CCC - 2021-09-07
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MACULATIONS Anagram of "Mona Lisa cut": "a blemish in the form of a discrete spot, such as an acne scar"
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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MACULATIONS Anagram of "Mona Lisa cut": "a blemish in the form of a discrete spot, such as an acne scar"
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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MACULATIONS Anagram of "Mona Lisa cut": "a blemish in the form of a discrete spot, such as an acne scar"
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
May I inquire how you were lead to the solution Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it I am assuming it was as new to you as it is to me Do you have software which generates anagrams and checks their definitions - Cheerio "I once put instant coffee into the microwave and went back in time." - Steven Wright "Shut up and calculate" - apparently N. David Mermin possibly Richard Feynman
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May I inquire how you were lead to the solution Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it I am assuming it was as new to you as it is to me Do you have software which generates anagrams and checks their definitions - Cheerio "I once put instant coffee into the microwave and went back in time." - Steven Wright "Shut up and calculate" - apparently N. David Mermin possibly Richard Feynman
To be honest, I don't have a clue: my head is stuffed with useless sh*t that springs up when I need it. Mostly to annoy people in Trivial Pursuit games ... :laugh: Probably, it came up in a crossword, a book, a scramble game, or somewhere else equally random at some point and I looked it up to find out what the heck it meant. Anagrams aren't that difficult - they generally leap out at me, or I write them down in a "cloud" and see if anything connects.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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May I inquire how you were lead to the solution Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it I am assuming it was as new to you as it is to me Do you have software which generates anagrams and checks their definitions - Cheerio "I once put instant coffee into the microwave and went back in time." - Steven Wright "Shut up and calculate" - apparently N. David Mermin possibly Richard Feynman
PaltryProgrammer wrote:
Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it
[https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/blemish\](https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/blemish)
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May I inquire how you were lead to the solution Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it I am assuming it was as new to you as it is to me Do you have software which generates anagrams and checks their definitions - Cheerio "I once put instant coffee into the microwave and went back in time." - Steven Wright "Shut up and calculate" - apparently N. David Mermin possibly Richard Feynman
The approach I take when I am fairly sure there's an anagram is just to examine the letters. Here the clue ("blemishes") is plural, so it's a fair starting point to assume the word may end in s. There's no e so, unlike blemishes, it's not es at the end so we've now simplified it to a 10-letter anagram. We've got all the letters t, i, o and n so there's a good chance it ends "tions". Great, now we just have a 6-letter anagram to solve. At this point I write down the 6 letters in a random pattern (not all on one line) and just gaze at the centre of the group. I'm not "reading" the letters, just looking at them as a group (or a cloud as Griff has better termed it). Sometimes this works and the word "pops out", sometimes not. If not, with 6 letters, it's not too hard to just start trying sequences that would be pronounceable. In this case, I can fairly readily spot the combination "macula" which I associate with macular degeneration, a particular type of sight loss. I don't know exactly what causes it, but a quick search on "macular" tells me it's (1) a small spot or (2) a small discoloured spot or blemish. Put the two together, MACULATIONS. Look that up to verify. (At this point the definition tells me maculations also refers to the pattern of spots or markings on an animal or plant, and at that point I remember it's a word I've come across before anyway, and now I understand its derivation!) In short, look for likely patterns from the letters you have, then shake up the leftovers until they sound likely, then verify. I've been out today so haven't looked at the clue till this evening, but I suspect I'd have got there...
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The approach I take when I am fairly sure there's an anagram is just to examine the letters. Here the clue ("blemishes") is plural, so it's a fair starting point to assume the word may end in s. There's no e so, unlike blemishes, it's not es at the end so we've now simplified it to a 10-letter anagram. We've got all the letters t, i, o and n so there's a good chance it ends "tions". Great, now we just have a 6-letter anagram to solve. At this point I write down the 6 letters in a random pattern (not all on one line) and just gaze at the centre of the group. I'm not "reading" the letters, just looking at them as a group (or a cloud as Griff has better termed it). Sometimes this works and the word "pops out", sometimes not. If not, with 6 letters, it's not too hard to just start trying sequences that would be pronounceable. In this case, I can fairly readily spot the combination "macula" which I associate with macular degeneration, a particular type of sight loss. I don't know exactly what causes it, but a quick search on "macular" tells me it's (1) a small spot or (2) a small discoloured spot or blemish. Put the two together, MACULATIONS. Look that up to verify. (At this point the definition tells me maculations also refers to the pattern of spots or markings on an animal or plant, and at that point I remember it's a word I've come across before anyway, and now I understand its derivation!) In short, look for likely patterns from the letters you have, then shake up the leftovers until they sound likely, then verify. I've been out today so haven't looked at the clue till this evening, but I suspect I'd have got there...
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May I inquire how you were lead to the solution Every list of synonyms I traveled did not provide it I am assuming it was as new to you as it is to me Do you have software which generates anagrams and checks their definitions - Cheerio "I once put instant coffee into the microwave and went back in time." - Steven Wright "Shut up and calculate" - apparently N. David Mermin possibly Richard Feynman
Further to my earlier reply about anagrams, it's finally dawned on me (whilst in the shower) that the word immaculate simply means "without maculations"... so not as rare a word (root) as you might think! As in 2nd level support: "No sir, that's not a bug; it's a maculation of the code".
