Polygon

 

Polygon

All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A polygon has at least three sides and three angles and cannot have any curved sides. A square is a polygon, and so is a star. The polygon I am thinking of is a regular polygon word puzzle in ‘The Times’. Tuesday’s polygon was a hexagon consisting of six four-sided polygons or Isosceles trapezoids enclosing a hexagon.

Today’s polygon is a heptagon of seven Isosceles trapezoids enclosing a heptagon. Last Friday’s was an octagon and Saturday’s was a nonagon. Whatever the size of the polygon, the challenge remains the same. In the central shape is a letter and the surrounding shapes have one letter each. Simply, the player has to find words composed of at least four of the random letters (sometimes at least three, depending on the size of the polygon), but each word must contain the central letter.

In the course of playing it I have discovered words I never knew existed, thus negating any thoughts I had previously embraced about having a ‘good vocabulary’. Too many times I have to press the ‘Solution’ button, which always kindly enquires, ‘Are you sure you want to reveal the solution?’

Thus it was that I came across ‘tahr’, which can be spelt ‘tehr’ but wasn’t on this occasion, as there was no ‘e’. The letters were a central ‘T’, meaning that it had to be used in any three-letter or more word, surrounded by Y, A, H, R, C, I. There are thirty words to be made from this array. Encouraging messages pop up if you’re lucky - ‘Average’, ‘Good’, ‘Very good’ and so on.

Female Himalayan tahr

Anyway, ‘tahr’ was new to me, but maybe not to a New Zealander or a South African. A tahr, I discovered, is an Asian animal related to goats and sheep. There are three species with distinct differences. The Himalayan tahr is widespread in the Himalayas and was introduced to the Southern Alps of New Zealand to be hunted for sport, along with another introduced species, the chamois. To gain some revenge these two animals are now posing a serious threat to the ecosystems in those areas. They have no natural predators and so must be controlled by other means.

The male Himalayan tahr has a beautiful mane.

The following from Wikipedia:

New Zealand alpine ecosystems evolved over millions of years in isolation without any large mammal browsers (such as tahr), and many alpine plants have no defence mechanisms (such as toxins or spines) to discourage tahr from eating them.

Herding browsers such as tahr and chamois cause two-fold damage; firstly, by eating native plants; secondly by trampling large areas of vegetation and compactable soils, when herds of animals gather together.

Tahr graze at high altitudes, in alpine grasslands and sub-alpine shrublands, and browse on native plants that birds, lizards and insects use for feeding, nesting and shelter. The tahr diet includes some large, succulent herbaceous species including alpine buttercups and mountain daisies. Some of these species are ranked as Threatened or At Risk by the New Zealand Threat Classification System.

Tahr also feed on snow tussock and shrub species which are the dominant vegetation in many of New Zealand’s subalpine and alpine environments. Tahr are a major threat to the sensitive ecosystems of alpine regions as their social nature increases pressure in localised areas. In extreme situations, large groups of tahr can transform tall tussocks and subalpine shrublands to a grassy turf or bare ground.

A pair of Himalayan tahrs escaped from a South African zoo in 1936 and established a small population on Table Mountain. Most of them have been culled.

The other two species are the Arabian tahr of Oman and the Nilgiri tahr of South India. Both are considered endangered, with the Nilgiri tahr being susceptible to poaching and illegal hunting.

 

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.

Live and learn

 

Live and learn

This is the first in an occasional series demonstrating new vocabulary, sourced through my daily playing of Polygon. When I have exhausted my personal dictionary, all too often woefully quickly, I turn to the solution.

Recently, I discovered ‘joual,’ which may be familiar to the Canadians among us, as it is a patois, a popular form of Canadian or Quebec French. Joual derives from the rural pronunciation of ‘cheval’ (horse) There is more information here.

In the same polygon, I came across ‘rucola,’ which some may already know as rocket or arugula. It is pungent and bursting with vitamin C and iron. I always assumed that common or salad rocket and wild rocket were the same animal, just grown in different ways. I discovered that they are quite distinct. 

Salad rocket (Eruca sativa) is an annual plant with a milder flavour. The flowers are white.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is a perennial with a more intense piquancy. The leaves are narrower than common rocket and deeply serrated. The flowers are yellow.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Finally, I found turaco, which ornithologists will know is a bird found among the trees of sub-Saharan Africa. Their diet consists mainly of fruit, and, though they are weak flyers, they are adept at running and leaping, with unique semi-zygodactyl feet. This means that the fourth toe can move forwards or backwards, according to need, to enable them to maintain a firm grip on branches.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Apart from their beautiful colouring and intriguing calls, they are one of the few birds which have truly green feathers. The feathers contain a green pigment called turacoverdin.

Whether I retain any of this newly-acquired knowledge remains to be seen!

Live and learn (4)

 

Live and learn (4)

Skirret

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Polygon a few weeks ago gave me ‘skirret,’ which is a lovely word in its own right. It sounds as though it should be something to do with cooking, like a skillet.

In fact, skirret, or Sium sisarum is a root vegetable belonging to the same family as carrots and parsnips. The name comes from the Middle English ‘skirwhit’ or ’skirwort’ which means ‘white root.’

The Scots call it ‘crummock,’ while the Danes know it as ‘sukkerrod.’ In Dutch it is called ‘suikerwortel’ and its German name is ‘Zuckerwurzel,’ which means sugar root.

It develops a mass of bright white roots which are best harvested during the winter, before the plant is active. If left until spring, the roots may become woody, more fibrous and covered in hairs. Skirret is prepared and cooked in a similar fashion to other root plants, or it can be grated and eaten raw in salad.

Recipe for Skirret Pie from 'The Family Receipt-Book, 1820'
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

It was a popular vegetable before potatoes became available to Britain in the late 16^th century. However, although it is easy to cultivate, it doesn’t keep well, and is of unpredictable size and quality. In addition, it is awkward to clean. It can be grown as an ornamental plant, producing clusters of small white flowers in the summer.

Syce

 

Syce

This puzzle provides 26 potential words. Each word must have at least 4 letters in it, and must include the central letter, in this case 'Y'.

I work on a Polygon puzzle each morning and when I have exhausted my vocabulary, I look at the solution. Sometimes, the words are so obvious that I wonder how I’ve managed to be blind to them. At many other times, unknown words crop up and ‘syce’ is one that appeared recently.

A syce holding two carriage horses

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

It is pronounced as spelt, and is an archaic Urdu term for a groom. A syce was a servant, notably in India, during British colonial rule in the seventeenth century, whose responsibilities included feeding, grooming, and saddling horses, and driving carriages. It was in use before the advent of the car, at a time when horse transport was common.

When cars later became more available, syce developed to mean chauffeur, a driver of the ‘horseless carriage.’