• Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Shouldn’t the official word list just be the dictionary? Isn’t that the point?

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Something about it just seems to miss the point of the game. You would think their dictionary would be cut down to include commonly known words mixed in with some eccentric ones. If anything, to prevent a situation like this where tournament players are just memorizing gobbledygook for points. Seems like it muttles the fun.

        • JoBo@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          You can’t have an arbitrary list of words that count, precisely because most people won’t memorise the dictionary. They’ll just play words they know exist. And if a dispute arises they’ll likely consult a proper dictionary because who has the Scrabble dictionary to hand?

          Its primary purpose is to list all the permissible two letter words because that’s where the desperation and disputes arise.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Can’t most of the squabbles be squashed in the modern era with a smartphone? Before, your aunt would always play JO insisting it was a word, but you know thats bs. So you search it and find Jo is actually a word used in Scotland. On a second note, I am futher into a discussion about scrabble than I ever thought would be interesting lol

    • loudambiance@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Which dictionary? Merriam Webster added almost 700 “words” this year, including shit like: TTYL, finsta, bussin, cromulent, doggo, simp, goated, and more. I feel like they are slowly becoming urbandictionary.com.

      • kakes@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I mean, their job is to provide definitions for the words people use in language, not to gatekeep what words are “good enough” to be defined.

        I hear each of the words you’ve listed all the time, they’re part of our language whether we like it or not.

        • loudambiance@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          My point was more about which dictionary do you use and less about the exact words added. Webster added them, but Oxford and American Heritage didn’t.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I would rather be able to spell out bussin’ for points than zzzz, aaa, or Mieropoix. At least it is a word people actually use in conversation.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Modern dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. They don’t tell you how things should be spelled, or what meaning they should have. Instead, they report how things are spelled and what people think they mean in the real world.