Brainteaser

“Name of machine part only women use” 8 letters

Answer is in white – highlight to see (Cognomen)

pgk

I'm glad I hate crosswords and looked at the answer after 60 seconds

I've not seen that word in 60 years, never mind the 10 years I've been playing with lathes

Me too, except I had to look up the word on t’nternet! Perhaps because I followed the science route at school, rather than humanities…

I've never heard of that word.

The obscurity is terrific!

Surely its a hanging offence to use the phrase ' only women ' these days?

What part of a machine is it ?

Solving cryptic crosswords is a bit like engineering. An interesting challenge, where the individual answers aren't always obvious, but come together as a satisfying whole. Cryptic crosswords and engineering both require a fair amount of free time, and just like engineering, not everyone enjoys doing them! Crosswords can be deeply frustrating, just like engineering!

Crosswords have rules that must be learned and practised too; cryptic answers have to go 'ding, ding, ding':

• Machine part = cog
• Only women = 'no men'
• Name = 'cognomen', (and women conventionally take the male family name on marriage)

The big difference is engineers can blame their tools; no excuses if you can't do a crossword...

Dave

A cog?

I think the clue is clumsy and weak.

'Cognomen' means literally 'known name' (from cognoscere - to know) so its nearest English match is 'nickname' - although Romans passed them to succeeding generations.

A better clue might be 'Nickname of gear in female-staffed workshop?' . The question mark is conventionally used to indicate there might be a pun in it somewhere.

If both crosswords and engineering train minds for flexibility and lateral thinking, at least engineering has the occasional by-product of a useful or amusing working mechanism!

omg

No wonder I'm rubbish at xwords

Blame the Daily Telegraph Crossword Book No3
OH and I try to keep brains ticking over and see who can dredge obscure clue answers out of our heads.

pgk

That baffled me - but I don't recall ever seeing the word "cognomen" anyway!

My local paper changed its puzzle page somewhat - or the syndicating publisher did - a while ago and the cryptic crossword went up a notch or two in difficulty with it.

I've cracked some of the new compiler's tricks but at times when I see the missed solutions next day there are still one or two that appear to bear no relation to their clues.

Hmmm. Cog - nomen. Well, let's face it, we here know those toothed wheels as 'gears' not 'cogs', so that's us at a disadvantage to the non-engineering readership. Unless we are millwrights in which case the teeth morticed into the wheel rims are 'cogs'.

.

For what it’s worth … the word actually derives from co-gnomen [an associated name], so has litle-or-nothing to do with cogs.

MichaelG.

Well mostly we know non-engineers who might use 'cog' to mean 'gear' - which itself of course has several alternative meanings.

This link explores the origin of 'cog' - and that confusion - in its last paragraph:

**LINK**

What makes a good cryptic clue, or not, is a subject in itself. I like clues I have some hope of understanding and always start by looking for anagrams.

Although engineers are good at problem solving, they may be too open, honest and literal minded to enjoy cryptic crosswords. Engineering focuses strongly on fact and practical considerations, where tact, people skills, economics, and seeing the big picture are often irrelevant. It may explain why so many engineers are hopelessly naive outside their specialisation. Never imagine understanding a few tools or electrons means you should be running the country.

Cryptic crosswords are more relevant to the murky world of sales, management and politics, where success often depends on decoding what others are up to. Hard to decide if their motives are logical, emotional, they've made a mistake, or are incompetent, clever, greedy, dishonest, or know something you don't. People problems require a cryptic crossword mindset, devious and much dependent on guesswork...

Dave

I've edited SOD's contribution to highlight the attributes for running a country......

There is a satisfaction in decoding a cryptic clue but often you need to follow a particular setter to get into their mindset and understand the clues and cues. My wife is the enthusiast but i enjoy the occasional discovery of a word I haven't used in a long time. It can be as simple as 'eventide' or more obscure (outside the House of Commons) 'pusillanimous poltroon' - search Hansard

pgk

Michael -

I know the word sought had nothing to do with engineering.

Splitting co-gnoman into cog-noman is a typical cross-word play on words, in this case using the mechanical suggestion as "A submarine specimen misleadingly listing to port"!

Sorry I bothered mentioning it, Nigel

MichaelG.

You don't need apologise, Michael! I was not offended or anything!