Bee Roots for 2021-09-09

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
11AWhat a sneeze sounds like
21ANautical greeting (“…there, matey!”)
31ADried poblano pepper
41AIrritate, vex, irk
51ASoon, poetically
61AInformal, humorous subject-changer after an interruption or diversion; compound
71CBean source of Hershey Bars
81CHarsh discordant mixture of sounds, pangram
91CWheeled artillery
101CNikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun
111CAwning, or ornamental cloth cover over beds or Jewish weddings (huppa)
121CDeep gorge, from Spanish (“Grand”)
131CMafia boss, or moveable bar on a guitar
141CCastrated chicken fattened for eating
152CCut into pieces (...suey)
161CAthletic instructor or trainer, noun/verb; bus, noun
171C1st part of popular soda brand name
181CHot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from
191CNest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb
201CSilver Pacific salmon
211CSea snail with spiral shell
221CChicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (…ed up)
231CYour out-of-pocket share of a medical bill before insurance
241CReproduce, or reproduction (Xerox)
251HBoss (head…); Japanese
261HCheap liquor
271H○ you jump through or spin around your waist (hula...)
281HHaving the flavor or aroma of Humulus lupulus
291HSlang abbr. for medical needle (-dermic)
301NTortilla chip topped with melted cheese and often other tasty toppings
311N12:00, midday, 🕛
321OSunfish, kingfish, Jerusalem haddock, or redfin ocean pan; close to TV queen with her OWN network & magazine
331PRecord player, slang abbr.
341PFake, or imposter
351PCook by simmering in a small amount of liquid (...ed egg); hunt illegally, verb
361PCloth with a head slit, (rain…)
371PYankee Doodle went riding into town on this small horse breed
381PDog, slang (don’t screw the…)
391PChristopher Robbins’ Winnie The…Bear
401PTire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang
411PDaddy
421PFlower used to make opium or honor veterans
431YExclamation ("I’m rich!"), or Web portal & search engine before Google!
441Y“Hey, over here!” exclamation, or chocolate drink brand

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.