Word connection squares!

Question

This puzzle is in the spirit of Word connections, but is a more elaborate version of the same idea.

In each puzzle, you have a square of seven words of the following form:

A       B
C   D   E
F       G

Each of the letters A-G represents a word, and each pair of adjacent words (AC, CF, CD, DE, BE, EG) forms a new, longer word. At the start you are given only A, B, F, and G; your task is to find D.

Square #1 (easier)

DATA            FACE
 ??      ??      ??
ROLL            MARK

Square #2 (harder)

LOVE            BALD
 ??      ??      ??
SONG            ROLL

I don't know whether these are uniquely solvable. I hope they are. If not, I'll add some kind of restriction.

All feedback welcome! It's my first puzzle of this sort.

The nested level of mystery is delicious and could of course go arbitrarily deep. A local newspaper carries an almost-as-interesting one-sided version with given mystery-word lengths. — humn, Jan 14 '17 at 04:11
When I saw this comment in my inbox, I knew it was from you, @humn. There's a certain poetry about your feedback as well as your questions :-) — Rand al'Thor, Jan 14 '17 at 04:12

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 14 '17 at 07:52

9

Number 1 is:

DATA      FACE
BANK NOTE BOOK
ROLL      MARK

This puzzle reminds me of a game from a podcast I listen to wherein they connect movie titles. For example, Purple Rain Man = Purple Rain + Rain Man. Movie titles might make for an interesting themed variant of your puzzle.

edited Jan 14 '17 at 07:52

JMP

35,612
7
78
151

answered Jan 14 '17 at 03:47

DyingIsFun

9,176
1
28
74

1

GentlePurpleRain = Gentle Purple + Purple Rain? – Rand al'Thor Jan 14 '17 at 14:26

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 14 '17 at 07:53

8

Number 2 is:

LOVE      BALD
BIRD LIME RICK
SONG      ROLL

(I'm finding #1 harder; I have one of the intermediate words but the others are eluding me.)

edited Jan 14 '17 at 07:53

JMP

35,612
7
78
151

answered Jan 14 '17 at 03:44

Gareth McCaughan

119,120
7
313
454

Good job! (And shows how hard it is to judge difficulty beforehand. I was sure the right-hand half of this would make it especially difficult for people to get, but evidently not.) – Rand al'Thor Jan 14 '17 at 03:47
Actually it made it easier. How many words are there starting BALD, after all? – Gareth McCaughan Jan 14 '17 at 03:48
2

Never heard of BIRD-LIME and definitely would not have gotten that with the no-computers tag. – DyingIsFun Jan 14 '17 at 03:49
I promise I didn't cheat! – Gareth McCaughan Jan 14 '17 at 03:51
2

I believe you. I also believe that you are illegally poaching birds in your spare time. ;-) – DyingIsFun Jan 14 '17 at 03:52
1

Well, better that than doing it legally. – Gareth McCaughan Jan 14 '17 at 04:04

Word connection squares!

Square #1 (easier)

Square #2 (harder)

2 Answers2

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