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Hi, isĀ i.e. an acceptable link word? Especially from wordplay to definition. Or would it depend on context?
Hi Alex
Very good question. I have never considered the use of abbreviations of Latin words/phrases in that role.
I think one could certainly make an argument for ‘ie’ (or i.e., depending on the ‘house’ style of the target publication) being valid in the W=>D direction, as you suggest. Context is only relevant insofar as it affects the grammatical validity of the link, so “Fellow holding back from expenditure, ie tight-fisted” would seem ok for MEAN, but “Fellow holds back from expenditure, ie tight-fisted” isn’t.
I don’t feel that ‘ie’ is quite right as a link from definition to wordplay – but ‘eg’ could work in that role. ‘Viz’ strikes me as similar to ‘ie’, so it would be valid as a link from wordplay to definition.
How solvers would feel about such links I don’t know – I’ve not seen these abbreviations used in that way, but others may have.
Thanks, Doc. I had a quick look on &lit to see if it had been used but it breaks the 3-letter rule for searches. I had been considering a clue for DOWNSIZE (now abandoned) and i.e. seemed to work in it. ‘Cheat with new dimensions i.e. implement ‘shrinkflation’ (8) . Yes, ‘viz’ and ‘eg’ also seem like good link words to me (if used in the appropriate direction). When you mention ‘house style’ do you mean avoid using the likes of these for the top barred puzzles?
Yes, I think it works absolutely fine in that clue.
When I mentioned ‘house style’ I was just referring to the fact that the style guides for most UK newspapers dictate the use of ‘ie’ and ‘eg’ (no full points), but Azed has always used ‘i.e’ and ‘e.g.’, and in the past so has Gemelo – although in G48 we have ‘Eg’ in the clue for 17d. Part of the crossword editor’s job is to ensure consistency with the publication’s style guide when it comes to abbreviations, italics etc, so it’s not something that need concern the setter.
Apologies, I misread that part of your previous comment š³Ā
Hi Doctor,
Can “top” be used to indicate the 1st letter even in an across clue? And “topless” to delete the 1st char?
Hi RK
I don’t think you would get a clear consensus from setters or editors on the validity of ‘top’ in an across clue. None of the definitions in Chambers clearly justify its use, although ‘The earliest part (as in the Irish greeting top of the morning)’ could be read as lending support. However, expressions like ‘take it from the top’ and ‘at the top of the programme’ suggest a rough equivalence with ‘start’; I’m not convinced, though, that most solvers would make that connection, and I would not myself use ‘top’ in an across clue. That said, I also feel that most solvers when presented with ‘top of x’ would think ‘first letter of X’, regardless of the orientation of the grid entry. I certainly prefer it to ‘topless’, since a piece of music or a radio programme simply could not be ‘topless’.
Conversely, in a down clue I prefer ‘topless’ to ‘top’ – the former requires the solver to imagine the affected word being entered downwards in the grid and just the first letter then being deleted, while the latter involves everything except the first letter being deleted, which seems a stretch, particularly if the word is too long for the number of cells available. That is , of course, unless we accept ‘top’ as being valid in a horizontal plane based on the discussion above.
Incidentally, Collins says ‘The top of a street, garden, bed, or table is the end of it that is farthest away from where you usually enter it or from where you are.’ That might suggest that ‘top of X’ couldĀ indicate the last letter in X, but that would be guaranteed to confuse solvers.