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david hunter

25th April 2009, 17:52
?R?A?T 6 letters - downright rascally?

Is it errant or arrant? I think errant, missus thinks arrant?
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campanilla

25th April 2009, 18:16
Score one for the missus. The word is arrant meaning complete or utter. Errant means roving.
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mike b

25th April 2009, 18:43
It could be one all. Chambers says that arrant is a variant of errant!
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campanilla

25th April 2009, 18:53
Not at all, still 1-0 to the Missus. Chambers only mentions "arrant" as being "downright, unmitigated, out-and-out,, notoriously rascally".

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trevor

25th April 2009, 19:04
wiktionary has this to say about Arrant

Utter; complete; Alternative spelling of errant
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrant

I would plump for arrant for no other reason than... actually, I don't know why, but I would.

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mike b

25th April 2009, 19:04
Things have obviously changed since my 1972 edition which adds in brackets: [A variant of errant]. Sorry to have doubted you!
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campanilla

25th April 2009, 19:14
Sorry MikeB, reading back on my answer I can see where I could have confused things. I meant that Chambers oonly mentions "arrant" as being all the things I wrote before. Errant it says is "wandering, in seach of adventure, roving, quixotic...." it doesn't mention "rascally" which was the word in the clue, so I suppose, in a way,you could use either.
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