Sunday Times Cryptic 4515 Sunday December 9Th 2012

[herbage]

9d one letter with another, in a sense (6) is acumen. Yes, acumen means quickness of perception i.e. a sense but why one letter after another? Also, 4d Simple thing lifting a doormat(5) looks like TIMID but, if so, why? Simple thing=IT lifted gives TI. Timid is an adjective not a noun

[glasman]

Simple - dim?

[herbage]

Thanks. Then lifting DIM IT gives TIMID which is an adjective but a doormat is a noun?

[Cruciformist]

I had trouble reconciling TIMID, but in the end decided that was it.

[herbage]

Thanks. Any ideas on Acumen?

[herbage]

I also wondered if DIMWIT was in there somehow?

[Cruciformist]

9d. If I recall from my schooldays, "CUM" means "with" in Latin. So you have one letter (A C) and EN (n) around CUM.

[Cruciformist]

Should have said "one letter A"

[herbage]

Great, thanks. A with EN. Well done

[Cruciformist]

For example "cum laude" means "with honour" in the academic world. "He was awarded a Bachelor of Science cum laude"

[kaminsk2p]

herbage and Cruciformist, I reconciled 4d TIMID to '(as/like) A DOORMAT'. E.g., He's timid; he's (like) a doormat.

[herbage]

Thanks all. I have also been told that"A trick which setters sometimes employ is to use, rather than a dictionary definition, a word or phrase which can be exchanged for another in normal (sometimes colloquial) speech. So in this clue 'a doormat' and 'timid' would be interchangeable if you said 'That person is timid' / 'That person is a doormat'.

Along similar lines, a crafty device to look out for is the plural present indicative 'are' for a verb answer which looks like it shouldn't have it. So the answer might be SHOCK and in the clue the definition bit might be 'are amazing'. You wouldn't find that definition in a dictionary, but in language use it's common enough.