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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.
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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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