National Scrabble Association bans up to 226 words that might be offensive

wnd.com ^ | 7/9/2020 | C Douglas Golden

[rktman]

"As Daniel says, it’s a spatial game more than a semantic one, which explains why many of the world’s top players hail from Thailand. They concentrate on structures rather than meanings. Indeed, it has been argued that speaking English is a disadvantage in top-flight Scrabble, where the true champion relies on a battery of memorized pseudo-words."

All of this explains why, at those lofty levels, the game still contains racial, ethnic and sexual slurs. Now, they're slated to be gone -- even as some players who the slurs are aimed at don't necessarily think they should be expurgated.

According to a Tuesday piece by David Waldstein in The New York Times, the North American Scrabble Players Association will ban 226 words that many would find offensive. The words had been axed from the regular players' dictionary back in 1994.

However, at the highest levels, where words are little more than building blocks, they're still in there. In fact, competitive players of all stripes had lobbied to keep them the dictionary at the time, which led to the compromise that meant the competitive Scrabble community would be able to keep the old dictionary.

[rktman]

I'll see your philadelphia enquirer offensive word list and raise you a north American scrabble players ASSociation offensive word list. The NASPA has gone as far as to post a list of the words but has rearranged the letters so as to not offend a casual reader. No, really. SMDH!

[rktman]

If you are so inclined to rearrange the offensive words, here’s a link:

http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Slurs

[EinNYC]

Aw for Pete’s sake. If you’re offended by those words, don’t make them. Duh.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Did they delete “niggardly”?

[Dr. Sivana]

As Daniel says, it’s a spatial game more than a semantic one, which explains why many of the world’s top players hail from Thailand.

I thought I had played that way, and mentioned it to my wife. She responded that I don't play to build structures, but mainly to prevent other players' structures. She is largely right. She doesn't like how I play Scrabble.

[rktman]

LOL! No making up words that LOOK cool.

[ZephyrTX]

Hard to tell, the words are in ... I guess ... a foreign language I don’t understand.

---

Example:
“SLUR (national origin): bceho bcehos begoorrttt begoorrsttt bhknou bhknosu achlo achlos chloo chloos ccehilu ccehilru ccehilsu ccehilstu adgo adegos adgos ginoz eginosz aaakkn aaakkns eikk eikks cikm cikms eipps eippss acklop acklops eimmop eimmops mmopy aadeghr aadeghrs cips cikps cikpss cipss ikps ikpss denuv densuv abcektw abcekstw opw opsw

SLUR (age): bceilmrsu aabdegrry aabdegrrsy abdeegrry abdeegrrsy eiiklnrw eiiklnrsw”

[hercuroc]

Yeah mine comes up foreign too.

[NohSpinZone]

[jdege]

My favorite scrabble word has always been "syzygy".

Has it been declared offensive, yet?

[Rurudyne]

Classic!

[left that other site]

I always bristle a bit when my little sister snags 11 points with “QI”. It’s even worse on a Triple Word Score !

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/qi

[euram]

does this mean that the Scrabble Police will be kicking in doors and arresting those using proscribed words?

Maybe they should ban the letters that spell these proscribed words to be on the safe side.

[sloanrb]

These are on the banned word list

Jesuit
Pepsi (but not Coke)
Crip (but Bloods are allowed?)
Tom
Whitey (but not the black version)
Greybeard
Dykey (but not Dyke)
Popish (but not Pope)
YinYang

Extremely not safe for work list

http://www.seattlescrabble.org/expurg.php

[gundog]

So, “coon” is still OK?

[HollyB]

The full list is here

http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Slurs

[rktman]

Well so much for most of my vocabulary. 😆

[gunnut]

So seriously, we are not even allowed to see the list of actual words banned just some scrambled version. I have been searching online for the list because not all of the words are slurs and some are just political.

This is real 1984 stuff.

[rktman]

Insanity!

[grey_whiskers]

Well, *that*'s the last time I try to play

cefghikmnortu
or
eeghstz

on a Triple Word score!