Bee Roots for 2021-09-06

The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes, tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.

Past clues are available here

Today's puzzle

Table content

clue #words coveredroot 1st letterclue
11AIndifference
21ASleep breathing disorder
31EFencing sword
41HOccur
51HPleased (“Don’t worry, be…”)
61HStack in a disorderly pile, verb/noun
71HSeven-carbon chain
81HIntense promotion, noun or verb (“Don’t believe the…”)
92HPunctuation between compound words (dog-friendly, e.g.)
101NScruff of the neck
111NTide with least difference between low & high water
121NFictional medicine for sorrow
131PSong of praise or triumph
141PSingle sheet of window glass
151PWhat a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun
161P♀ undergarment, slang (…hose)
171PFather, slang
181PTropical fruit with black seeds
191PSlang term for father or grandfather
201PChopped liver (…de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head
212PLegal document that protects an invention
221PWalking or bike trail
231PPeppermint candy (& friend of Marcie in “Peanuts”) or burger form
241PGive $ in exchange for goods or services, verb/noun
251P♀ of a bird with showy plumage
262PFuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg
271PBackside of a hammer
281PBaby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look
291PBaseball banner
301PTube pasta, vodka optional
311P1¢ coin
321PArchaic for “repressed,” now used as …-up frustration, adj.
331PFive-carbon chain
341PEnergy, liveliness, noun/verb
351PTrivial (…crime) (think late “Heartbreakers” singer Tom)
361P“Excellent” in hip-hop slang, NOT obese
371TSpanish bar snack (usually plural)
381TAdhesive strip
392TNative Am conical hut, 2 spellings
401TWhat you do on a keyboard
411YSharp, shrill bark; slang term for a person's mouth; Pacific island with giant coins

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.

The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.

One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.

I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout

Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.