The solid foundations of Cicero’s speech? (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
terra firma
'foundations of cicero's speech?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'the solid' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'solid' could be 'firm' (synonyms) and 'firm' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for terra firma that I've seen before include "Hard ground" , "Solid ground" , "Solid earth (Latin)" , "Solid earth - dry land" .)