CRUCIVERB.COM

User

Welcome, Guest.
Please login or register.
 
 
 
Forgot your password?

Navigate

Resources

Donations


You can help support this site by making a small donation using either a PayPal account:

or with a major credit card such as:

 

 

Click here for details.

Author Topic: Newsday Sunday "Spelling B"  (Read 7234 times)

mmcbs

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 509
Newsday Sunday "Spelling B"
« on: July 18, 2016, 05:05:28 PM »
Stan Newman dazzles us with this magnificent puzzle based on the simple theme of 10 long words that start with B (betcha don't know how to spell very many, if any of them).

BRZEZINSKI - Carter's National Security Advisor

BRUNNHILDE - Wagner opera Valkyrie

BOURGEOISIE - Middle class

BRAGGADOCIO - Empty boasting

BOYSENBERRY - It might get into a jam

BOUTONNIERE - Lapel adornment

BATHYSCAPH - Deep-sea submersible

BETELGEUSE - Star in Orion

BARYSHNIKOV - Former American Ballet Theatre head

BROBDIGNAG - Swift's land of giants

The remainder is the usual crosswordese-free patter with notable entries such as PODCASTS, SUN DEVIL, SIZEABLE, and EYE CANDY. Could have done without ERECTORS, but what the hey?

Fun ride. How many could you spell without the perps?
Mark McClain
Salem, Virginia, USA
https://crosswordsbymark.wordpress.com/

Thomps2525

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 657
Re: Newsday Sunday "Spelling B"
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2016, 03:10:49 PM »
Mark, I knew the spellings of all but one of those "B" words. I thought the valkyrie's name was spelled with only one N, not two. Thanks to good ol' Wikipedia, I discovered that the original name of Brünnhilde in Norse mythology is Brynhildr -- which looks more like a line on an eye chart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brynhildr

Now -- is "bathyscaph" a misspelling? The deep-sea submersible vehicle known as a bathyscaphe was invented by Auguste Piccard. The first one was constructed in 1946-48. The name comes from the Greek bathys ("deep") and skaphos ("vessel; ship"). I consulted several dictionaries and websites and can find no source which gives the spelling as "bathyscaph." On the Oxford English Dictionary site, I got this message:

"No exact match found for 'bathyscaph' in US English.
Did you mean 'bathyscaphe'?"


mmcbs

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 509
Re: Newsday Sunday "Spelling B"
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2016, 03:18:27 PM »
That's pretty awesome! BATHYSCAPH is the spelling as in the puzzle, and it is a variant spelling per RHUD, so iffy, but technically correct.
Mark McClain
Salem, Virginia, USA
https://crosswordsbymark.wordpress.com/

Thomps2525

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 657
Re: Newsday Sunday "Spelling B"
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2016, 03:37:30 PM »
"Technically correct." Indeed. The Dictionary.com website, which uses the Random House Dictionary, lists "bathyscaph" and "bathyscape" as variations of "bathyscaphe." Now I know the spelling in the puzzle is not a mistak. ;)

 


Powered by EzPortal