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I have a new riddle for everyone here at Puzzling.SE, and I believe it's a safe bet to say it will be difficult to solve.

My suffix is my prefix, defined for both as well;

My infix has one anagram, its colored yellow, and smells.

What am I?

Note: In order for an answer to be accepted, you'll need to supply the correct answer, along with an explanation as to how you found your answer.

Update: As I believe this is a difficult riddle to solve, and in my honest opinion, unfair with the small amount of detail that was given; I will be adding a few hints to help you with your search. I will post three today, and then one a day for three days. However, don't expect me to go easy on you; the bread and butter of software development (in my opinion), is the ability to overcome all obstacles and use lateral thinking to solve problems both old and new. If you have questions or partial answers, don't be afraid to share.

Hint #1:

The answer you seek, can be found in due time; the solution you need, is as wide is to fine.

Hint #2:

Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Ivar the Boneless

Hint #3:

Every mom, makes everything terrific.

Hint #4:

Distilled from tar, used as flavor; don’t say I haven’t, done any favors.

Hint #5:

I run all day, I run all night; one by one, HURRAH! For the queen I fight.

Final Hint:

I have seen, in my short time; a creep of a thing, that feeds at night.
Creeping around, silent in flight; you can't seem to feel, the little guy's bite.
Often it seems, that if you have hair; he shaves it away, leaving you unaware.
A creature of nightmares, or so it would seem; usually leaves little trace at the scene.
Glowing with heat, there's no need to hear; just look for the spot, where food's flowing near.
Up until now, you've had a hard time; not quite as hard, as making this rhyme.
Leaving you hints, has surely been fun; but as this is the best, it is the last one.

Update: This riddle is definitely a difficult one to solve; there are multiple types of puzzles here:

  • Riley Riddle
  • Basic Rhyme
  • Enigmatic
  • Acrostic
  • Knowledge Based

The hints are given to help get you thinking in the proper manner; some refer directly to the word you seek, and others point to other things that can relate back to the word. To help everyone out, the answer to Hint 1 is:

Thick and Thin; I will break this down in the Making Of.

To solve from there, you'll need to figure out how each hint relates back to the word. I also want to point out that though the first hint can be related back to the word it is the most useless in helping you find the word. Each hint will get easier to solve, and in succession will reveal more and more vital information about the word you seek.

Other Useful Information:

  • Not an animal.
  • Not a commonly used word.
  • Word has more than seven letters.
  • Can be solved without hints (though incredibly difficult).
  • Think literal for the riddle; literal and lateral for the hints.

Note: I will definitely be doing a Making Of for this one after the bounty expires. However, I really want to see someone solve this!

Update: As this riddle is proving to be difficult, and as such is not receiving many responses; if you are working the riddle and wish for me to not post the answer (as the Making Of) after the bounty expires, please let me know in the comment section. Also, don't forget, help is always given to those who ask.

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  • $\begingroup$ If you'd like to add clarifications to your puzzle, please make them actual parts of the puzzle, and not just hints. For the 'too broad' close reason, hints are not considered part of the puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 20:24
  • $\begingroup$ The puzzle itself can indeed be solved without the hints, though it requires some literal and lateral thinking. I added clarification on the hints so that future solvers can look at the hints in the proper way instead of everyone believing the hints all refer to the full answer in itself. $\endgroup$
    – Taco
    Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 20:27

3 Answers 3

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I believe the answer is:

Anticoagulant

Some work is done here which is really just my though process so forgive the lack of structure:

Blood is an important part of this. The acrostic in the final hint spells out "I COAGUL...". Combine this with the acrostic where the multiple puzzles are defined: RBEAK is easily arranged to form BREAK. There is also some hints heading towards "Breakfast" "Bread and Butter". Thick and Thin is more about blood. Something that thins blood is an ANTICOAGULANT which begins and ends with "ANT" and contains "ICOAGUL" for the rest. This is probably not the end though, since ICOAGUL is not an anagram. The last hint seems to refer to leeches or ticks as well which inject an anticoagulant. Hint 5 is talking about "Ants" who march 1 by 1 and fight for the queen. Vermillion is a hint at the red color of blood. Anticoagulants are medications for people with heart conditions that are taken at breakfast as well.

Better structure: My suffix is my prefix, defined for both as well;

ANT is both the prefix and the suffix

My infix has one anagram, its colored yellow, and smells.

Not sure but: Coagulant -> Platelet has one anagram: Pallette, platelets in plasma are yellow and smell strongly i believe

Hint 1:

"As wide is to fine" -> Thick is to Thin as explained in the puzzle. Also "Solution" hints at liquids. So a thick liquid to a thin one

Hint 2:

As was said these were all known for drinking blood

Hint 3:

No idea

Hint 4:

Turpentine is a paint thinner (anticoagulant) distilled from tar

Hint 5:

"Ants go marching 1 one by one hurrah" they fight for the queen

Final Hint:

Mostly just the acrostic "ICOAGUL" is the infix. But it also describes animals that have anticoagulants in their saliva: Leeches, in particular are blind and just go after heat, leaving only a mark and you never feel the bite

After the final hint: Explanation of hint one:

Thick and Thin. Coagulated vs not coagulated

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  • $\begingroup$ You've come up with the correct answer here; however, are you able to provide more detail with your answer? I am curious as to how you found references to breakfast here (possibly unintentional). I would love to see your answer refined! Congratulations on the bounty, and definitely congratulations on the solve! +1 $\endgroup$
    – Taco
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 19:53
  • $\begingroup$ Breakfast was more or less a shot in the dark. Mostly from "Bread and butter" and talks of food in the hints as well as "Break" from the list of riddle types. Unfortunately I cannot find a reason for the rest. $\endgroup$
    – wolfram42
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ I'm about to post an initial version of the making of; this should shed some light on the riddle as a whole, to include the hints. This was a great solve on your part! $\endgroup$
    – Taco
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 20:11
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I don't know if this is right, but is it a

bat? Or maybe a vampire bat, specifically?

My suffix is my prefix, defined for both as well;

A t sort of looks like a bat (as in a baseball bat), depending on the type of bat you use.

My infix as an anagram, is colored yellow, and smells.

Tabs are often yellow and smell like paper. (This is really a stretch here)

Hint 1:

Hint 2:

Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Ivar the Boneless. All known for drinking the blood of their enemies. Vlad the Impaler is literally Dracula, or Dracula is based on him, I should say.

Hint 3:

Hint 4:

Distilled from tar, used as flavor; don’t say I haven’t, done any favors. I have no idea on this one.

Hint 5:

I run all day, I run all night; one by one, HURRAH! For the queen I fight. This sounds like an ant, which some bats eat.

Final Hint:

All of it describes common things that bats do.

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Joe, I believe your answer may be based too heavily on the final hint; I'll update the post with some clarification about the hints. This was a good guess! Give me a minute to update the post and it may help with the process. $\endgroup$
    – Taco
    Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ To help everyone here; Joe, your answer for hint 2 is spot on; your answer for hint 5 is correct, but is focused on the final hint (lateral thinking needed for the answer's relationship to the riddle). Your answer to the final hint is broad but in the right realm, look to your answer for the riddle as a whole for guidance. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. $\endgroup$
    – Taco
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 15:20
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The Making Of: Enter the Vermillion

A Word From The Poster: Thank you all for taking the time to attempt solving this riddle. I found that it was a rather difficult one to solve; even with the hints I supplied. Since this is the case, I've decided to write a "Making Of" answer, in which I will break this puzzle down. So without further ado; let's get to it!

Note: This is not a solution to the puzzle, but provides notes from its poser. This type of answer has been approved by the community.

Caution: This post may contain spoilers.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this came from an issue I had at work. In software development, an issue can arise that is referred to as a bottleneck:

A bottleneck occurs when the capacity of an application or a computer system is severely limited by a single component, like the neck of a bottle slowing down the overall water flow.

As I searched for a solution to my problem, I began thinking of analogies for my problem, along with potential solutions to those analogies. This is when the source of this riddle came to mind:

Anticoagulant; Anticoagulants are used to prevent clotting of blood.

Though the analogy was not perfect, it was good enough to get my gears turning on a riddle.

Creative Steps

The Initial Riddle

Now the initial riddle has been the same since I encountered the word. I didn't really have to put much thought into it. The prefix is the same as the suffix, and the infix didn't really make much sense; however, a simple Google search on anagrams for the infix found that there was only one available word that used all of the letters.

Guiacol; guiacol is distilled from wood tar, is yellow, and smells terrible.

This gave me the second half of the initial riddle and I called it done.

Solving the Initial Riddle

I believe it is easily perceived that no one was able to solve this on the initial riddle alone. The process of solving this one was a long road indeed.

My suffix is my prefix.

This relates to the literal fact that ant is the suffix, and the prefix of the word. Literal thinking narrows your search to words that begin and end the same.

Defined for both as well.

Ant is defined as a prefix (variant spelling of anti- before a vowel or h) and a suffix (denoting attribution of an action or state). There are only so many words in the English language that meet the requirements of this line.

My infix has one anagram, is colored yellow and smells.

Again with literal thinking, the infix of anticoagulant only has a single anagram. This is Guiacol which is explained above.

The Hints

I knew right away that finding the answer was going to be difficult, even for the more experienced. So I decided that I should create some hints to help out the community with solving it. Creating the hints (in my opinion) was definitely the hardest part. I wanted to create hints that would be helpful, but not too helpful. Another important factor was ensuring that the hints made it progressively easier to solve the riddle.

In the end, I decided that the hints should refer to not the entire word, but parts of the word, and what the word could relate to. On top of that, I didn't want to give too much away, so I made the hints into puzzles themselves.

Hint 1:

Thick and Thin: This was a rather useless hint given the fact that it was given first. However, in the long run, it does relate to anticoagulant. The relation isn't 100%, but in essence, thick can be seen as blood clotting, where thin can be seen as blood thinning.

Hint 2:

Blood Lust or Thirst/Vampire: Now this one was difficult to come up with, I wanted something that was more knowledge based for this hint. The common theme between the three tyrants supplied, is that they all (alongside their armies), slaughtered hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. This refers to the blood spilt along their way. If your first thought was to Dracula, then you're not alone, and you should know that Stoker actually got a lot of his inspiration from Atila the Hun, though the name Dracula was inspired by Vlad II Dracul. However, you can find references to all three tyrants throughout the book.

Hint 3:

Emmet: This was an acrostic, though simple to create, and harmless in the horizontal representation; it is a powerful hint. Emmet is an archaic word for ant which is the prefix and suffix of anticoagulant.

Hint 4:

Guiacol: This one is a little harder to find; however, after about 30 minutes of clicking through a Google search on distilled from tar, I found it. Guiacol is the only anagram of the infix in anticoagulant. It is yellow, smells terrible, and is used as flavoring.

Hint 5:

Ant: This is another simple but powerful puzzle as it gave away the prefix and suffix yet again. I figured if you hadn't solved the acrostic for Emmet, then you would surely get this one. This puzzle references the fact that ants are always busy, the fight for their queen, and have you ever heard The Ants go Marching?

Final Hint:

Vampire Bat/ICOAGUL: Now this one I had to get creative with. I wanted to really give this one away, but it was difficult as there is also the acrostic aspect of it. The beginning of each line in the puzzle gives the acrostic icoagul which is the true infix of anticoagulant. The puzzle also heavily refers to the Common Vampire Bat in particular due to its saliva. The saliva of the vampire bat contains an anticoagulant which is useful as it stops blood from clotting and allows it to feed on its prey.

Logistical Steps and Resources

This was mostly limited to Google and Wikipedia; however, I did use the Words Containing tool from d-Code.

Evolution

As I stated above, the initial riddle has remained the same from the start. The only thing that truly changed was the title. Originally called Fantasy Feeding: Weapons Untold, I was trying to relate the title to how the answer could be used as a weapon of sorts (the answer to the final hint does this in reality). I eventually came to the realization that this wasn't really a fitting name, and changed it to Enter the Vermillion which is a reference to the red color.

Final Thoughts

This was a difficult riddle to its core. It was fun to write, even more fun to adapt, and I learned quite a few interesting facts along my road to completion. My takeaway from this riddle is to definitely tone it down a notch and only write these in depth riddles once in a blue moon.

Questions for the Community

If you would like to present feedback, please feel free to answer the following questions in a comment below. If someone has already stated something highly similar to your thoughts, just up-vote their comment!

  • What are your thoughts on the riddle?
  • On a scale of 1 - 10, how would you rate the initial riddle?
  • Did any of the listed answers occur to you in your search at any point?
  • Is there anything I could have done better?
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    $\begingroup$ This answer technically does provide a solution to the puzzle, even if it is in spoilers. When I wrote a Making Of answer for one of my puzzles, the only spoilers were really big hints that most likely gave the answer away. But anyway that's not the point. Here is my thoughts: I really liked the riddle; it was short and sweet, easy to remember, and the first thing I thought of that was yellow and smelly was teeth that haven't been brushed (along with bad smelly breath). Pleasant thoughts xD. I rate it an 8/10 (or 4/5 for those math enthusiasts). It is great just as the way it is. Favourited :D $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Commented Sep 8, 2018 at 12:43

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