"Archaisms" by benchen71

[benchen71]

Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:

1. There is one hint in the grid: 30 across: MODERNISATION is "The process of adapting to a more contemporary setting, and what needs to occur to some of the across entries in this puzzle in order to find the answer to the meta"

2. You're looking for across entries in the grid that are archaisms that can be modernised.

3. There are seven of them, and all but one can be found in Shakespeare's plays.

4. There are websites that can be used to find translations of archaic words. I like https://www.lexico.com/explore/archaic-words, but it has closed! Here's the page on the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20220322012 ... haic-words

[MikeyG]

Got it!

I guess it made sense why I went through all the acrosses, getting virtually nothing, and then started progressing on the downs!

[Dow Jones]

Nudged across the moat. Thanks for editing Spoiler #4. Thanks, Ben

[benchen71]

So it's Monday morning. The following solvers have made it to the answer:

BarbaraK
Johnny Luau
ReB
Mikey G
Dow Jones
Lance

That's a total of 37.

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "Archaisms":

This puzzle was one that I suggested as a possible mechanism for the three-way meta week with @madhatter5 and @MikeyG during the green-lighting phase. We came up with something else and so I went ahead on my own. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have! This puzzle proved to be tedious for some, because: 1) it wasn't clear which words were the archaisms; and 2) even knowing which words are involved, there are multiple possibilities for modern equivalents. Having constructed a lot of puzzles since then, I think I should have included some sort of confirmation mechanism (maybe in the clues?)

This week's MOAT will be Christmas-themed, and I'm really looking forward to it. I think you will find it a whole lot more fun than this one!