Woman from Edinburgh at sea off east coast (4)
I believe the answer is:
scot
'woman' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'edinburgh at sea off east coast' is the wordplay.
'edinburgh at' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'off' is a deletion indicator.
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
'e'+'coast'='ecoast'
'ecoast' with 'sea' taken out is 'cot'.
's'+'cot'='SCOT'
'from' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scot that I've seen before include "One from north of the border" , "Highlander, for example" , "Northern member of UK" , "Aberdonian possibly" , "Northerner; old tax" .)