Poor writers have a penchant, a predilection, perhaps even a proclivity for thesaural abuse. One of the SpecGram interns recently collaborated with the Überlinguistaffen and Maynard to create the Bayesian Regressed Recursively Ranked Autonomous Thesaurus (BRRRAT). The brrratty little thing is a poor writer’s proclivity personified, and it has been running around our internal network “upgrading” various texts with “better” synonyms.
In addition to having bad taste in lexical items, BRRRAT doesn’t seem to understand that direct quotations should never be altered. The text below was originally a quote of some sort, but has been so heavily altered by BRRRAT
Grammar is conceivably the fierceliest debated asset in the intellectual sphere. It is bathed in the vital fluids of bards, divines, sophists, philologers, shrinks, naturalists, and neuroscientists, as well as any cruor that can be had from grammatists.
—Soviet Poemer
If you think you’ve figured out the quote, submit your solution to the editors of SpecGram by March 15, 2020, and you could win a prize! Solutions and winners will be announced in the upcoming April issue.
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| O | M | G | G | E | D | E | G | A | L | L | U | ||||
| N | O | R | T | H | E | R | E | U | R | O | P | E | I | A | |
| G | U | A | R | A | N | I | M | A | N | L | I | N | G | ||
| O | F | F | I | C | I | A | L | L | A | N | G | U | A | G | E |
The solution to February’s Cryptolinguistic Puzzle is provided here, with additional explanations given below.
Despite the high degree of difficulty, all of the following puzzlemeisters completed the puzzle and will be receiving prizes:
Vincent Fish • Adam Hesterberg • Wayne Zhao
Across: 1. Anagram of gullib(l)e; 8. BI (pun for bye) + LA. + BI + AL.; 16. ALE(utian or)ATORY; 17. anagram of grieved; 18. B.A. + anagram of think; 19. (so)ME GAP LEX(ical); 20. (pr)(-)EME(d); 21. (multilingu)AL BEE(r); 23. NIL (backwards), Esperanto accusative 3rd person masc. sg. pronoun; 24. anagram of arroz (Spanish for rice); 25. E + FUN (backwards), misspelling of enough; 29. PU(llum)(ka)TZ; 30. the first few letters of ANImate; 31. (to)NE THE R(hetoric); 34. SA(TA)N; 37. (di)D IE; 38. (c)HOM(sky) + O; 39. N. (O-N) E.; 40. (k)ATR(in)(a), abbr. for Advanced Tongue Root; 41. abbr. for graphical user interface, pun for gooey; 43. IL (Roman 49) + CR. + I.E., French for he screams; 46. (p)UN TEL(ler), French for so-and-so; 48. E-T-E, été, French for summer; 49. (Skin)NER IS (backwards); 50. Swedish for good, well (adj/t), Danish, Norw., & Swedish for twist, coil; 54. OM + G, abbr. for oh my god; 57. (Greenber)G ED(mondson), abbr. for General Education Development; 58. GALLU(p); (le)GAL LU(sting), Welsh for I can; 62. NO(R)T HER(E); 65. EURO + PE + I+ A, Port. for European (adj, fem.); 67. GUARAN(tee)(I); 68. MAN(ner: yel)LING; 69. anagram of fecal gulf again oi.
Down: 1. Anagram of blab around E; 2. EL (A.M.) ITE; 3. (Émi)LE KEN(yon), plural past of lijken, Dutch for to seem; 4. HAL (backwards); 5. (Calc)UTTA R(egion), Hindi for North; 6. GO + IL. (‘girl’ with NY accent, Irish for to weep softly); 7. anagram of in burr; 9. (H)ide, Hungarian for here; 10. anagram of a girl in U.; 11. Initials: A + V. + A.; 12. BE(PP)E, nickname for Giuseppe; 13. Initialism , country code for Ireland; 14. (langu)AGE; 15. anagram of glue fixing a real + E.; 19. ME (ZZ) AN + IN + E + S; 22. E + at + S; 26. NADA (Spanish for nothing) + T, Dutch for after; 27. (Z)UNI TE(nses); 28. pH + O; 29. PRO + LIX; 31. anagram of gringo once; 32. (Mara)THI EF(fectively); 33. anagram of i(t) seems, émises = French for emitted (f.pl. past participle of émettre); 35. TO(N)E; 36. N(E. + U.R.)O; 42. (Pa)(I) UTE, Norwegian, Swedish, Old English for outdoors; 44. anagram of car I tire; 45. Re + V; 47. (Bres)NAN, NAN(cy); 50. BR(A) +O; 52. odd letters of pun be fun mean, Greek for breath; 55. FU(nctional idi)OM (backwards), eye dialect spelling for AAE mouth; 56. G + R.A.F., Dutch for grave; 57. G. (E)(N) I., Italian for genes, Norweg. for genius; 58. G(A)(ON)G;59. (carn)AP LU(dlow); 60. LEI (Italian f.sg. pronoun) + A; 61. (BO-)LING(-ER); 63. pun for try; 64. HA(S)(C), Latin for thus; 66. R(OM)AN.