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12A: Indonesion, not old, fit (6)
_ e s i t

Yes, I know I've only given 5 letters, that's how the answer should appear in the grid: one letter must be removed from the definition before entering it. The letter that will not appear is "o". However, the clued indication will yield only the 5 letters that appear. I think the answer is "besit" (a word that can mean "fit") but have been unable to find any word that, with the addition of "o" to the above five letters, gives a six letter word (such as "besito") that would mean "Indonesian".

Could the answer be BORNE(O). Borne is the past particple of bear. One of the many meanings of bear is given as "be fit or suitable for something".

Stephen
NESIOT (Indonesian) - NE (not, old as in archaic) SIT (fit)

To GRM
Surely,the Indonesian related word minus 0 (for old) produces a five letter word meaning fit. Is nesit a stand alone word?

The instructions from the Azed are "From the answer to each clue the solver must omit one letter wherever it occurs (often more than once) before entry in the diagram. Definitions in the clues refer to the full, unmutilated answers; subsidiary indications, such as anagrams etc, refer to the mutilated forms to be entered in the diagram. Numbers in brackets show the full length of unmutilated answers."

If I understand the Azed correctly, the 5 letter 'word' NESIT doesn't need to exist. NESIOT must exist (and does!). GRM's explanation is NESIOT (Indonesian) - O = NE (old term for negate/say no) + SIT (fit). The omitted 'o', in this case does not stand for the abbreviation for 'old'.

Terry
This is a 'letters latent' puzzle. The preamble stated that the definition was of the full word and this was to be entered into the grid with one letter removed wherever it occurred. It also stated that the wordplay gave the 'mutilated' form actually entered into the grid.

So definition 'Indonesian' gives NESIOT which is entered as NESIT with the 'O' being omitted and used as part of the quotation formed by all the omitted letters. The wordplay is as I indicated previously.

I've never looked at an Azed puzzle before. It seems that it takes things to twistedly obscure new depths!

I can just about understand some crosswords where there is an extra letter in the wordplay that is omitted from the answer that you enter, but at least you enter an actual word, but to fill a crossword with gibberish seems singularly pointless to me. It reminds me of the Infinite Monkey Theorem.

Jim
Occasionally Azed spices things up with a theme or something extra like 'letters latent' but usually the puzzles, though moderately difficult, have very strict and accurate clues.

GRM, that's encouraging.

I think that I'll try to start to take regular looks at the Azed in future.

... JimC