Well done peter, great clue.
Thanks Marty for the challenge.
congrats on the joint second place ixion.
I noticed your post about the Chambers this week ixion and I have to agree, I have copies of 11th & 12th edition and can remember a while back when me and AB discussed the differences between those two. It seems they don't keep parity in their series.
Anyway, I have to say that the Chambers did let me down this week with my PR entry.
Not sure if all noticed, but I added a '!' to my clue to signify an &lit
The problem was, if anyone checked 'Alter' in their chambers, they would have only seen - Alter with a def of 'to castrate [archaic]
This was the same in 11th & 12th Edition
My beef is that I once heard it mentioned in an American TV show and checked it to find that it is North American term (and also Australian)
I trawled through some of the online dictionaries, and to my surprise, it's only mentioned as a N Amaercan term in The OED
I now realise that I must have checked it back then in my OED copy (a hefty tome) and haven't had to since.
So, my question is: Is there a book out there that actually gives a brief definition of all words and all their origins and usages (to save trawling through the OED) or do we stick to good old researching all methods of investigation to get the full picture?
Sorry if all that sounds a bit rantish (I don't think that's a word !)
Anyway folks, just for the record, my spin on the PR challenge was supposed to go a bit like this.
Scalp or castrate ('scalp or' to signify the alternative)
castrate (North American) = Alter
(North American) Indian = native
North American being the partial &lit
I should get out more... Goodnight all