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VOA慢速英语|Scrabble Dictionary Adds 500 New Words

发布者: scarecrow | 发布时间: 2025-2-4 23:31| 查看数: 64| 评论数: 0|


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[00:00.04]Scrabble is a popular word game in which players

[00:04.24]put letters of the alphabet together to form words.

[00:09.24]It helps when a player remembers

[00:11.40]unusual words to use in the game.

[00:15.44]This month, the game is about to get more interesting

[00:19.64]with 500 new words and variations

[00:23.76]added to The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

[00:28.56]Some of the new words include stan, sitch, convo,

[00:33.40]zedonk, dox, and fauxhawk.

[00:37.52]They will be a part of the more than 100,000 words

[00:41.88]of two to eight letters in the dictionary.

[00:46.20]The book was last brought up to date in 2018

[00:50.24]through a longstanding partnership between Hasbro,

[00:53.96]the maker of Scrabble, and the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

[01:00.04]Peter Sokolowski is Merriam-Webster's editor at large.

[01:05.80]He said the editors look at the often-updated online database

[01:10.60]at Merriam-Webster.com

[01:13.08]to expand the Scrabble dictionary.

[01:16.68]But Scrabble players only look for eight-letter words

[01:20.48]that help them clear their racks for 50 extra points.

[01:25.56]Sokolowski said the new word fauxhawk

[01:28.48]has the highest possible points for a new word.

[01:32.64]Fauxhawk is a haircut similar to a Mohawk.

[01:36.40]Embiggen, a verb meaning to increase in size,

[01:41.36]is among the unexpected.

[01:44.44]For example, "I really need to embiggen

[01:48.00]that Scrabble dictionary."

[01:50.72]Other eight-letter words include hogsbane,

[01:54.00]more commonly known as giant hogweed,

[01:57.24]and pranayam, a breathing technique in yoga.

[02:02.28]The new words include shorter versions of other words

[02:05.92]like guac for guacamole.

[02:09.68]And there are more variations

[02:12.04]in the use of nouns as verbs,

[02:14.12]like adulted and adulting.

[02:18.40]Sokolowski told the Associated Press,

[02:21.64]"We also turned verb into a verb

[02:24.48]so you can play verbed and verbing."

[02:28.40]Compound words are words

[02:30.36]created by combining two or more words.

[02:34.64]In the new dictionary, there are deadname,

[02:38.12]pageview, babymoon, and subtweet.

[02:42.88]So are words with "un," such as unfollow and unsub.

[02:48.68]They may sound familiar,

[02:50.68]but they were never in Scrabble's official dictionary.

[02:55.04]The new dictionary includes at least one old-sounding word

[02:59.32]that simply was forgotten for years: yeehaw.

[03:03.96]"Yeehaw is like so many of the older, informal terms.

[03:08.72]They were more spoken than written, and the gold standard

[03:13.32]for dictionary editing was always written evidence.

[03:18.20]So a term like yeehaw, which we all know from our childhood

[03:23.16]and in movies and TV, was something you heard.

[03:27.00]You didn't read it that often," Sokolowski said.

[03:32.12]The editors have also added many new words related to food.

[03:36.56]They include iftar, horchata, kabocha,

[03:40.64]mofongo, zoodle, wagyu, and queso.

[03:46.44]Scrabble players, however, only care about

[03:49.60]scoring more points with the words than their meaning.

[03:53.84]But if you want to know: Iftar is a meal taken by Muslims

[03:58.44]at sundown to break the daily fast

[04:00.84]during the holiday season of Ramadan.

[04:04.52]Mofongo is a traditional food from Puerto Rico.

[04:08.76]Horchata is a sweet drink and kabocha is a winter squash.

[04:14.80]For the rest, you will have to look them up yourself.

[04:18.24]In the last year or two, Scrabble has also removed

[04:22.68]more than 200 offensive words.

[04:26.32]They may, however, still be present in older Scrabble dictionaries.

[04:32.44]Sokolowski would not say what all the 500 new words were.

[04:38.08]He said the players should hunt them down on their own.

[04:42.28]And he added, "You've got some fun new words."

[04:47.52]So which new word is his favorite? "I like eggcorn,"

[04:52.16]Sokolowski said, "because it's a word about words."

[04:57.32]The dictionary says eggcorn is a word or phrase

[05:00.96]that sounds like and is mistakenly used for another word.

[05:06.40]I'm Gregory Stachel.

_________________________

Words in This Story

variation – n. feeling or showing the effect of too much work, use, or effort

informal – adj. the state of being poor

standard – n. a level of quality or achievement that is considered acceptable or desirable

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