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In Codenames, can you give a clue when the series of letters of one of the tiles on the table is contained within it?
For example, can you give the clue "barrier" when "bar" is on the table? Or "bandolier" and "band"?
To be clear, I'm not asking about cases where the words are clearly etymologically linked. Like "fire" and "firefighter" or "link" and "linkage". The confusion arises in cases where the words aren't clearly related, but one still entirely contains the other in an unrelated way.
Yes, you can.
While certain questions like this will be up to each play group to decide; this one is actually directly addressed in the rules.
At the bottom of page 6:
England and island were originally compound words, but in this century, island is a valid clue for ENGLAND. Even land is a valid clue for ENGLAND. And anybody who says you can't say sparrow when ROW is on the table is just trying to cause trouble.
ring for tasering because it's a clue about the word rather than the thing. I just kept my earlier comment simple but true.
The examples you give are not good examples, because they are, in fact, etymologically related. As GendoIkari says, the rules cite "sparrow" and "row" as an example of two unrelated words. The rules say that "row" being on the table does not bar "sparrow" from being used. However, given that the rules say that clues must relate to the meaning, rather than letters of a word, the fact that "sparrow" and "row" are unrelated means that "sparrow" can't be used as a clue for "row".
