Polygon 5 July

Polygon puzzle

Using the given letters no more than once, make as many words as possible of four or more letters, always including the central letter. Capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives are disallowed. How you rate: 10 words, average; 14, good; 17, very good; 21, excellent. Click here for rules and tips on how to play Polygon Source: The Times Answers in the comments.

Comments

[Maxine]

deep, deepen, depict, épée, epic, epicene, incept, inept, neep, pecten, pectin, peen, pein, pent, piece, pied, pine, pint, tepee, tepid

centipede is the word using all the letters.

(I think this selection of words is better than usual -- Tom, did they miss any?!)

[Susan]

Only 15 today, Maxine. I missed centipede and a few others I should have seen. No strange words today, other than 'pecten' for me. It's one I hadn't come across before.

[Tom]

'pecten' was new for me also. And I did not get 'centipede' which really annoys me, arghh! ;-)

'pend' and 'pence' are the two additional words that I thought of. 'pend' they don't seem to like but if they like 'ute' then I don't know how they could not like 'pend'! 'pence' is arguably a plural.

My dictionary also has 'piend' as an alternate spelling for 'pein'.

[Maxine]

Pecten I know without looking up is that chemical in some fruit that makes it set when you are making jam.
Funny the things one picks up, in this case a result of trial and error in jam making when a teenager and living in the country for a couple of years. (Mostly error, I would have to say. But you can use the errors as sauce.)

[Maxine]

PS Tom, I agree on pend and pence, well done/spotted!

[Susan]

I got the 'pectin' pectin...that's the jam-making component. 'Pecten' is defined in my dictionary thusly:

n., pl-tines, Zoo., Anat. 1. A comblike part or process. 2. A pigmented vascular membrane with parallel folds suggesting the teeth of a comb, projecting into the vitreous humor of the eye in birds and reptiles. (from Middle English for a comb)

We'll file that under 'useless information'!

[Maxine]

Yes, you are right, Susan, it says "comb-like appendage" in my dictionary too. Yet another word I've been blithely spelling wrong for years!

[Tom]

I remarked that 'pence' might be considered plural so I ask those of you in Britian for your opinion.

Why 'pence' might be plural:

The word 'pence' is actually a change in spelling for the word 'pents'. 'Pents' was the plural form of penny. One penny, two pents. One penny, two pence. In fact, the last time I was in Great Britian was the early 80's and the coins that I have at home from that trip say 'one new penny' and 'two new pence'. So, is 'pence' ever used in the singular form? Does the expression 'one pence' make sense? If not, then 'pence' would fall into the same category as 'geese' and not be valid for this puzzle.

[Maxine]

Tom, your pence question goes beyond my expertise and I am still smarting from getting pectin wrong.
But I would venture to suggest that "pence" is used as if it were a collective noun, and hence on those grounds might qualify. I am prepared to stand corrected. (But Susan, I think, is not English apart from in her genes, so I am probably safer than I have a right to expect ;-) )