I love this game! I’ve only collected four stumpers (at least as I see them) that get people puzzling:
wsp
ewr
wnm
ndun
Three out of the four are very common objects. The fourth is, as I understand it, is the only word in the English language with this particular combination.
Guess on No. 16 of the original puzzle: Zugzwang? I know it’s a term used in chess.
OWBE also occurs in browbeat.
wsp – bowsprit
ewr – Jewry? probably not, it can’t be a proper noun, right?
wnm – lawnmower
ndun – You got me.
Point to scratch1300 for lawnmower. I wasn’t looking for bowsprit, although that one hadn’t occurred to me before. The ewr word I’m thinking of isn’t a proper noun, but I don’t know if there’s ever been a restriction like that in the games I played.
Olentzero,
NDUN = GRANDUNCLE.
bibliophage,
Does CHCL = PUNCHCLOCK?
point to Olentzero for zugzwang. That’s the one I wanted, but I can’t even spell the damn thing without looking it up.
point to scratch1300 for fieriness. I thought this would be the hardest one.
sequences remaining to be solved
2: AKNE There remains another common -akne- word besides breakneck.
4: CHCL Not punchclock, which is not in my dictionaries.
5: CHSH
13: STTR
18. YZG
updated standings:
mattk: 8
The Man Who: 4
The Voice of Reason: 2
Fretful Porpentine: 1
Olentzero: 1
scratch1300: 1
the obvious other word to #2 is weakness…
still thinking on the rest…
scratch1300:
rewrite (rewrote, etc.)
newspaper (newsprint, etc.)
I see a theme here…
One point to ren for “weakness.”
…and another for dachshund. Gotta love those German words…
CHCL is BREECHCLOTH, also spelled BREECHCLOUT.
Newspaper is the word. The other one I’m thinkin of is not rewrite or any of its variations, but you’re close.
Damn, how come I never saw these alternatives? I been hogging these puzzlers for years, thinking I was all clever.
Curse you all!
Olentzero,
There’s also prewrap, rewrap and rewrought. Others?
How about this combo:
WLYW
(not so hard, really)
One point to matt_mcl for breechcloth / breechclout. I can’t figure out why it’s not in the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Any ideas?
One more point to ren for dachshund.
Only two more to go: STTR and YZG
Not too hard; 2 words with: YRR
Much trickier: YBD
Ren - molybdenum?
is fasttrack hypenated?
Fast-track is either two words or is hyphenated.
YRR-myrrh
Besides cryptic and aptitude, PTI can also be baptism.
YRR-pyrrhic. It’s not capitalized when it refers to the metrical foot, but it is when it refers to a costly victory.
When I was looking up pyrrhic I noticed one mineral ore and several chemicals also start with pyrr-
Hmmm. I’ve seen pyrrhic used in the victory sense without being capitalized, rather often. Bad grammar? And I forgot about all the chemical compounds.
Myrrhic appears to be valid too.
lurkernomore, it was indeed molybdenum that I was thinking of. I can’t think of any others YBD words with other roots (molybdate and molybdic are also words, apparently).
YZG I apparently have no chance of getting, while STTR continues to annoy me. And I’d have thought someone would have jumped on WLYW by now…I guess it’s different when you already know the answer…
Lastly, apparently bewrap and bewray are also words…will it never end?!?