Pedants' corner
Cryptic crossword question
CanadianJohn · 24/03/2023 15:52
Pedants, I believe, like words, so I'm hoping someone here can help me.
My wife likes to do cryptic crosswords... I sometimes help, if she gets stuck. Yesterday, we both got stuck. The clue was "Striking elevation of knowledge" and the answer, revealed in the newspaper today, was "bump".
Okay, I see the striking connection, I see the elevation connection, but... where does "education" come in.
Someone will know, I'm sure.
ProtectorExtraordinaryOfTheCantonsOfNim · 24/03/2023 16:10
If you have a particularly prominent occipital bone that's sometimes known as a "knowledge bump", I believe. So I think it's [striking = bump] and [elevation of knowledge = bump], rather than [striking = bump], [elevation = bump] and [knowledge = ?].
AlisonHalligan · 24/03/2023 16:14
Hmm, I think you're trying to parse it as "striking elevation" (as in a bump on the head) which is leaving you just with the "knowledge" bit and this is sending you wrong.
Better to take the first part as just "striking" (was it actually "A striking"?- this would work slightly better)- in the sense of one thing hitting against another (bump). Leaving you with "elevation of knowledge"- bump, in the sense of bringing something up to the top (eg bumping a thread on here).
Marynotsocontrary · 07/04/2023 03:17
As a pp mentioned, 'bump' is an online slang term for the practice of posting filler comments following a particular post that you think deserves attention. Often the word bump is all that's posted. It's said to stand for 'bring up my post'. it increases the thread's visibility thus bringing the required post to the fore. Maybe this is the 'elevation of knowledge' meant.
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