Bee Roots for 2023-08-11

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: I/DLQTUY
  • Words: 27
  • Points: 125
  • Pangrams: 2
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1DI6Worthless amount (… squat), or guitarist Bo
1DI4Pickle spice
1DI5Excellent example (that was a … of a game)
1DI5Short, simple song
1ID4Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but in gear
2ID4,5Extremely happy scene or poem
1IL4Not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car)
2IL8,11State of matter between solid and gas, adj./noun; or, when applied to assets, held in cash or easily converted to cash
1IT4Really small, slang; usually paired with rhyming B word
1LI4Singsong accent
1LI4Monet floral subject (water …)
3LI6,8,9State of matter between solid and gas, adj./noun; or, when applied to assets, held in cash or easily converted to cash
1QU4Pound sterling
1QU8In scholastic philosophy, another term for the essence of an object
1QU5Long sharp spine grown by porcupines and some other animals; or a pen made from a feather of a large bird
1QU5Warm bed covering made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines of stitching, typically applied in a decorative design
1QU4Give up
2TI4,6Neatly arranged, adj.; or neaten up, verb
1TI4Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb
1TI4Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at)
1TU5All together, musically (Italian); Little Richard “Wop bop a loo bop” song
1UT7Type of company that provides electricity, cable TV, telephone, or natural gas

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. 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.

A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.

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