plural leitmotive, as well.

6 could be mazel tov, but I thought it was two words?

<BB<

4. Derv

All correct so far.

Yes, there are alternative spellings for these. Mazeltov is usually one word. Leitmotiv is the spelling used in Stainer & Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, but in Germaine Greer's 'The Female Eunuch', she writes "Self-sacrifice is the leit-motif of most of the marital games played by women", which is probably where Bluebottle saw it.

3. Sov

Curse you Icy! I'll have the 'Fiddler on the Roof' soundtrack in my head now for the rest of the day
'Mazal tov, Mazal tov'

<BB<

My first thought was that all words started with "s". This was because I thought 1. was Sir, and that the Jewish greeting was Shalom. The numbers in parentheses after the words seemed mysterious.

Satnav also starts with "s".

One of the other words could have been shiv.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLLEBAQLZ3Q




Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers....

Yes, shiv's a good one, but I don't think it's common here (assuming you mean the knife)

I've always assumed it was a knife. There's also Stivaletta and stiletto. Stivaletta is a family name in my area, and they have really strange ideas. .

Motif is the French word (as used in English) and Motiv is the German. Leitmotiv is German for lead-subject. It would be pure affectation for a German to spell it Motif.

Still with the "s" words on 13. Wagnerian theme.

Every major Wagnerian character had a characteristic tune. There was one for Siegfried. For Cosima's birthday one year, Wagner took the Siegfried theme and used for the Siegfried Idyll.

The closest I can come on 3 and 4 is sou and sterno.

Okay, my interpretation would not be the easiest one to pull off, but I tried.

But the cockney "sov" for a sovereign (an old word for pound) also starts with s.

*Later that night going round and round inside Bluebottle's head*
Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match

Darn you Icy!

<BB<

A few weeks ago some moppet on Faux Newz neologized "mazel tov cocktails". Recipes for mazel tov cocktails were flying furiously across twitter and boofcake.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2016/11/07/actually-the-mazel-tov-cocktail-is-real-and-its-delicious/