Co-ordinate basic manoeuvres before fool shows up (8)
I believe the answer is:
abscissa
'co-ordinate basic manoeuvres before fool shows up' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'basic manoeuvres before fool shows up' is the wordplay.
'manoeuvres' indicates anagramming the letters (letters manoeuvred in a new way).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'fool' becomes 'ass' (both can mean a stupid person).
'shows up' is a reversal indicator.
'ass' in reverse letter order is 'ssa'.
'basic' with letters rearranged gives 'absci'.
'absci'+'ssa'='ABSCISSA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abscissa that I've seen before include "quantity on graph" , "X co-ordinate" , "Intercept" , "X-coordinate on a graph" .)