The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word DORIC
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
D
O
R
I
C
More clues leading to the result DORIC
- Greek party with wealth not half evident
- Like some architecture in Greenland or Iceland?
- Earliest of dialects of rough intonation, classically
- Greek detectives turning up to apprehend men
- A kind of column of wood or ice
- . Play Little Richard classic
- Detectives went north to seize gold order
- Architectural order seen in sand or ice
- Dialect from Greenland or Iceland
- Ancient Greek theology lessons taken by physician
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Earliest of dialects of rough intonation, classically" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case earliest of dialects of rough intonation, classically = doric.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.