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My front was revered in olden times.
My back brings life to many.
My middle is not really correct.
What am I?

Hint 1

I can be described as a thing on my own, or as a feature of something else.

Hint 2

My middle is not really correct. refers to the partial word, but can be taken quite literally too.

Hint 3

Similar to this question, the words contained in the solution may overlap.

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3 Answers 3

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A speculative second look. A convoluted explanation that the word may be

aspect

My front was revered in olden times.

asp - in ancient Egypt, one of several venomous snakes which was a symbol of royalty, including the Egyptian cobra represented by the revered goddess Meretseger.

My back brings life to many.

ECT - Electrochemotherapy or Electroconvulsive therapy may be said to bring life to quite a few.

My middle is not really correct.

Spec - Wikipedia gives this as short for Speculative evolution, which is not the accepted natural evolution. This page says: 'However, speculative biology is not the same as xenobiology —it is a larger, distinct concept, which includes the alternate evolution of life in any scenario, terrestrial or extraterrestrial'. What prompted this answer was Orphevs's profile - a Xenobiology artist!!!

Hint 1

I can be described as a thing on my own, or as a feature of something else.

The definition of aspect - a particular part or feature of something.

Hint 2

My middle is not really correct. refers to the partial word, but can be taken quite literally too.

'Spec.' is an abbreviation so is not literally correct as well as not scientifically correct.


Attempt 1: A quick thought is you are a

racer - an animal/vehicle for a speed contest or a gun carriage's rail.

My front was revered in olden times.

Ra - the Egyptian sun god.

My back brings life to many.

ER - Emergency Room - resuscitation and in general saving lives.

My middle is not really correct.

c - circa abbreviation for approximately preceding a date.

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  • $\begingroup$ I like this answer very much, Tom. It's not quite what I intended, but very good nonetheless. One third of your answer is on the right path, you just need to look for a different, more general term in the same field. $\endgroup$
    – Orphevs
    Mar 25, 2018 at 11:21
  • $\begingroup$ I think this is a bit of a stretch, especially given the hint in the OP. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Mar 25, 2018 at 11:27
  • $\begingroup$ I concur - this is quite a mindbender - I may think on! $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Mar 25, 2018 at 12:04
  • $\begingroup$ @Tom I like your second solution better than my intended one, on par with David Foong's answer. As per puzzling.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2879, I will think of hints that limit the possible solutions further. A puzzle on its own to not give away the solution right away, if you will :) $\endgroup$
    – Orphevs
    Mar 29, 2018 at 7:24
  • $\begingroup$ @Orphevs - I'm further intrigued. This is a thoroughbred three pipe problem! $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Mar 29, 2018 at 15:26
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Are you a

Godparent?

My front was revered in olden times.

Gods were revered

My back brings life to many.

Parents birth kids

My middle is not really correct.

Par -> para, greek word meaning something like "not correct". There's a little leap in logic here. Maybe it's not correct because it's supposed to be para?

I can be described as a thing on my own, or as a feature of something else.

You can be a single parent or a couple.

My middle is not really correct. refers to the partial word, but can be taken quite literally too.

Again, a little bit of a leap but para means not normal, par is literally not par as well. Overall I'm a little hesitant about this answer.

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  • $\begingroup$ Great answer, but not what I intended. 1 is on the right path, 2 not really, 3 is conceptually similar to what I intended. $\endgroup$
    – Orphevs
    Mar 27, 2018 at 21:04
  • $\begingroup$ Note also that Hint 1 does not go well with this. $\endgroup$
    – Orphevs
    Mar 27, 2018 at 21:06
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Is the answer... just a guess...

Pacer

My front was revered in olden times

Pa is generally used for pascal (the SI unit of pressure, which was named after the French polymath Blaise Pascal - who was quite a revered personality in the 1600's).

The rest of the answer is same as that of Tom.

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  • $\begingroup$ Not correct sadly. Please note that I wrote one third of Tom's answer was on the right path - never was it stated that any part of Tom's answer would be correct as it is. $\endgroup$
    – Orphevs
    Mar 25, 2018 at 23:00
  • $\begingroup$ Ok .. for sure .. will look for the same @orphevs $\endgroup$
    – Maniraj
    Mar 26, 2018 at 6:28

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