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My prefix ends fast
My suffix is behind mast
My infix is a type of daisy
I'm oriental (and this last rhyme is lazy)

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  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Bass is a poet and he doesn't even realize it. $\endgroup$
    – Chowzen
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 14:18
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ Oh, trust me, I do know it; English isn’t my first language, so I have to verify each rhyme with a dictionary. $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 15:04

3 Answers 3

15
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You are ...

Eastern.

My prefix ends fast

The festival of Easter ends Lent, the time of fasting.

My suffix is behind mast

The stern is the rear part of a ship.

My infix is a type of daisy

An aster is a kind of daisy. (Or is it the other way round?)

I'm oriental (and this last rhyme is lazy)

Oriental means Eastern.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yup, that's it, exactly. I'm secretly not an actual expert on daisy taxonomy, so I had to use the ultimate source of absolute truths, from which I understood that "daisies" is the common (as in unscientific) name of the family Compositae, which recently got their scientific name changed to the A-word derivative. The A-word then is the type genus of that family, and then again, the type species of the A-word genus is the European Michaelmas-daisy. So, maybe, "yes, it's the other way around, too"? $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 21:46
  • $\begingroup$ I was a bit confused when I looked this up. To me, asters are colourful ornamental flowers that blossom in autumn and daisies are the small white and yellow flowers that grow on the lawn. To my non-botanical mind these are two different flowers. Apparently either daisies or asters may refer to the family. ("Aster" is a staple of German crosswords, where it is invariably clued as "autumn flower".) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 5:57
  • $\begingroup$ Checking after the fact, there seems to be two five-star answers to the crossword clue kind of daisy (5), the other being ”oxeye”, which still doesn’t add any clarity to the fact, but at least it offers an easy fix to the riddle, if such is needed. As an unrelated aside, I originally planned to have the suffix include one more letter, since that was the maximal overlap I could find for four unrelated words. Sadly, using the non-maximal word made for a much better puzzle :-) $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 6:35
  • $\begingroup$ Ox-eye was the first thig I thought of (without looking it up), but it makes a poor infix. Just to be clear:I don't think your puzzle needs to be fixed; The parenthetical remark about the aster was just to show my confusion.In hindsight,I should have left it out. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Apr 11, 2018 at 6:44
4
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Probably incorrect:

Checkmate

My prefix ends fast

prefix = check - like a tick mark denotes something which has been done/finished

My suffix is behind mast

suffix = mate - before the mast is a sailors term meaning all the common sailors. Therefore all the other crew members with some rank are 'behind the mast'. Mate is a sailor's rank

My infix is a type of daisy

No idea

I'm oriental (and this last rhyme is lazy)

Chess came from the East therefore is oriental. Also usually it is very slow paced.

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    $\begingroup$ I don’t think there’s anything I intended in this answer, remarkably good work getting so far! +1! (How fortunate for me that the riley-riddle template is so overspecified with the triple wordplays; had you managed to fit in the bit about the daisies, I’d have been forced to seriously consider accepting this answer even though it was’t the intended one.) $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 14:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Bass I had the same feeling but nevertheless decided to post it. $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 14:48
4
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I think you are:

Aster

My prefix ends fast

ast ends fast

My suffix is behind mast

er can be put behind mast to form master

My infix is a type of daisy

an aster is a type of daisy

I'm oriental (and this last rhyme is lazy)

the aster is native to eastern asia

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2
  • $\begingroup$ I like this, I hope this is the one. Very clever riddle if so $\endgroup$
    – Sensoray
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 20:09
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    $\begingroup$ Oh wow, this is brilliant! The whole word doesn’t usually count as the infix, but otherwise, quite flawless! $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 20:53

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