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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’.
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’ could indicate the last letter in X, but that would be guaranteed to confuse solvers.