Krait

                                    Banded krait (Bungarus baluensis)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Every morning, I complete a few puzzles in the Times online – Sudoku, Polygon, Codeword – nothing too taxing, just a wake-up for my brain, while I enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.

Polygon gives a selection of between seven and ten letters from which words can be made. The words may be three or four letters long according to the title. The rules are simple – the central letter of the polygon must be included in each word, no plurals are permitted, and the answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Today, the eight letters were A, E, I, I, K, R, Y with central letter T. It should be possible to generate 29 four-letter words, each including T. How many can you create? There is always at least one word which uses all the letters.

One word I found was KRAIT.

Kraits are a class of extremely venomous snakes indigenous to South Asia. They inhabit a variety of environments, from tropical jungle to cultivated farmland, and are likely to be found near water sources, like canals and ponds. They are nocturnal, preying on other snakes, small rodents, and birds.

There are commonly reports of people being bitten at night while sleeping on the ground. Some bites are ‘dry’ bites, not involving venom. Kraits have small fangs, and their bites do not leave noticeable marks or swelling.

A bite involving poison will affect the victim within two hours, the first signs being an inability to see or speak, stomach cramps, and breathlessness. Left untreated, the condition rapidly worsens, leading to death in around five hours. Antivenoms can be of use if administered soon after a bite has been reported.

Tyke and its variant, tike, were quickly discovered. I’ve always understood tyke to be a lively child, but found that in the past it was used to describe ‘an unpleasant or coarse man.’

Trey is a playing card, domino or die with three spots, or a play scoring three points in a card, domino or dice game. In the USA it refers, or used to refer, to a shot which scores three points in basketball. Trey is also a name given to a third child or one whose birthday falls on the third day of a month, as well as the third recipient of a family name, like John Smith III.

The third tine of a deer’s antler is called a trey.