Learning new words
I’ve been working on this book of crossword puzzles that is much too hard for me. I am a realist, especially regarding my intellectual abilities, so after filling in the one or two clues that I can actually answer myself, I resport to Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster to help me out with the rest. Here is the fruit of my most recent puzzle:
‘The kid’ was a Charlie Chaplin film starring a child actor named COOGAN.
Majorca’s chief city is PALMA.
An Egyptian sacred bull is APIS.
‘Auspices’ has three meanings: 1) under the benevolent patronage and guidance (I operated under the auspices of Dr. X); 2) a (usually positive) prophetic sign (the sun was shining auspiciously); and 3) observation by an augur (a prophet in ancient Rome) especially of the flight and feeding of birds to discover omens. In this puzzle, ‘auspices’ took the first meaning, and the answer was another word I didn’t know, AEGIS, which basically means auspices or sponsorship.
Pirogue is a kind of boat, like a CANOE, used by day fishermen off the coast of West Africa and Louisiana.