Six letters, P something D something U something

At a loose end whilst having a cig in the conservatory a few minutes ago, I decided to have a crack at the Guardian crossword from a few days ago. Don't normally partake in such pastimes, but what can I say - I was feeling a bit crazy.

I surprised myself by getting every single clue with a minimum of fuss, even showing off by filling in all the across clues first, and then all the down ones, in chronological order.

All, that is, except one.

The clue for it is "Dais". I have absolutely no idea what this word is, and suspect it isn't even English. For a brief moment I triumphantly thought that my heritage had made a mockery of the paper's feeble attempts to confuse me with linguistics - "of course! It's the Irish word for parliament!" It was only as I tried to get a coherent word to fit the spaces that it sank in that the word I was thinking of is actually "Dail" (pronounced "Doyle"). Bah.

My next idea was that Dais is actually a reference to a group of similarly named Welsh men, but this proved no more successful. Then I thought it might be something to do with a festival or something - probably again based in the Valleys and involving strange costumes and folk songs.

My final, desperate ploy was that it was, in fact, referring to four-fifths of a daisy, which given the relative easiness of the other clues was perhaps a little off the mark. Nevertheless, I spent a good, ooh, 30 seconds, trying to come up with some sort of incomplete plant reference before - mercifully - finishing my fag and retreating to the monosyllabic world of my bedroom.

I know I could access the majesty of the world wide web on which I currently sit to find out the answer, but that would be admitting defeat to the puzzle - unthinkable given the ease with which I breezed through the clue's comrades. Instead, I chose to wander off, muttering something along the lines of "not bothered anyway" (to myself), seeing myself less as a failure at the Quick Crossword, more as a vicious yet merciful overlord, who has just battered the thing into submission but decided to leave it with dignity intact.

So those of you who are wondering, I have decided on my own word to fill the gaps, and expect it to be available in the next edition of the Oxford English dictionary.

Dais (n,v,adj,whatever): Pudnut.