Thursday Cryptic 4

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• Lego constructor · 2023-12-13T22:59:14.952Z

  Hoped you liked it! Feedback welcome : )

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• Goldencryptic 15:27 · 2023-12-14T00:01:56.010Z

  V fun - 11a I'd never heard of before and not sure I get the clue - cauldron is that a very rare spelling without the u or a typo?

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  • Lego constructor · 2023-12-14T10:08:18.292Z

    Glad you liked it! Yeah, 'outré' is scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit. It's from French and means 'unusual, strange, shocking, violating convention or propriety'. 'Caldron' is the American spelling of 'cauldron' – apt since he was a Californian doctor! ; )

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    • El Gordo 42 43:12 · 2023-12-14T16:26:28.132Z

      Outre was an easy one for me when I had enough crossing letters. But this American had always used the longer form of cauldron!

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      • Lego constructor · 2023-12-14T19:07:29.080Z

        Ah intertesting. The dictionary I consulted must have been a bit out of date – Ngram viewer says 'cauldron' over took 'caldron' in America in 1914! :D https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=caldron%2Ccauldron&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-US-2019&smoothing=3

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        • Oliver Hardy 🤓30:58 · 2023-12-17T07:41:03.086Z

          Chambers has both spellings as acceptable without reference to a country.

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• El Gordo 42 43:12 · 2023-12-14T16:25:13.355Z

  Good puzzle, but very tough for me! I missed too many containers, trying for something more clever?

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  • Lego constructor · 2023-12-14T19:09:13.716Z

    Glad you liked it, and sorry if it was too tough. Never assume I'll do anything clever! :D

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• Oliver Hardy 🤓30:58 · 2023-12-17T07:59:47.702Z

  Thanks - that was a spanker! Challenging but very clever clueing. I'm unsure about "key" and "leaving" as hidden word/run indicators.

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