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You've seen me often, know me well,
my name the scribes and sages tell.
My many kin you also know,
but I'm most famed, as our kind go.

One sister's love is grand largesse,
another's like me, more or less.
My brother shuns such grand appeal,
he much prefers his meager meal.

Our distant cousin's always in,
and that implies he's also kin.
And where one village holds another,
you'll often find our eldest brother.

I keep the peace with great panache.
Strike me down and neighbours clash,
or leave me be, it's all the same,
but tell me, friend, what is my name?


Puzzlers are politely encouraged to place answers in spoiler blocks to avoid inadvertently spoiling the fun for other readers. :)

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12 Answers 12

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I am thinking that "strike me down and neighbours clash" might have to do with keys on a keyboard. When you type, typically you are not just pressing one key, you are pressing a bunch of keys one right after another. So neighboring keys will clash - not with each other, but clash with the bottom of the keyboard.

You are the most famous ("I'm most famed") - the Enter key. "Another's like me" - that is the other Enter key on the keyboard (on the keypad on the right side).

Your "sister's love is grand largesse". That means your sister outputs more than the others. She is the Tab key - a tab is equivalent to several characters (several spaces).

Your brother "prefers his meager meal". That means your brother eats characters - he is either the Backspace or Delete key.

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    $\begingroup$ Some wonderfully creative responses thus far. And while nobody has hit on the precise theme just yet, you're correct in assuming the answer is right under your nose. $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 16:24
  • $\begingroup$ @COTO In a way I got your answer, because in calculator programs, the Enter key is the same as the = key. :) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 5:08
  • $\begingroup$ Your answer definitely seemed to be the best fit, so you get the checkmark FWIW. ;) $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 5:11
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The "correct" solution for reference purposes.

My proper respects to all the thoughtful and creative answers. :)

Note that you can keep a spoiler locked to "visible" by clicking on it.

    Famous Family

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    $\begingroup$ They should start teaching math this way, it would be a better world. $\endgroup$
    – Emi987
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 23:06
  • $\begingroup$ Because the gator always eats the bigger pile of cookies, right?! $\endgroup$
    – corsiKa
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 23:13
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    $\begingroup$ @corsiKa: Absolutely. Type in "greater than clipart" into Google Images and get 1,000 varieties of gators eating cookies images. :D $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 23:14
  • $\begingroup$ Mine is right next to the right shift tho because of the azerty keyboard. $\endgroup$
    – Lyrion
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 15:09
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Your name is Middle Finger.

Your sister's love with grand largess is the wedding band on the ring finger.

The one like you is either the index or middle finger. More or less indicates that it could be either one of you, but let's face, there's only one "The Finger" and it's the middle one.

Your distant cousin is the thumb. It's not exactly a finger, but we always say we have five fingers... not four and a thumb.

The meager meal is the pinky. It's much smaller, we can only assume it uses less of the total body intake to sustain itself.

One village holding another refers to people holding hands.

Striking down the hand could mean a number of things: refusing to shake hands could certainly cause a war, or the striking could be someone physically striking someone, that would definitely cause a clash! If you mean it literally, then when you slam your fist on the table, pinky down, your ring will clash your pinky, your middle clash your ring, and your index clash your middle, all in succession.

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Your name is

the sun

Your sister could be

Sister star HD 162826

The distant cousin's would refer to

pretty much all other stars

Not so sure about the brother, however

the meager meal could imply it's a collapsed sun (resulting in a black hole, "eating" whatever comes close enough)

I keep the peace with great panache. Strike me down and neighbours clash,

could refer to:

Remove the sun and planets will fall out of orbit, possible crashing into each other

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Wall (although I'm not sure)

You've seen me often, know me well, my name the scribes and sages tell. My many kin you also know, but I'm most famed, as our kind go.

There are many walls described in history but the most famous are the "recent ones"

One sister's love is grand largesse,

Chinese Great Wall, the other "famous" wall could be the Wall of Berlin

Our distant cousin's always in, and that implies he's also kin.

Walls inside houses

And where one village holds another, you'll often find our eldest brother.

Walls inside a city (e.g. Florence in Italy has nowadays old city walls that "hold" the center, but outside the city has grown, so basically a village holds another

I keep the peace with great panache. Strike me down and neighbours clash

Needless to say...

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    $\begingroup$ +1 for brilliant out-of-the-box thinking. Not a perfect match, but a definite bonus for creativity. $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 16:26
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You are the space.

Your family is

punctuation marks

As such (what I could make of it):

Eldest brother - Period
Sister 1 - Exclamation mark
Sister 2 - Paragraph
Cousin - Comma

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Ok, This is maybe just silly, but I'll give it a shot.

Your name is... Mouth.

You've seen me often, know me well,
my name the scribes and sages tell.
My many kin you also know,
but I'm most famed, as our kind go.

The kind here are other orifices.

One sister's love is grand largesse,
another's like me, more or less.

The two sisters, I'm not sure about this one. The first could be the eyes, but I don't see how the second could be ears...

My brother shuns such grand appeal,
he much prefers his meager meal.

The brother is the nose, the meal is air, which is less than food/air like the mouth "eats"

Our distant cousin's always in,
and that implies he's also kin.

The belly button, I guess? usually an "innie"

And where one village holds another,
you'll often find our eldest brother.

Clearly the butt holding your eldest brother, the anus.

I keep the peace with great panache.
Strike me down and neighbours clash,

if you don't have a mouth all the other ones kinda fall apart.

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  • $\begingroup$ I was thinking along those lines, but I think your front teeth make more sense. $\endgroup$
    – Otaia
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 20:15
  • $\begingroup$ lol I think the time has come to post the answer. I'll do so shortly. $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 20:37
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Could the answer be

a font?
There could be all kinds of relatives if you factor in font size, bold, italics, strike through, letter spacing, etc.

You've seen me often, know me well, <-- You are looking at it right now

One sister's love is grand largesse, <-- Bold

another's like me, more or less. <-- Italics

he much prefers his meager meal. <-- StrikeThrough?

Our distant cousin's always in <-- Condensed

Strike me down and neighbours clash, <-- Change font size?
or leave me be, it's all the same,

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Not an answer by itself, I would like to add to pacoverflow 's answer, which I believe to be correct. (But I can't comment)

Your "sister's love is grand largesse" could also mean either the Caps Lock or the Shift, since they "like" making things big

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Your name is backspace

One sister's love is grand largesse, <- ENTER

another's like me, more or less. <- DELETE

My brother shuns such grand appeal, <- INSERT

he much prefers his meager meal. <- as insertmode overrides

Our distant cousin's always in, <- numlock/capslock

And where one village holds another, <- between ctrl/alt - altgr/ctrl

you'll often find our eldest brother. <- SPACEBAR

Strike me down and neighbours clash, <- two words clash as you backspace

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Your name is pen.

my name the scribes and sages tell.

both scribes and sages write

One sister's love is grand largesse,

perhaps she's generous with ink -- a fountain pen?

another's like me, more or less.

could be a pencil.

My brother shuns such grand appeal, he much prefers his meager meal.

he's a highly efficient pen -- ballpoint or fine point perhaps.

Our distant cousin's always in, and that implies he's also kin.

not sure what to make of this stanza.

And where one village holds another, you'll often find our eldest brother.

The eldest brother could be a feather pen. The village could be an inkwell, but that seems like a bit of a stretch.

I keep the peace with great panache. Strike me down and neighbours clash,

written peace treaties.

or leave me be, it's all the same,

if you don't use a pen, it's essentially the same as striking one down.

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Kim Kardashian. You know, she's the most famous one of the whole clan, and the mentions of close sisters and brothers...

Well, at least there's my attempt :)

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    $\begingroup$ Who's the distant cousin???? $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 5:50
  • $\begingroup$ No idea, sorry. I'm far from an expert in the subject :) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 5:56

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