April 11 2011

Word of the Week: Mehndi

MEHNDI [men-DEE] – The art – or temporary outcome – of applying henna to the skin, often in the form of elaborate designs. [From Sanskrit, mendi, the henna plant.] Bollywood brides are festooned in mehndi.

Comments

Boniface — 11 April at 12:45AM

Indian ink?!

Anthony Douglas — 11 April at 07:09AM

Poor results, of course, are removed using India rubber.

Rupert — 11 April at 07:40AM

Bridal tattoo will dramatically end him.

Sam — 11 April at 08:26AM

After expressing boredom, expert put out henna designs

Rupert — 11 April at 08:48AM

Anthony, was that a really hard cryptic clue, or just a pun?

DA — 11 April at 09:11AM

First in the realm of impossible:

Convoluted hedonism? So not! (6)

And now the reasonable:

I designed Hindi clip-art on the surface (6)

Rupert — 11 April at 09:50AM

Hem is lifted and I lose a henna design.

Rupert — 11 April at 09:58AM

I'm henna'd artistically, not Native American!

Rupert — 11 April at 10:01AM

@Sam: how do you get from expert to NDI?

Sam — 11 April at 10:07AM

Rupert, was thinking PUNDIT, PUT out = NDI

DC — 11 April at 10:21AM

Twice, I receive half-hearted hand design.

Rupert — 11 April at 11:11AM

@Sam: Good one. Although given the current state of punditry I'd not go so far as to call most of them experts. Maybe pontificators ;)

RK — 11 April at 02:39PM

Painting body gave men head start over lady

Enhancing colour? Make mine HD.

I think both of these are dodgy, particularly the second one. I doubt 'make' really cuts it as an anagrind. Plus the def is vague, but once I saw HD I just had to use it.

RK — 11 April at 06:09PM

Reading back over my clues in the previous post I now realise the blue undertones of my first clue. It was totally inadvertant!

Nib — 11 April at 07:29PM

Ceremonial tattoo for inhumed reposed before undertaking.

RV — 12 April at 12:59AM

Groomsmen hid bridal tattoo.

Rupert — 12 April at 04:36AM

@RV: Superb!

Anax — 12 April at 05:20AM

New bride may wear it for a while. New husband wears the same, but the other way round (6)

Rupert — 12 April at 07:38AM

@ANAX: If I read this correctly, this is the initials of new husband wrapped in "idem" (the same) reversed. But I can't see the initials indicator.

DA — 12 April at 07:50AM

Shades of the tumbling Torquemada clue, Anax - where the answer lies in a distended riddle. (And like Rupert, I'm still trying to decode it.)

@RV, everything Rupert said. I'm thinking we have this week's WoW winner. Dazzling clue.

Boniface — 12 April at 03:52PM

Yes, I agree - well done RV. It reads well and beautifully unites definition, fodder, signpost and solution.

Anax — 12 April at 06:06PM

@Rupert
The letters N & H are dictionary abbreviations for 'new' and 'husband' respectively - no need to indicate initials.

Eld Jaws Anon — 12 April at 07:01PM

@RV: I likewise immediately saw men hid in the WoW but struggled to find a clue to match... but yours is gold!

Speaking of things hid, just finished watching L&N, and found CTHREEPIO hid in the 2nd letter game...

RV — 12 April at 08:43PM

Thanks for generous clue praise Rupert, DA, Boniface and Eld Jaws Anon. It's very motivating.