Bee Roots for 2022-10-19

The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes, tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception: since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example. If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.

Past clues are available here

 
Today's puzzle
  • Letters: M/ACINTY
  • Words: 31
  • Points: 134
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: ebird.org

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
root #answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11AM5Friendly relationship (esp. between nations)
21AN5Jungian term for inner ♀ part of ♂
41CA4♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr.
32CA6Alligator with name similar to British Caribbean islands (George Town) (alt spelling is the same)
51CA7Alt name for plant that drives felines wild, compound made from feline + breath candy
61IM4Prayer leader at mosque
71IN8Extremely close & personal (… apparel)
81MA4Permanently injure
91MA4Primary (Street), adj.
111MA4♀ parent, slang
151MA4More than a few (… people are saying)
111MA5♀ parent, slang
122MA5Craze, noun (Beatle-…)
131MA5Exodus food from the sky
141MA5Ray (fish)
121MA6Craze, noun (Beatle-…)
101MA8Keep up (appearances), or support; verb
161MI4Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets
181MI4Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr.
221MI4Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb
241MI4Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney
171MI5Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun
201MI51/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke
221MI5Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb
211MI6Smallest amount (the … bet at this table is $100)
231MI6Jewish prayer quorum (10 people, traditionally ♂)
191MI7Small, handheld video-capturing device used by TV reporters
251MY4Talking starling that’s often a pet
261TA6Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳)

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.

The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.

One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.

I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout

Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.