The “Some called out for a proportional prototype” clue doesn’t make much sense at first glance. But then again, has any cryptic clue ever done so? This one comes from The Times Cryptic No. 25481 at 20A, and it’s a tough nut to crack if you’re not well-versed in cryptics. The key is spotting the indicator, whatever it may be, to figure out what kind of trickery is happening here. There are all sorts of these indicators in cryptics, and here I’ll walk you through which one is at work here after answering away the “Some called out for a proportional prototype” clue.
Some Called Out for a Proportional Prototype Crossword Clue Answer
SCALEMODEL is the answer to the “Some called out for a proportional prototype” clue.
An anagram is at play in this cryptic, with the indicator being “out”. It hints that something’s not where it should be. The letters that need rearranging are SOMECALLED, and from that mix, you can get the answer.
Cryptics usually give you more than just the anagram indicator to work with, however, and here the extra nudge is “proportional prototype”. In architecture, that’s a physical representation built to scale, keeping all proportions intact while shrinking or enlarging. That’s exactly what a scale model is, and it is the neat little solution hiding inside SOMECALLED.
