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General Category => Words => Topic started by: ridethetalk on January 20, 2022, 03:00:10 PM

Title: Wednesday 19 January Challenge ASCERTAIN/SECTARIAN puzzle
Post by: ridethetalk on January 20, 2022, 03:00:10 PM

ARCANEST – the most arcane (it feels like this should be a word) - Alan, I'm truly unsure about this one...

Title: Re: Wednesday 19 January Challenge ASCERTAIN/SECTARIAN puzzle
Post by: Alan W on February 08, 2023, 03:35:50 PM

I didn't see arcanest in any dictionaries. Wiktionary is usually diligent about giving comparative and superlative forms, and it says most arcane. This is backed up by the News on the Web corpus, that has no instances of arcanest and about 100 of most arcane. The most recent was from the Guardian on 1 February:

Quote

The English planning system already has some of the most arcane rules about overlooking distances for new homes, making streets unnecessarily wide and windswept, and blocks placed needlessly far apart.

I think our word list can do without arcanest - and arcaner.

Title: Re: Wednesday 19 January Challenge ASCERTAIN/SECTARIAN puzzle
Post by: ridethetalk on February 08, 2023, 04:18:16 PM

It was a long shot... Thanks anyway, Alan...