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HOLY SHIT I GOT A RESPONSE FROM MITTU

All we know is that 1) it was one of several initial puzzles on a sheet given to employees of Auto Trader magazine (presumably this) in 2006, 2) the “a” doesn’t stand for anything, it’s just an article, and 3) Mittu was (is) just as in the dark as the rest of us.

Nope. You’re thinking “carat”.

A carat is a unit of weight used to measure the size of a gemstone such as a diamond. A karat is a measurement indicating the proportion of gold in an alloy out of 24 parts, so 18K gold is 18/24 parts gold. However, the use of carat (in place of karat ) to indicate the fineness of gold is also considered acceptable.

From Merriam-Webster