Mos Bare Bones

[call04]

13A. Article dunked in mercury for a witch (4) A?G. I go for article as AN put in mercury as HG which gives HANG, but why does that = a witch? Grateful for ideas.

[mac44]

I went for hang for the same reason, seems like they missed a word or two from the clue.

[mallyh]

hag = witch

[call04]

Thanks both but, Mallyh, I know hag = witch but my query is why hang should equal witch?

[Johnlawrence]

I also went with HANG (believing a mistake to have been made), but also toyed with HAGG thinking that in some skewed way the setter may be thinking of chemical elements (AG) as articles.

John

[dannyk13]

Hag ( Mercury is HG)

[fiction-factory]

Hag would be good if it was 3 letters but it seems it's 4 letters

[mac44]

Good morning Danny.
Where does the N come from?

[dannyk13]

There has got to be a setters mistake. Definitely h an g

[call04]

Thanks all; I'll go with HANG and a setter's mistake; but good debate anyway. Now to enjoy the sun!

[Lie-in King]

If anyone's still interested, I emailed MOS & the response was confirmation that an editorial error led to the word 'HAG' being clued, rather than 'HANG', as necessary for the shape of the completed grid.

[dannyk13]

Thanks l-i-k

[fiction-factory]

Thanks

[Baldric]

Mercury = HG (symbol)
AN = article

[fiction-factory]

Yes, we got the 'hang' of the wordplay Baldric- it's just the incorrect definition 'witch' caused the puzzlement

[Mamyalynne]

At least we can stop scratching our heads over it now thanks to the clarification.

[Johnlawrence]

I stopped scratching my head years ago - too much sawdust down my fingernails......

John

[Baldric]

thanks friction faction, guess I won't bother in future on that basis!

[Mamyalynne]

Now,don't let the setters error have us falling out.

[fiction-factory]

Sorry Baldric, didn't mean to rub you up the wong way (the friction factor)- I just wasn't sure whether you'd seen all the previous discussion on this