Old-Fashioned Crossword Vocabulary (2024)

Aqaba, Jordan’s relaxed port on the Red Sea, where women swim at public beaches. (Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times)

Half Century Puzzlemakers’ Week

Notes from Will Shortz:

Arthur Schulman, of Charlottesville, Va., is a retired psychology professor at the University of Virginia. He made his debut in the Sunday Times on Sept. 19, 1954. He believes he had a daily puzzle in the paper as early as 1952. Margaret Farrar, in a letter to me in 1977, rated Arthur one of the top 10 constructors in the country. I met him on my last evening at U.Va. law school in 1977, when he came to my room for a puzzle chat, and we’ve been friends ever since. Arthur is a member of the National Puzzlers’ League, he’s expert at constructing vowelless crosswords, and he was the co-author recently of “Websterisms,” a book on the words and definitions of Noah Webster.

I’m going to help you out with this one. In fact, I’m going to completely spill the beans, so don’t read on if you want to avoid spoilers.

The notepad in Across Lite claims that this puzzle “should be easy for solvers who remember their old-fashioned crossword vocabulary.” Sure enough. It’s a treat for solvers who can recall when answer words like AIS, OCA, MOAS, ERI, ARA and ERS were common crossword currency. This puzzle has the delightful theme of turning those hoary old words around and making them the clues, asking us to come up with the question. (Sounds like a great idea for a game show — I wonder if anyone’s thought of that.)

It’s a reminder of how puzzles have evolved over the decades. Modern puzzles are both more creative and more natural. Answers now can include proper names, brand names, pop culture references, and elaborate wordplay. All of these are modern inventions. Yes, I know, many of you miss the old days. If so, you’re in luck today. However, if you haven’t been solving crosswords for at least 15 years, today’s challenge is going to be tough.

Let’s go through the theme answers in order. AIS is obviously a useful combination of letters. Thank goodness detective Kinsey Millhone came along to help us out. Modern definitions are usually something like “Sue Grafton’s ___ for Alibi.” Before that, we were stuck with cute THREE TOED SLOTHS.

Next is OCA. In it’s singular form it might be a “South American tuber” or “Mozart’s L’___ del Cairo” but we have OCAS, which is crosswordese for WOOD SORRELS, plants with pretty white flowers and, yes, edible tubers.

MOAS might be the easiest theme clue. These now-extinct FLIGHTLESS BIRDS were relatives of kiwis. How can we be sure they were flightless? They were wingless. They were also huge, as tall as 12 feet.

ERI is another clearly winning letter combination. Constructors would presumably like to avoid it but with 50 uses in my database it’s clearly too good to pass up. Typically clued as Verdi’s “___ tu” now (opera to the rescue!) it has historically been an ASSAM SILKWORM.

ARA is even more popular. We’re used to seeing it in the context of “Coach Parseghian of Notre Dame” but the classical reference is to the CONSTELLATION in the southern sky near Scorpius and Telescopium.

Finally, ERS might be the oddest of all for modern solvers. An ers, also called an ervil, is a BITTER VETCH. A vetch is a climbing plant cultivated for its edible seeds and for forage. Oy.

Even the fill is tough for tyros. The Abbey Theatre in Dublin featured the works of Sean O’CASEY. Massenet’s opera SAPHO is rarely performed. Renato’s wife in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” is named AMELIA. “#13 in the Bronx, informally” refers to a very wealthy Bronx Bomber. O-LAN is a slave in the House of Hwang from Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth.”

I imagine this puzzle ran on Thursday instead of later in the week because it’s themed. It’s the toughest Thursday in a long time. Let’s see what the rest of the week brings.