STER is often the answer for the crossword clue
[Trick’s conclusion] or [Suffix with hip]
The [Occupational suffix] STER is a [Suffix with poll or pun].
Sometimes, when a constructor is building a crossword puzzle and no better answer works, an [Analog of -ist] like STER or some other suffix will have to suffice.
Though they accomplish their bit part in puzzles, as bits of words they lack the elegance imparted by full answers. The subtle pleasure of seeing full, meaningful words commingle and interlock in a grid ebbs when prefixes and suffixes are tossed in.
I suspect all constructors regret relying on answers like STER. So to atone–or at least mitigate its inclusion–they’re likely to try to stir up something interesting with STER and have it pop up playfully as something like:
- [Poll closing?]
- [Team finale?]
- [Gang follower?]
- [End of the road?]
- [Hip attachment?]
- [Back of the dump?]
Clues for STER such as [Nap finish?] have vanished like the file-sharing platform it alluded to. The name of the [Company founded by Shawn Fanning] was first a nickname given to Fanning; he was called “NAPSTER” because of his nappy hair.
Long before music came to folks’ homes via Napster, it may have come to town thanks to a songster, which also can bring STER to a grid as a [Song ending?].
The suffix -ster itself has been around for ages, and is still hanging out in some common words and last names. A “barrister” is a “bar-ster.” The name “Dempster” once connoted a “judge,” built of “deem-ster,” and “Baxter” was first cooked up as “bake-ster.”
