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Posted By: dodyskin help! - 07/18/02 08:34 PM
column to remain inside jetty (8) can anyone help with this clue? am totally stuck ps we think it may be pi-stay(anag)er

Posted By: FishonaBike Re: help! - 07/18/02 09:32 PM
Pi-LAST-er ?

Is it worth any money?

Posted By: AnnaStrophic What is this? - 07/18/02 11:26 PM
A Brit cryptic crossword or something?

Posted By: wwh Re: What is this? - 07/19/02 12:12 AM
My dictionary gives as third meaning of "jetty"=overhanging part of a building, and "pilaster"= rectangular support or pier projecting partially from a wall and treated architecturally as a column, with a base, shaft, and capital

So it sounds as though fishonabike has the answer . My compliments to you, sir.


Posted By: dodyskin Re: What is this? - 07/19/02 08:27 AM
yes, the demon guardian crossword i think, i dont know cos i dont do it every day but a friend of mine asked me to help with this clue

Posted By: FishonaBike interpretation - 07/19/02 09:01 AM
You could guess that I've done this kind of thing before quite a bit (Brit cryptic crosswords). But allow me to show you all how it works for this clue:

Column to remain inside jetty (8)

1. Either the overall meaning of the word is "column" or "jetty".

2. Whatever is left of the clue after you remove that word denotes how the word is made up [this is what I always loved about cryptic crosswords - they're actually easier, as you get two types of clue. You don't even need to know the word.]

3. There's a natural pause after "column", and it's the first word, so we try that as the overall meaning.

4. "to remain inside jetty" is left. The simplest interpretation of this is that the solution is made up of a word meaning "to remain" inside a word meaning "jetty".

5. First word that springs to mind meaning "jetty" is pier. Yeah, OK, generally a jetty is a lot smaller than a pier, and this is stretching the meaning - but we forgive the crossword compiler and get on with it..

6. Now we have an 8-letter word meaning "column" that consists of P*IxE*R where *s denotes all possible locations for another word meaning "to remain". x denotes the favourite location, as it's right in the middle.

7. Now we try to think of a four-letter word meaning "to remain" (4 letters because we've already used up 4 on "pier"). You'll notice that dody thought "stay", so stuck that in location x, giving pi-stay-er. However, that's not a real word, and doesn't mean "column" so we try again.

8. I try last as the word meaning to remain, and stick that in location x.
This gives pilaster, which happens to mean "column" and is the correct answer.

Easy!

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