HIOCSL-D

This is a gemlog for the SpellBinding puzzle, in which you construct words using the specified letters (each word must contain the anchor letter).

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2021-12-08 solution: HIOCSL-D

CHID CHILD CHILDHOOD CHILDISH CISSOID CLOD CLODDISH CODICIL COLD COLDISH COLLOID DIDO DILDO DILL DIOL DISC DISCO DISCOID DISH DODO DOLL DOLLISH HOLD HOOD IDOL LIDO ODIC OLDISH SCHOOLCHILD SCOLD SHOD SLID SOLD SOLID

Pangrams: SCHOOLCHILD,CLODDISH,COLDISH

There were some good words yesterday. SHOD is another form of 'SHOED', that is firnished with a shoe (or a tire). CHID is likewise a past tense of 'CHIDE', another form of 'CHIDED'... Not CLOD - it means (1) a lump of earth or (2) an oaf, or a DODO. CLODDISH is an adjective form - lumpy or dumb, as appropriate.

DILDO. As an aside, when I was a teen, a waiter at an Indian restaurant saw a group of us giggling about 'Chicken Dildar'. He explained that 'dildar' means 'lover'. To wit, DILDO.

A LIDO is a fashionable resort, hence "lido deck". A DIDO is a prank (I never bothered to look it up before).

Geektime: CISSOID is a mathematical term for a kind of derivative curve. With some words it's sufficient to know roughly which branch of math or sciences they belong in, just to avoid feeling too ignorant. CISSOID is one of those things that is a bit hard to describe, and even Wikipedia is a bit cryptic.

For chemistry we have DIOL, a compound with two hydroxyl (-OH) groups. You may be familiar with a diol called propylene glycol, an antifreeze solvent that for some reason people use as a vaping liquid. The truly scary quality of propyline glycol they don't talk about: it penetrates bone, and is sometimes used by dentists to deliver medications deep into the tooth. Would you voluntarily inhale this solvent, laced with nicotine? Horrors!

A COLLOID is a suspension of (insoluble) particles in a medium. Milk is an example.

Is that it? DISCOID is just disk-shaped. A CODICIL is legalese for an appendix or a supplement.

And there we have it - another day.

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