6 Comments

These are great! TBH (another good one) I though that NPC and NGL must've been used at one point.

When I suggested SJW to the Cruciverb email.list, it led to a strong thumbs down. I personally think politics should be removed from crosswords, or CWs, and I strongly disagreed with the decision to remove offensive words from the NWL (scrabble word list) (another one) .

Speaking of Scrabble, TWS, DWS, TLS and DLS are all easily inferrable and understandable acronyms from scrabble.

And i would allow possessives. Speaking of DW, DWS clued as "___ Lost Blankie (Arthur Book)" or "Belonging to Arthur's sister" should be acceptable.

Same as ETS - Belonging to a famous alien. I think it's better than CFPs (or citation form plurals). (Also another one).

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I'll get into this tomorrow, but my main source for "was it in a crossword?" is Matt Ginsberg's clue and answer database, which covers most of the major traditional markets as well as a few well-established online ones and was updated up to mid-2023. In those listings, TBH makes the cut with 21 entries, and ETS is hugely popular with 1712. There are a few instances of Scrabble-word abbreviations and possessives getting in, though only occasionally.

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I notice JCs, am abbreviation very familiar from camp (junior councelors) rarely appears and never as the common meaning.

MVA as an accident is also nonexistent.

WIX has been used once, a Weebly competitor.

AZW is the kindle format.

The first three letters on a keyboard : QWE, ASD, ZXC. Or the last: IOP, JKL, BNM.

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Crosswordtracker.com, my main source, has no Entry for DWS, though it could be clued as a possessive for Arthur's sister or the Scrabble space. I do see that TLS and TWS have been used by the late great Merl Reagle.

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David Niven in Reno reading from the

Bible

OR

Niven & NIV in Nev

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I am astonished to see after checking that WIC, the government program, has never been used. It's a pronounced common acronym!

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