Now playing: Frenemy, bromance plus 5000 new words on Scrabble
To Scrabble fanatics, big gifts sometimes come in small packages.
The word “te” as a variant of “ti,” the seventh tone on the musical scale, is a hardworking little gem among 5,000 words added to “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary,” out August 11 from Merriam-Webster.
The dictionary’s last freshening up was a decade ago. Entries in the forthcoming book that include texter, vlog, bromance, hashtag, dubstep and selfie were mere twinkles on the racks of recreational players.
But it’s the addition of te and three other two-letter words da, gi and po that has Robin Pollock Daniel excited. Mr. Daniel is a champion of the North American Scrabble Players Association, which has a committee that helps Merriam-Webster track down new, playable words of two to eight letters.
“Being able to hook an ‘e’ underneath ‘t’ means that I can play far more words,” explained Mr. Daniel.
One woman’s te is another man’s “qajaq,” one of Peter Sokolowski’s favourites among the new words. He’s a lexicographer and editor at large for the Merriam-Webster.
Qajaq, he said in a recent interview with Mr. Daniel, reflects the Inuit roots of kayak and would require a blank tile since Scrabble sets include just one Q. But it’s a rare word starting with “q” that doesn’t require a “u.”
A bonus, to a word nerd like Mr. Sokolowski - qajaq is a palindrome, though that’s inconsequential in Scrabble.
Chillax, coqui, frenemy…
To be included in the 36-year-old book this is the fifth edition a word must be found in a standard dictionary, can’t require capitalisation, can’t have hyphens or apostrophes and can’t be an abbreviation, in addition to being two to eight letters, reflecting the seven tiles players draw plus an eighth already on the board they can attach a long word to for bonus points.
Among the highest potential scorers among the new additions is “quinzhee,” a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of snow. Played on the board’s top row, ending at the top right through an existing “u,” and a player can score 401 points, including the 50-point “bingo” bonus for using all seven tiles.
Merriam-Webster didn’t identify all 5,000 new words but released a list of about 30 that also include - Beatbox, buzzkill, chillax, coqui, frenemy, funplex, jockdom, joypad, mixtape, mojito, ponzu, qigong, schmutz, sudoku and yuzu. Geocache was also added, voted into the dictionary by the public during a Facebook contest in May.
The word “te” as a variant of “ti,” the seventh tone on the musical scale, is a hardworking little gem among 5,000 words added to “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary,” out August 11 from Merriam-Webster.
The dictionary’s last freshening up was a decade ago. Entries in the forthcoming book that include texter, vlog, bromance, hashtag, dubstep and selfie were mere twinkles on the racks of recreational players.
But it’s the addition of te and three other two-letter words da, gi and po that has Robin Pollock Daniel excited. Mr. Daniel is a champion of the North American Scrabble Players Association, which has a committee that helps Merriam-Webster track down new, playable words of two to eight letters.
“Being able to hook an ‘e’ underneath ‘t’ means that I can play far more words,” explained Mr. Daniel.
One woman’s te is another man’s “qajaq,” one of Peter Sokolowski’s favourites among the new words. He’s a lexicographer and editor at large for the Merriam-Webster.
Qajaq, he said in a recent interview with Mr. Daniel, reflects the Inuit roots of kayak and would require a blank tile since Scrabble sets include just one Q. But it’s a rare word starting with “q” that doesn’t require a “u.”
A bonus, to a word nerd like Mr. Sokolowski - qajaq is a palindrome, though that’s inconsequential in Scrabble.
Chillax, coqui, frenemy…
To be included in the 36-year-old book this is the fifth edition a word must be found in a standard dictionary, can’t require capitalisation, can’t have hyphens or apostrophes and can’t be an abbreviation, in addition to being two to eight letters, reflecting the seven tiles players draw plus an eighth already on the board they can attach a long word to for bonus points.
Among the highest potential scorers among the new additions is “quinzhee,” a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of snow. Played on the board’s top row, ending at the top right through an existing “u,” and a player can score 401 points, including the 50-point “bingo” bonus for using all seven tiles.
Merriam-Webster didn’t identify all 5,000 new words but released a list of about 30 that also include - Beatbox, buzzkill, chillax, coqui, frenemy, funplex, jockdom, joypad, mixtape, mojito, ponzu, qigong, schmutz, sudoku and yuzu. Geocache was also added, voted into the dictionary by the public during a Facebook contest in May.
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